Coda Octopus Group, Inc. (CODA) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, and welcome to Cota Octopus Group's Second Quarter Fiscal 26 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Robert, and I will be your operator today. Earlier this morning, Coda Octopus issued its financial results for the second quarter ended April 30, 26, including a press release and a copy of which will be furnished in the report filed with the SEC and will be available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website. Joining us on today's call from Coda Octopus are its Blair and CEO, Annmarie Gayle; its Interim CFO, Gayle Jardine; its President of Technology and Director Blair Cunningham, and Dillon King from their investor relations team. Following their remarks, we will open the call for questions. Before we begin, Dillon King from the company's internal Investor Relations team will make a brief statement. Dillon, please proceed.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. And welcome to Coda Octopus's Second Quarter Fiscal 26 Earnings Conference Call. Before management begins their formal remarks, we would like to remind everyone that some statements made today may be considered forward looking statements under U. S. Securities laws. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. As a result, we caution you that there are a number of factors many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those described in the forward looking statements. For more detailed risks, uncertainties and assumptions, relating to our forward looking statements, please see the disclosures in our earnings release and public filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update forward looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward looking statements are made. Except as may be required by law. We refer you to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for detailed disclosures and descriptions of our business as well as uncertainties and other variable circumstances. Including, but not limited to, risks and uncertainties identified in our Form 10 k for the year ended 10/31/2025 and Form 10 Q for the first and second quarters of our fiscal year 2026. You may get Coda Octopus' Securities and Exchange Commission filings free by visiting the SEC website at www.sec.gov. I would also like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded. And will be made available for replay through the Investor Relations section of Coda Octopus' website. Finally, as a reminder, this is our second quarter fiscal 26 reporting In all comparisons, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are with our second quarter fiscal 25. With that, I will now turn the call over to the company's Blair and CEO, Annmarie Gayle. Anne Marie?

Thanks, Dillon, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our second quarter fiscal year 26 earnings call. I believe we have delivered a solid set of results with improvements in gross profit margins, net income and earnings per share even though our consolidated net revenue decreased slightly by 1.6%. The geopolitical situation in Iran and the resulting instability across The Middle East have softened demand from customers in the region and parts of Asia. Despite this, our performance highlights the resilience of our revenues base and the strength of our financial fundamentals. I am very pleased with how the business has continued to perform in a challenging environment. Our business is made up of 3 discrete business operations, the marine technology business, the defense engineering services businesses, and our acoustics, sensors, and materials business units. Our marine technology business remains the core of our company, generating the majority of our revenue, and accounting for 41.1% of our consolidated net revenue in the second quarter 26 and it remains the strategic centerpiece of our long-term growth ambitions. The specific addressable markets that we operate in are the imaging sonar market, and diving market where the opportunity for technological advancement is significant. With our disruptive underwater technologies, we are positioning ourselves to be at the forefront. At the heart of this business are technologies that are redefining what is possible on the water. We are effectively bringing the real time data rich experience of the smartphone era to the water, delivering instant visibility, intelligence, and real time decision making capability to our users. Our Ecoscope, David, and our digital audio communication system are not just products. They are building blocks of a new underwater operating paradigm. For example, the DAVID enables divers, operators, and mission critical teams to work with unprecedented clarity, safety, and efficiency. As these technologies evolve, they are opening new markets, expanding our addressable opportunities, and setting the stage for the next chapter of our growth for the company. Growth is a process, not an event, and we are executing the strategies that position our company to deliver it consistently over time. Our Echoscope technology is widely used in the commercial offshore marine market for a range of underwater applications. A significant part of our annual revenue is derived from the commercial offshore marine market. To deliver the level of growth that shareholders expect, we must continue expanding our market share in underwater imaging sensors within the defense sector, and we are directing efforts and resources toward that objective. Around the world, multiple defense programs have allocated budgets for the new classes of underwater vehicles creating a significant long term opportunity. Our Ecoscope is well positioned for adoption in these programs. As a single sensor capable of supporting multiple undersea activities, it offers a clear advantage over traditional technologies by providing a multi application sensor in 1 power efficient unit without compromising mission performance. We recently introduced the NanoGen series, our next generation of ultra-miniaturized 3D sonars, expands the family of imaging sonars within our portfolio. NANO provides a purpose built solution for highly compact platforms, opening new opportunities in the emerging light and autonomous systems. We mentioned in our first quarter earnings calls that we anticipated a small number of NanoGen sonar to be included in a new vehicle program. We are very excited to report that during the quarter, we received an initial order for a small number of NanoGen series sonars for integration into an established vehicle program. These systems provide a significant upgrade to this vehicle program, which will undergo extensive evaluation. If successful, we believe this opportunity could scale rapidly. For additional detail on our underwater technologies that sit at the center of our growth strategy, I would refer you to our previous earnings calls where we provided a comprehensive overview of these technologies and our approach to expanding market share. Now turning to second quarter 26 highlights relating to our core business the marine technology business. This business sells its products and solutions globally with The Middle East and Asia representing strategically important markets for our technology. The ongoing conflict in Iran and the resulting instability across The Middle East have reduced customer activity in the region and Asia. In addition, the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz through which a significant share of global maritime shipping passes has disrupted commercial operations further softening demand for our goods and services. This is the main factor which has resulted in this business segment's reported revenue decreasing by 26.8% in our second quarter. Notable features of our core business revenue structure in second quarter 26 include hardware sales decreased by 46.9% and were $1.8 million in the second quarter 26 compared to $3.3 million in the 2025 period. Rental assets utilization in the second quarter 26 improved increasing rental revenue by 351.1% to approximately $700 thousand compared to approximately $200 thousand in the comparable 2025 period. This is a factor in the increase in gross profit margin in the second quarter for this business unit. Now turning to highlights relating to the defense engineering services business. In the second quarter 26, our defense engineering services business revenue increased by 37.9%. This business has long standing relationships with prime defense contractors and has served the defense market for over 48 years. Its performance is closely tied to funding on defense programs. The UK arm of this business saw an increase in opportunities and delivered higher revenue during the quarter. In the United States, however, many programs continue to be funded under continuing resolutions which has delayed contract awards and consequently, the timing of revenue. Now turning to highlights related to our acoustics, sensors, and materials business. This business sells its products and solutions worldwide and increased revenue in the second quarter 26 by 17.5%. Blair Cunningham, our president of technology, who is the market maker for our technologies, will be updating you on progress and various milestones around our core technologies. There will also be available to answer any questions you have about our technologies. I will now turn the call over to Blair Cunningham.

Thank you, Anne Marie, and good morning, everyone. Our core focus as a business is to increase our market share for our disruptive technologies. Our real time 3D sonars, and our DAVID technology. I will be brief today and will focus on our key milestones to achieve these goals. For those who would like more information on our underwater technologies, I would refer you to our previous earnings call where we provided a comprehensive overview of these technologies and our approach to expanding market share. David Progress. A key milestone for the broader adoption of the DAVID in the military diving sector is the completion of the approved for navy use assessment. I am pleased to confirm that the DAVID untethered system has been Approved for Navy Use. This is a meaningful inflection point. Since the product is now available for acquisition by any command and supports full-fleet deployment of the 20 systems previously issued. The approval validates the system's operational suitability and paves the way for wider adoption across the naval diving community. Another important milestone has been the expansion of DAVID adoption beyond The United States. In support of this objective, we have successfully delivered training to a European Navy that recently acquired an initial number of systems. With training now complete, we continue to engage closely with this influential naval customer and are encouraged by the positive feedback received to date. We remain optimistic about the opportunity to further expand the deployment and operational use of the DAVID within this navy. Establishing a strong foundation for future growth in the international military diving market. The DAVID program continues to expand. And we continue to work on several awards for defense programs that are seeking to leverage DAVID as a critical life support and visualization component and that we believe are strong indicators that DAVID is now considered a mature technology. While the approval and associated procurement activity has been delayed beyond this quarter, we currently anticipate receiving the corresponding orders during the third quarter. We also received an initial order for a small number of NanoGen series sonar, our ultra-miniaturized 3D sonar for an established vehicle program. These initial systems offer a significant upgrade to the vehicle with full 3D perception, visualization, and vehicle control with 3D obstacle avoidance, and will be used for extensive evaluation. If successful, we believe the opportunity for NanoGen on this vehicle program could grow quite quickly. We are pleased to see continued interest in our latest NanoGen series sonar. With a growing number of credible vehicle integration opportunities emerging across both The US and European defense markets. These opportunities reflect increasing recognition of the unique capabilities offered by NanoGen including its ultra compact form factor, real time 3D perception, and advanced autonomous navigation support. We remain encouraged by the level of engagement with prospective customers and partners and believe these opportunities have the potential to drive meaningful growth in the defense sector. For our fiscal year 26, our main goal is to reach new milestones with our disruptive technologies. Such as broader adoption of DAVID by a foreign navy and the Echoscope technology being adopted on some of the new autonomous AI enabled platforms as a core perception sensor for navigation, obstacle avoidance, and target guidance. I will turn the call over to Anne Marie and I will be available to take your questions during the Q&A session of this call.

Thank you, Blair. Let me now turn the call over to our interim CFO, Gayle Jardine, to take you through our financials for our second quarter 26 before I provide my closing remarks. Gayle?

Thank you, Anne Marie. Good morning, everyone. Let me take you through our second quarter 26 financial results. Starting with revenue. In the second quarter of 26, we recorded total revenue of $6.9 million compared to $7 million in second quarter 25. A slight decrease of 1.6%. Our core business, the Marine Technology business, generated revenue of $2.8 million compared to $3.9 million representing a 26.8% decrease over second quarter 25. Our Acoustics, Sensors, and Materials business recorded revenue of $1.5 million in second quarter 26. Compared to $1.3 million in second quarter 25. An increase of 17.5%. Our defense engineering services business generated revenue of $2.5 million compared to $1.8 million representing a 37.9% increase over second quarter 25. Moving on to gross profit and margin. In the second quarter of 26. We generated gross profit of $4.6 million compared to $4.5 million in the second quarter of 25. Consolidated gross margin was 66.3%. Versus 64.1% in the same quarter last year. This increase reflects the composition of our revenue. Notable factors include the increase in our rental revenue, and reduction in net commission costs. In our Marine Technology business, gross margin increased to 77% in second quarter 26. Compared to 67.7% in second quarter 25. Largely reflecting the increase in rental sales which grew by 351.1%. Over the second quarter of 25. Concurrent with the reduction in commission expenses by 68.7% or $300 thousand due to less equipment sales via agents in Asia. The Acoustic Sensors and Materials business gross margin decreased to 53.7% in second quarter fiscal 26 compared to 65.4% in second quarter 25. Reflecting the mix of type of sales with an increase in our acoustic test environment product sales. Compared to second quarter 25. Our Defense Engineering Services business gross margin increased to 57.2% in the second quarter 26 versus 55.5% in the second quarter of 25. Reflecting a mix of engineering projects in the period presented. Now looking at our operating expenses. Total operating expenses for the second quarter 26 decreased by 18.3% to $2.8 million compared to $3.4 million in the second quarter 25. The primary driver of this reduction the movement of the U. S. Dollar against the British pound and Danish kroner. Which lowered reported costs when translated into US dollars for financial reporting. Selling, general, and administrative expenses totaled $2.1 million, a 21.4% decrease from $2.7 million in the prior-year quarter. This improvement reflects a favorable $400 thousand swing from an exchange rate expense in the second quarter. 2025 to an exchange rate gain in the second quarter of 2026, as well as lower employee related costs due to reduced headcount. SG&A represented 30.9% of consolidated net revenue in the second quarter of 2026 compared to 38.8% in second quarter 25. Operating income in second quarter 26 was $1.8 million compared to $1.1 million in second quarter 25. An increase of 64.8%. Operating margin was 26% compared to 15.5% in second quarter 25. Reflecting the decrease in our SG&A and operating expenses in the second quarter. Pretax income in second quarter 26 was $2.1 million compared to $1.3 million in second quarter 25. Net income after taxes in second quarter 26 was $1.7 million or $0.15 per diluted share compared to $900 thousand or $0.08 per diluted share in second quarter 25. In the second quarter of 2020, we provided for a tax expense of $440 thousand compared to $360 thousand in second quarter 25. Moving now to our balance sheet. As of 04/30/2026, we had $30.6 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand and no debt, This represents an increase of $1.9 million from 10/31/2025, when the comparable figure of $28.7 million. Total assets increased by $2.8 million to $67.3 million in the second quarter of 26. That completes my financial summary. So let me turn the call back over to Annmarie for her closing remarks. Thank you.

Thank you, Gayle. Despite the challenging geopolitical environment, which has affected parts of our customer base, particularly in The Middle East and Asia, I am very pleased with our second quarter financial performance and importantly, the resilience and diversification reflected in our revenue structure. I am also encouraged by the progress we are making against our key aims for expanding the business, especially around our DAVID and Echoscope technologies. Most notably, the Navy's approval of the DAVID untethered system as an Approved for Navy Use item marks a pivotal milestone for the DAVID, 1 of our core technology offerings that anchor our long term growth vision. The recent orders for our NanoGen sonars, which will upgrade an existing vehicle program are another positive indicator of our technology traction. If post purchase integration and evaluations proceed as expected, this opportunity has the potential to scale quickly. We believe meaningful progress is being made toward broader adoption of these technologies within the defense sector. On capital deployment, we will continue to advance our M&A strategy in fiscal year 26 and are actively building and progressing a pipeline of opportunities. We remain keen to close a transaction this fiscal year while maintaining a disciplined approach to due diligence and strategic fit. Through this strategy, we aim to pivot the revenue model of the marine technology business toward multi-year, program-based adoption supporting a recurring, multi-sale model over the life of major programs as we are beginning to see with the DAVID product line. We remain focused on creating stable, long term shareholder value and executing against our growth strategy which continues to be our highest priority as a group. To conclude, we thank our shareholders for their continued support We are now ready to take your questions. Operator?

At this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. On your telephone keypad. You may press *2 if you would like to remove your question. from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question comes from Brian Kinstlinger with Alliance Global Partners. Your line is now live.

Hi, Annmarie. Thanks for taking my questions. I have a bunch. The first 1, with the authorization for Navy use, how do you see demand for the untethered DAVID ramping in the second half of the year in fiscal 2027? Maybe some kind of range of units for revenue. And is there a contract in place like a BPA or an IDIQ where the Navy can purchase? And if not, what is needed for the procurement process now that the authorization's in place?

Morning, Brian. Thanks for that question. Look. The approval of the untethered system for use as a Navy Use item is really a meaningful inflection point for the DAVID technology because as you know, without this approval in place, procurement could not go ahead for the untethered variant. it is difficult to predict the exact timing but we do know that David funding is included in this fiscal year's budget, and we expect to see some orders in our third quarter. What we do not know yet is the mix of configurations where the commands will procure tethered or untethered variants. Importantly, also, the 20 untethered systems previously purchased can now be allocated and fielded following Navy Use approval, which is a very important step Once divers begin using the system operationally, we expect the real world deployment will help to drive further demand for the DAVID untethered system in this very, very important market sector for our technology. We do not have an ID IQ in place. At the moment, and we do not anticipate 1 for the DAVID untethered system, these orders were placed directly with our company, and we believe it will be the same. Going forward. that is helpful. Now you described slower demand due to the Iran conflict in certain regions. Has that pressure continued into the current quarter? And once a resolution is in place, maybe we have 1 today, maybe we do not, how quickly do you expect demand in these regions might recover? First of all, it is difficult for anyone to predict the duration of the geopolitical instability in the region. What we can say is that we are staying very, very close to our customers And 1 thing is clear about this, Brian, it is not structural. it is a timing issue. What we see the fundamentals are there for the projects. it is just timing and security. For example, in the UAE, a lot of offshore projects are on hold because of the safety aspect. So we believe, as soon as the pressure is alleviated, these projects are life projects. And we would hope that they would resume swiftly.

Right. Now you highlighted the initial orders for the NanoGen Echoscope. Which sounds like a retrofit, or retrofit fit, to a current underwater vehicle type. How long do you think that evaluation process might be And then once the evaluation is complete, are there other steps necessary for full integration or full retrofit? How many of these underwater vehicles are sold a year? Sorry, what was your last question? Well, I am curious what-- how many vehicles are in production already right now, and how many maybe are sold annually?

So in terms of the NanoGen sonars that we see, it is really too early to size the annual volume because the customer is still defining the final configuration of the platform. What we can see is that if the evaluation is successful and the system is designed into the vehicle specification, for us, it becomes a recurring production opportunity aligned with the platform's development cycle. And more importantly, for us, why we are excited, it dovetails with our broader strategy to grow the number of underwater vehicle programs which include our real time 3D volumetric imaging sonar Now why this program is exciting, it is because it is already an established program. And what this is an upgrade of the existing technology on the platform. Right. But can you tell us how many of these actual underwater vehicles are potential to be retrofit and/or how many are sold annually new. Well, at this stage, I really cannot say. I really cannot say. But needless to say that we would think this would be meaningful for us on a year-on-year basis. This is a long term opportunity of fitting out these vehicles, and we believe year on year, it would be meaningful for us if we pass the evaluation phase. Okay. And then can you talk about progress in other next generation underwater vehicles? We have talked about this for a while. Gayle, how many OEMs are you in discussions with? It sounded like Blair said you hope to get something announced by the end of the year. What stages are you in discussions with these OEMs? Well, Blair can talk a little bit more about the evaluation process. But as you know, as soon as there is an active ongoing conflict that affects the world. So spending priorities and pace always shift when those dynamics are ongoing. What was yesterday's priority is not today's priority. So really, what we have seen is a slowing of pace somewhat because the current practice would be to deal with the ongoing conflict, and we see less pace on procurement. But as soon as we believe that as soon as the issue is resolved with the conflict, then we could see some more pace ongoing. Blair, can you talk about a little bit about some of the programs and the process involved? Please?

Yeah, sure. Absolutely. Yeah, thanks again, Brian, for the question. So I think they really fall into 2 camps, really. 1 is generally customer instigated. Such as the 1 that we just announced the sale of the initial orders for. Where the customer who we have been working with for some time, as really wanted to embed the Echoscope technology into their vehicle. So these are new vehicles that are being procured for an existing program, as Annmarie stated, and this is really at the start. This is why it is exciting for us. This is really at the start. We are providing basic perception, obstacle avoidance, and navigation control but they already knowing the capabilities of the Echoscope as they have been involved with us, you know, for some years now, understand where they can take the capabilities of their vehicle. So that is 1 example The other, I would say there is another 3 or 4 examples where the nano nanotechnology is providing different capabilities to each vehicle. And I think that is 1 of the unique things is we are not just do mapping. We do not just do forward looking obstacle avoidance. We can perform all of these tasks. So there is another 3 vehicle companies who are looking to integrate our sensor, and they are at various stages of maturity. But as Annmarie noted, we can plan for the best, but we are generally quite aggressive when we get involved with these types of opportunities. We want to try and see these move quickly. And try and support the end customer as much as we can. However, again, they have their own priorities as well. So sometimes, you know, things can, you know, can take a little while to be able to, a, get in the water and have the necessary sea trials that are required to be able to understand how well the technology fits between the 2. But I would say 2 or 3 of those are at fairly advanced stages, which is positive. And then I think the second camp for underwater vehicles are ones where we have had a collaborative discussion with a manufacturer not because they are necessarily involved in direct programs, but if we are we can see and they can see the benefit of joining the 2 technologies together. So that is almost like an internally funded, you know, opportunity for us to take those forward and to be able to provide our capability on their platform. Does that make sense? So, some are customer-driven and some are technology-manufacturer driven. That was really helpful, Blair.

And are you going to generate revenue this current quarter from those nanoGen series deliveries? I think there are couple $100 thousand a pop. Is that this is that a this quarter event?

So can I just answer? So for the initial order, that we received, these are clearly not material in terms of our revenue in revenue contribution in this quarter. The significance here is not the initial volume. it is the opportunity ahead if the post integration and evaluation proceed as planned. So in the quarter, we did deliver the initial systems to the customer. So that revenue is included in our quarter's revenue.

I see. Thank you. 2 more quick ones. You highlighted SG&A it is the lowest it is been since April 2024. Can you break down, maybe compare it to the first quarter, How much was lower employee cost that you mentioned? How much was foreign exchange? And did you say there was a onetime gain as well?

Gayle, did you want to take that question? Gayle? This is me. Hello? Gayle? I do not know if she's-- yeah. We will come back to that 1 in 1 second. Gayle she's muted. Sorry about that.

Sorry. Yeah. No worries. We will get that.

My last question is on M&A, which you spoke pretty clearly about. My 1 question would be, are there a couple companies you are evaluating in these discussions? You have identified a target I just want to kind of understand where you are in this process.

Oh, right. Yes. We do have 2 active opportunities that we are going through active due diligence on at the moment. Sorry, Gayle. Sorry. Sorry. So we do have 2 active opportunities that we are going through due diligence at the moment, Brian. So yes. You know, we are quite close in terms of our process but it is still ongoing. Great. that is helpful.

Can you hear me now? I can, Gayle. Thank you. Hi, Brian. Sorry. I was muted, I had not unmuted myself. Apologies for that. So slight delay. Yes. I can deal with the question for you, Brian. So you want us to understand the SG&A reduction? Yes. Correct? that is right. Thank you. So there are 3 main elements in SG&A. We have an exchange rate swing of about $400 thousand. Between Q2 last year and Q2 this year. Which is basically due to exchange rate markets. We have less spend on our stock based compensation. We have lower spend on wages and salaries because of the slightly lower head count of in the region of, I think, it is about a $100 thousand something like that. So other than that, everything else is fairly similar. that is the main drivers. You also asked about the gain. that is through other income. We had a sale of a vessel that we made a significant gain on in the quarter as well, but that is through the other income line, not through the SG&A line.

Okay. Great. Thank you guys so much for taking all my questions.

Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Brian.

At this time, this concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Annmarie Gayle.

Thank you for your participation today. And have a great day.

Thank you for joining today for Coda Octopus's conference call. You may now disconnect. Thank you.