Watching a stock lose nearly a third of its value in a year is enough to make almost any investor uncomfortable. But a falling stock price does not always mean the underlying business is getting weaker. Sometimes, the market turns cautious even as a company keeps growing revenue, improving profitability, and building a stronger pipeline of future work.
That seems to be the case with WSP Global (TSX: WSP) right now. Its shares remain well below their 52-week high, yet the engineering and infrastructure firm just reported accelerating organic growth, a record backlog, and stronger adjusted earnings. The firm also became more confident about its 2026 outlook after a solid first half.
In this article, I’ll explain why WSP stock’s recent decline shouldn’t worry you much and why this Canadian growth stock still looks worth buying for the long term.
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WSP stock
If you don’t know it already, WSP provides engineering, advisory, design, and infrastructure services across areas such as transportation, buildings, environment, and energy. Its shares currently trade at $192.56 per share, giving the company a market cap of about $26 billion. The stock also offers a 0.8% annualized dividend yield.
Over the last year, WSP stock has fallen roughly 32%. Even so, some momentum has returned recently as the shares have climbed 12.4% so far in August.
That rebound alone is not why I’m staying optimistic. The more important point is that WSP’s operating performance looks far stronger than its one-year stock performance suggests.
Strong growth despite the weak share price
The company’s second-quarter numbers make the recent stock weakness much easier to look past. During the quarter, WSP’s revenue rose 20% year over year (YoY) to $5.4 billion, while net revenue climbed 23% to $4.3 billion. Its organic net revenue growth also accelerated to 5%, supported by growth across all of the company’s reportable segments.
On the profitability side, WSP’s adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) jumped 28.8% YoY in the latest quarter to $815 million. That figure exceeded the high end of management’s quarterly outlook range.
Similarly, its adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 90 basis points from a year ago to 19.1% with the help of higher productivity in the United States and Canada, along with lower optimization and right-sizing costs. As a result, the business posted a 26.7% YoY increase in its adjusted net profit to $388.6 million.
Why the long-term growth story still looks attractive
For me, WSP’s record backlog is one of the strongest reasons not to panic over its stock’s decline. The company ended the second quarter with a record $20.1 billion backlog, up 23.2% YoY. Its organic backlog growth reached 5.7% over the previous 12 months, its strongest performance on that front since 2022. The backlog represented about 11.6 months of revenue, giving WSP meaningful visibility into future growth prospects.
In addition, WSP’s recently acquired TRC business is adding another growth driver. TRC’s Power & Energy operations delivered double-digit net revenue growth compared with the corresponding pre-acquisition period, and WSP said the integration remains on track. Encouraged by strong results, the company also raised the lower end of its 2026 net revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance.
Given all these positive factors, WSP’s business appears to be moving in a much healthier direction than its stock chart suggests. A record backlog, stronger margins, rising adjusted earnings, and improved confidence in the 2026 outlook give me little reason to view its 32% one-year decline as a sign that the long-term growth story has broken down. For patient investors, that disconnect makes WSP stock look undervalued.
