Stephen Oswald
Analyst · Citi
Okay. Thank you, Suman. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today for our first quarter conference call. Today, as usual, I will give an update of the current situation at the company, after which, Suman will review our financials in detail. Let me start off again on this quarterly call with Ducommun's Vision 2027 game plan for investors. As we continue to make great progress in our fourth year of the plan, strategy and vision were developed coming out of the COVID pandemic over the summer and fall of 2022, unanimously approved by the common board in November 2022 and then presented the following month in New York to investors where we got excellent feedback. Since that time, the common management has been executing the strategy of increasing the revenue percentage of engineered product content, which is at 23% over the past year and up from 15% in 2022, consolidating our rooftop footprint and contract manufacturing, continuing our focused acquisition program, executing the offload strategy with defense fronts and high-growth segments, driving value-added pricing and expanding content on key commercial aerospace platforms. All of materials as well as my fellow board members continue to have a high level of conviction in the Vision 2027 strategy and financial goals and believe the market catalyst ahead present a unique value creation opportunity for shareholders. The Q1 2026 results show again that strategy initiatives are working with gross and adjusted EBITDA margins continuing to stay on track to meet and exceed our Vision 2027 goals with more opportunities to come for ECO. For Q1, I'm happy to report that revenues reached a new first quarter record of $209 million, 9% growth over last year, our fourth consecutive quarter of $200 million revenue and our 20th consecutive quarter with year-over-year revenue growth. We have particular -- we had growth in both our commercial and military end markets with commercial aerospace, in particular, showing a major turnaround in the quarter with 18% year-over-year growth, a very positive sign. We saw production and deliveries continue to ramp, driven by higher OEM production rates as well as lower than previously anticipated destocking. While this is great news, we are not past the destocking issue entirely as yet, and we expect it to have some impact in the remaining 3 quarters of 2026. In addition, the company's remaining performance obligations, RPO, remains at over $1 billion -- almost $1.1 billion, increasing $86 million compared to Q1 last year. The growth in RPO year-over-year is primarily in defense, where our book-to-bill is at 1.2 in the last 12 months, and our commercial aero book-to-bill is at 1. We closed on over $175 million of bookings in Q1 and have closed on $925 million in the past 12 months. Our bookings do not reflect any upside of potential orders from defense primes under the 7-year missile framework agreements entered into by them with the Department of War in the past few months. We are in active discussions with the defense primes to support them on these major agreements and are well positioned as an incumbent supplier in many of the programs, which is great news for DCO and its shareholders. Production on many of these missile programs such as Tomahawk, PAC-3 and Standard Missile 3 and 6 are expected to grow severalfold and this will be a big driver of growth for the DCO defense business over the next few years. Stay tuned for more news on this front in the coming quarters. Gross margin grew by $5.8 million in the quarter to 26.9%, a nice improvement from 26.2% last year in Q1. We continue to see the benefits of our Vision 2027 strategy and gross margin expansion due to DCO's engineered product portfolio with aftermarket, strategic value pricing initiatives, restructuring actions and productivity improvements reading through to the P&L. Cost saving expectations are also on track for the run rate of $13 million in savings from our facility consolidation program by the end of 2026. For adjusted operating income margin in Q1, the team delivered 8.6% and well above the prior year of 4%. This was supported by growth in adjusted operating income margins in Electronic Systems segment during the quarter as well as lower stock-based compensation expenses. Adjusted EBITDA continues to improve towards our Vision 2027 goal of 18% in 2027 from 13% in 2022. DCO achieved 16.9% in the quarter or $35.4 million, up $5.7 million from Q1 2025, which is excellent to see as we start off 2026. EPS was $0.64 per diluted share in Q1 2026 versus $0.09 for Q1 2025. With the adjustments, diluted EPS was $0.75 a share in Q1 2026 and versus $0.23 in the prior year quarter. The higher GAAP and adjusted diluted EPS during the quarter was driven by higher operating income. As mentioned earlier, over the past 12 months, we closed on over $925 million in bookings, a trailing 12-month book-to-bill of 1.1. The positive momentum in commercial aerospace and increased defense spending. We have strong tailwinds in both our primary markets. On the outlook for the rest of 2026, we expect to see continued strength in the defense business and a recovery in our commercial aerospace business. We reiterate our previous guidance of mid- to high single-digit revenue growth for the full year 2026. With the higher than previously anticipated strength in our commercial aerospace business in Q1 and with some of the destocking impact previously expected in Q1 deferred, we now expect the quarter to be relatively level lower than 2026 and growth for each quarter between mid- to high single digits depending on the level of destocking. Now let me provide some additional color on our markets, products and programs. Beginning with our military and space sector, we saw revenues of $118 million compared to $112 million in Q1 2025. This represents 5% growth and was driven by another quarter of strong performance in our military fixed-wing and missile franchises partially offset by weakness in our radar and electronic warfare, ground vehicle and marine business due to timing of orders. DCO's missile business grew 20% in 2025. And in Q1, it continued to grow, increasing 22% compared to Q1 in 2025. As I mentioned earlier, RTX, our largest customer, and Lockheed will significantly increase production on many programs, including PAC-3, SM-3, SM-6 and Tomahawk amongst others, and we are ready to get moving. DCO is well positioned on all these programs and also in great shape of capacity at our operations to fully support the required ramp-up. These framework agreements and DOW's pushed to increase production ASAP should be a strong catalyst for growth in our Military and Space segment starting in 2027 and beyond. As a reminder, Ducommun is a key supplier in over a dozen missile platforms, including Amran, MiR, PAC-3, SM-2, SM-3, SM-6, Tomahawk, RAM, Naval Strike Missile, Thad and to, amongst others. This is an exceptional and unique time for DCO within this market segment and excellent news for significant future revenue, along with generating high levels of shareholder value. Within our commercial aerospace operations, first quarter revenue increased 18% year-over-year to $84 million, with strong growth on Airbus platforms, including the A220 and A320 as well as the 737 MAX with Boeing. We also saw good growth in our commercial rotorcraft business as we ramp up production, our bell platforms out of our Coxsackie, New York facility. The outlook for commercial aerospace is promising as Boeing increases their 737 MAX build rates from 42 to 47 by this summer and with the new production line in Everett going live this year. While we expect to see some destocking headwind for the next couple of quarters, it should start to discipline as we get to the end of the year, especially at legacy Spirit Max utilize operations in Wichita. Additionally, Boeing is building momentum on 787 bills and making big investments in its South Carolina facilities to increase capacity and ramp up production to 10 by the end of this year, with further rate ramp in 2027 and beyond. I also want to mention that DCO is $150,000 per ship set content on this platform. And so this will help us as we drive at a higher rate. We're also monitoring the production at Airbus as they work through their engine issues. But overall, we remain optimistic about DCO's commercial aerospace business in 2026 with more growth ahead in 2027 and beyond. As we get past destocking and industry supply chain issues. Our balance of defense and commercial aerospace businesses is helping drive growth for the company in 2026. And we very much like the mix and the balance it provides. The outlook going forward is very positive for both end markets, the best I've seen in my 9-plus years leading Ducommun, and that's exciting news for the company and its shareholders. With that, I'll let Suman review our financial results in detail. Suman?