PITTSBURGH — Wesco International, a leading provider of business-to-business distribution, logistics services and supply chain solutions, announces its results for the fourth quarter and full year 2025.
“We closed out 2025 with positive momentum and again outperformed the market with our leading portfolio of products, services and solutions. Record sales of $23.5 billion were up 8% and increased by double-digits in the second half. Backlog was up 19% to a record level at year end, highlighting the strength of our business, and providing another proof point that Wesco is benefiting from the secular growth trends of AI-driven data centers, increased power generation, and supply chain re-shoring,” said John Engel, Chairman, President and CEO.
Engel continued, “In the fourth quarter, CSS and EES delivered excellent results. CSS delivered 16% sales growth while expanding adjusted EBITDA margin 90 basis points and EES delivered 9% sales growth with adjusted EBITDA margin up 50 basis points. UBS continued to face ongoing sales and margin challenges with public power customers, while sales to investor owned utilities accelerated in the fourth quarter. Utility backlog increased over 20% at year end, providing a strong set-up for 2026. Adjusted EPS in the quarter was below our expectations, as the continued operating strength in our CSS and EES businesses was more than offset by lower sales and margin in UBS. Additionally, adjusted EPS was impacted to a larger degree by non-operating items, including updated tax positions.”
Engel continued, “Due to our strong fourth quarter sales, particularly when considering normal seasonality, we increased our investment in working capital which impacted our normal expectation of cash generation in the quarter. We expect to collect cash from our higher receivables balance during the first quarter. We expect much stronger cash generation in 2026 as we continue to make progress on our working capital management initiatives. In the near term, our capital allocation priorities remain focused on debt reduction and stock repurchases to offset annual equity award dilution. We also continue to invest in our tech enabled business transformation and manage an active M&A pipeline.”
Engel added, “We made excellent progress on our enterprise-wide digitalization efforts in 2025. We advanced our technology and capabilities build and have deployed our new technology stack in pilot locations in each of our three business units. The centerpiece of our new tech stack is a world-class data lake where we’re working to apply AI to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our business. We were pleased to be recognized by Fortune in their inaugural AI ranking of Fortune 500 companies with a number 10 ranking. Once our digital transformation is completed, we will accelerate our earnings growth through even greater cross-sell, expand our margins through improved pricing and operating cost leverage, and increase our working capital turns by leveraging our single global IT instance.”
Engel concluded, “Looking ahead in 2026, we expect to continue to outperform the market and deliver mid- to high-single-digit organic sales growth, strong operating leverage and margin expansion, double-digit EPS growth, and improved free cash flow generation. I am pleased to announce that we plan to increase our common stock dividend 10% again this year to $2.00 per share. As the market leader, and with positive momentum building, I’m confident that Wesco will continue to outperform our markets and deliver exceptional value to our customers and shareholders in 2026 and beyond. Finally, I continue to be very proud of our talented and dedicated Wesco team, whose relentless focus on serving customers, advancing our digital transformation agenda, and driving superior execution across our businesses is producing notable results, as we realize our vision of becoming the best tech-enabled supply chain solutions provider in the world.”
Net Sales
On an organic basis, which removes the impact of the Ascent, LLC (“Ascent”) acquisition and differences in foreign exchange rates, sales for the fourth quarter of 2025 grew by 9.2%. The increase in organic sales reflects volume growth in all three segments (CSS, EES and UBS), as well as a favorable impact from changes in price. Backlog at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025 increased by 19% compared to the end of the fourth quarter of 2024.
For 2025, organic sales, which removes the impact of the Wesco Integrated Supply (“WIS”) divestiture and Ascent acquisition, differences in foreign exchange rates, and the impact from the number of workdays, grew by 8.6%. The increase in organic sales reflects volume growth in the CSS and EES segments, as well as a favorable impact from changes in price.
Gross Profit and Gross Margin
Gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2025 remained flat compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.
The decrease in gross margin for the twelve months ended December 31, 2025 primarily reflects a decrease in gross margin across all three segments, most significantly in the UBS segment due to competitive pressures in the public power market, as well as in the EES and CSS segments driven by large project sales.
Selling, General, and Administrative (“SG&A”) Expenses
The increase in SG&A expenses for the fourth quarter of 2025 is driven by higher commissions and incentives, higher salaries, higher IT costs, higher transportation costs, and increased costs to operate our facilities. SG&A expenses for the fourth quarter of 2025 include $11.0 million of digital transformation costs, compared to $10.0 million of digital transformation and restructuring costs for the fourth quarter of 2024. Adjusted for these costs, SG&A expenses were 14.8% and 14.7% of net sales for the fourth quarter of 2025 and 2024, respectively.
The increase in SG&A expenses for 2025 is driven by higher salaries, higher commissions and incentives, increased costs to operate our facilities, higher transportation costs, and higher IT costs, partially offset by the impact of the divestiture of the WIS business. SG&A expenses for 2025 include $35.2 million of digital transformation costs. SG&A expenses for 2024 include $37.0 million of digital transformation and restructuring costs, a $17.8 million loss on abandonment of assets and $4.9 million of excise taxes on excess pension plan assets. Adjusted for these costs, SG&A expenses were 14.9% of net sales for 2025 and 2024.
Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin
The increase in Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2025 primarily reflects an increase in net sales, partially offset by increases in cost of goods sold, related to large project sales with lower margins, and SG&A expenses as described above.
The increase in Adjusted EBITDA for 2025 primarily reflects an increase in net sales, partially offset by increases in cost of goods sold, related to large project sales with lower margins, and SG&A expenses as described above.
Effective Tax Rate
The provision for income taxes was $57.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to $43.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, resulting in effective tax rates of 26.4% and 20.8%, respectively. The effective tax rate for the quarter ended December 31, 2025 was higher due to higher tax expense related to uncertain tax positions and an increase in valuation allowance against foreign tax credit deferred tax assets.
The provision for income taxes was $213.4 million for 2025 compared to $231.6 million for the 2024, resulting in effective tax rates of 24.9% and 24.4%, respectively.
Adjusted Earnings Per Diluted Share
The increase in adjusted earnings per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2025 primarily reflects the favorable impact of the June 2025 redemption of the Company’s 10.625% Series A Fixed-Rate Reset Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock (the “Series A Preferred Stock”) and the corresponding decrease in preferred dividends, as well as higher adjusted EBITDA. The increase in adjusted earnings per diluted share was offset by a $23.5 million increase in interest expense primarily driven by the issuance of the 2033 Notes and an increase from adjustments for uncertain tax positions, partially offset by lower borrowings and lower interest rates on the Receivables Facility. There was also a positive impact from the reduction in outstanding common shares during the fourth quarter of 2025 as compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.
The increase in adjusted earnings per diluted share in 2025 primarily reflects the favorable impact of the Series A Preferred Stock redemption and the corresponding decrease in preferred dividends. There was also a positive impact from the reduction in outstanding common shares during 2025 as compared to 2024.
Operating Cash Flow
Net cash provided by operating activities for the fourth quarter of 2025 totaled $71.9 million compared to $276.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. The $204.7 million decrease is primarily driven by a $201.9 million impact from changes in accounts payable, due to the timing of payments to suppliers, as well as a $21.6 million impact from changes in trade accounts receivable, driven primarily by sales growth in all three segments.
Net cash provided by operating activities for 2025 totaled $125.0 million, compared to $1,101.2 million for 2024. The $976.2 million decrease is primarily driven a $507.3 million impact from changes in trade accounts receivable and a $428.1 million impact from changes in inventories. The impact from trade accounts receivable was primarily due to sales growth in the CSS and EES segments, as well as the timing of receipts from customers as compared to the prior year. The impact from inventories was primarily due to an increase in volume related to growth in large projects as compared to the prior year. These decreases were partially offset by an increase in net income as adjusted for certain non-cash items.
In a separate announcement today, Wesco announced the upcoming retirement of Dave Schulz, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and the appointment of Indraneel “Neel” Dev as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Schulz notified the Company that he expects to retire in May 2026, and Mr. Dev will join the Company in February 2026 to ensure a smooth transition.
Most recently, Mr. Dev served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Revenue Officer of Congruex LLC, a communications network infrastructure design, engineering and construction company. Prior to Congruex, Mr. Dev served as Chief Financial Officer of Lumen Technologies. He previously held various senior finance leadership roles at Level 3 Communications, MCI, and MFS Communications. Mr. Dev holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Delhi (India) and an MBA from the University of Arizona, and he is a CFA charterholder.
Engel stated, “Neel is a seasoned CFO with extensive financial, commercial and operational experience in multiple Wesco-served end markets. In his leadership roles for both public and private companies, he has demonstrated an ability to navigate complex financial environments and deliver superior growth and value creation. Neel is an excellent addition to our executive management team and will help us as we continue to accelerate our Wesco strategy, execute our growth initiatives, deliver our financial targets, and create value for our stockholders.”
Engel continued, “On behalf of our Board of Directors and our entire Wesco team, I would like to thank Dave for his outstanding and dedicated service and tremendous contributions to our Wesco success over the past 10 years. I have the utmost respect for Dave and greatly appreciate our business partnership in building the new Wesco. We extend our very best wishes to Dave and his family.”
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