Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (HBIO) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good day and welcome to the Second Quarter 2026 Harvard Bioscience Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this call is being recorded. I would like to turn the call over to Taylor Krafchik, Senior Vice President at Ellipsis. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining the Harvard Bioscience Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Leading the call today will be John Duke, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mark Frost, Chief Financial Officer. In conjunction with today's recorded call, we have provided a presentation that will be referenced during our remarks and is posted to our investor relations section of our website at investors.harvardbioscience.com. Please note that statements made in today's discussion that are not historical facts, including statements on management's expectations of future events or future financial performance, are forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements reflect the current views of Harvard Bioscience Management and Harvard Bioscience assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. Please refer to today's press release, the Harvard Bioscience Form 10-Q, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for additional disclosures on forward-looking statements and the risks, uncertainties, and contingencies associated therewith. During the call, management will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures which can be useful in evaluating the company's operations related to our financial condition and results. These non-GAAP measures are intended to supplement GAAP financial information and should not be considered a substitute. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP measures are provided in today's earnings press release. I will now turn the call over to John. John, please go ahead.

Thank you, Taylor, and good morning, everyone. Since becoming CEO a year ago, our team has focused on sharpening our strategy, commercial alignment, and operational discipline, from optimizing our sales organization and distribution channels to executing footprint consolidation through Project Viking. That disciplined focus and execution helped us deliver strong second quarter performance, highlighted by double-digit revenue growth across our CMT and preclinical portfolios and solid operational execution that reinforced our confidence in raising our full-year revenue outlook. To give a high-level summary before Mark dives into the detailed financials, revenue came in strong at $22.7 million, representing 11% year-over-year growth. This performance was driven by solid demand, particularly from CRO customers, and healthy sales across our CMT portfolio. Adjusted gross margin was 57% for the quarter, slightly lower than anticipated due to higher-than-expected sales from our CMT products and sales in China, both of which carried lower relative gross margin. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $1.7 million, up 11% year-over-year. We are increasingly seeing our execution across our strategic focus translate into tangible operational progress across our customer mix, product portfolio, and recurring revenue profile. Researchers are adopting our products to generate more predictive, human-relevant data and address key preclinical translational challenges. We remain focused on our highest growth customer opportunities and continue to strengthen our position with pharmaceutical, biotech, and CRO accounts. We also saw an improvement over the first quarter in our academic segment. Looking at our product mix, we are seeing solid commercial traction and saw double-digit growth within our telemetry and CMT businesses, highlighted by growth in our AAA bioprocessing and electroporation products. Customers continue to show strong engagement across both preclinical and CMT platforms. Increasing high-margin recurring revenue remains a key long-term focus. Our recurring revenue strategy is anchored around high-margin single-use consumables, such as telemetry implants and electroporation reagents, complemented by annual software licenses and service contracts. As our instrument installed base expands with platforms like SoHo and BTX, we're generating a steady recurring revenue stream quarter after quarter. We saw our recurring revenue increase to 55% of total revenue in the first half as we continue to work towards our long-term target of 60%. Looking at broader industry demand patterns, preclinical drug candidate pipelines are growing, biopharma spending continues to increase, and CRO activity is expanding. Additionally, our distribution agreement with Fisher Scientific continues to deliver strong commercial returns, generating double-digit growth in Q2 while broadening our customer reach. To build on this momentum, our recently appointed SVP of Commercial, Dave Panzarella, is optimizing our commercial teams to focus on our highest growth opportunities, specifically NPI platforms, AAA bioprocessing, and growing our market share within biopharma and CRO accounts. Our Project Viking manufacturing footprint consolidation remains on track. We successfully transitioned two product lines out of our Holliston facility in Q2 and are prepared to move two more in Q3. As a reminder, we expect Project Viking will deliver $3 million in cost savings in 2027, and $4 million annually thereafter. Our Made in China localization initiative is progressing well and contributing to strong regional performance. Following the launch of our localized BTX line, we are actively shipping units and capturing domestic demand. Looking ahead, we continue to expand our BTX product line and are advancing certifications on additional products in the second half of the year, positioning us for growth in 2027. Turning to our outlook, based on our strong performance in Q2 and expanding commercial momentum within our CMT product portfolio, we are raising our full-year revenue growth guidance to 3% to 5%. To account for the Q2 top-line performance and the near-term mix shift towards our CMT product lines and higher China sales, we are revising our full-year adjusted gross margin range by one percentage point to 57% to 59%. Longer term, we remain confident that our strategic focus on higher-margin NPI platforms and expanding recurring revenue will drive gross margin expansion beyond our 2026 baseline. This trajectory will be further strengthened by structural cost savings from Project Viking beginning in 2027. Lastly, we are reaffirming our full-year adjusted EBITDA growth guidance of 6% to 10%, supported by continued cost discipline, operational improvements, and operating leverage as revenue scales. Over the past year, we strengthened our balance sheet, put a plan in place to simplify our operational footprint, and sharpened our strategic focus. We're seeing these deliberate actions reflected in meaningful top-line growth, a more differentiated product portfolio, stronger market engagement from our key customer segments, and improving operating performance. We believe Harvard Bioscience is becoming a fundamentally stronger, more profitable company. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mark for a deeper review of the financials. Mark?

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. I will start my comments with our second quarter of 2026 financial results, the details of which can be found in the description, starting on Slide 4 of the earnings presentation posted to our IR site. Revenue of $22.7 million was up 11% year-over-year, 10% on a constant currency basis, and exceeded our guidance range. The growth was driven by increased demand from CRO customers alongside solid execution through Fisher Scientific and other distributors. Our telemetry business was up double digits within the quarter and solid mid-single-digit growth for the half. We saw strong performance across our AAA bioprocessing and electroporation platforms. NPI revenue continued to deliver per our expectation with an 11% contribution versus 3% of revenue last year. Lastly on revenue, as John mentioned, we're continuing to focus on expanding our recurring revenue opportunities, which consist of our consumables, service and software, which improved its contribution by 1% within the half to 55% of revenue. GAAP gross margin was 55.6% and adding back restructuring for the quarter of 20 basis points brought our gross margin to 55.8% compared to 56.4% in Q2 last year. The decline was caused by a product and geographic mix shift with higher-than-expected CMT sales and strong demand in China, both of which carry relative lower gross margins. Going forward, we continue to focus on driving sales of our higher-margin NPI products, but we're not going to downplay sales opportunities. Additionally, we expect to realize significant margin benefit from the completion of our manufacturing consolidation in early 2027. We have provided adjusted gross margin reconciliation in the release, to show the impact of restructuring, which is in the other line. Our point for our investors is we operate our business assuming the impact of depreciation, amortization, and stock compensation costs. Now, OpEx increased by $1.2 million in the quarter. As we mentioned on the last call, we restored salaries and merit, which is the primary reason for higher OpEx, and it reflects a normalized cost structure. This investment is offsetting our improvements in gross margin, but we will see higher leverage in our returns in the fourth quarter and in 2027. Operating loss was $1 million compared to a loss of $0.8 million in Q2 2025. Adjusted operating income was $1.1 million, 4.9% operating margin, up from $1 million, 5.1% operating margin in quarter 2 last year. Now, adjusted EBITDA came in at $1.7 million, 7.3% return, reaching the high end of our outlook range and growing 11% year-over-year from $1.5 million in the second quarter 2 2025. The EBITDA margin remained flat given the normalized OpEx actions as well as some investment we did in the first half in sales and marketing. Now moving to Slide 5 for results by geography. Geographically, second quarter revenue in the Americas was $11.4 million, up 13% year-over-year, driven by strong telemetry growth at CRO customers. The academic funding environment is beginning to improve, and as we discussed last quarter, we expect to see stronger sales to these customers in the second half. In Europe, quarter 2 revenues were $6.8 million, up 3% year-over-year, 1.5% on a constant currency basis. Declines in academic and government channels were offset by growth across CRO, pharma, and distribution partners. In APAC, quarter 2 revenues were $4.6 million, up 24% year-over-year, primarily driven by strong sales of our BTX electroporation and respiratory lines. Within APAC, China revenues were $3.1 million, up 29% year-over-year, driven primarily by CRO demand. Our Made in China localization initiative also continues to progress nicely, and we expect a strong regional tailwind as we roll out additional localized product lines throughout the rest of the year. I'll now move to Slide 6 to discuss further financial metrics. GAAP diluted EPS in the quarter 2 was negative $0.64 compared to negative $0.52 in the second quarter of 2025. Quarter 2 adjusted EPS was negative $0.14 compared to negative $0.05 in the quarter 2 2025. All per share numbers retroactively reflect the 1-for-10 reverse stock split completed in March. Now, as I mentioned in the past, the difference between GAAP EPS and adjusted EPS are typically the impact of stock compensation, amortization, depreciation, as well now our restructuring charges related to Project Viking. These differences between net loss and adjusted EBITDA are highlighted in the reconciliation tables on Slide 12 and 13 and are all non-cash items except Project Viking costs. Now, cash used in operations for the first 6 months was $0.3 million compared to cash generated of $5.7 million in year-to-date 2025. This change was primarily driven by inventory builds to improve product lead times and support manufacturing pre-build requirements for Project Viking transitions, as well as higher interest costs from our debt deal. Now, we closed the quarter with $6.5 million in cash and cash equivalents. Net debt stood at $33.5 million, up roughly $5.6 million year-over-year. Total debt was $36.7 million, reduced by $3.3 million in unamortized deferred financing costs associated with our December 2025 debt refinancing, which will be amortized over the life of the facility. Non-cash deferred financing amortization was $0.3 million in the quarter 1 and quarter 2, with non-cash exit fee accruals running at $0.2 million per quarter. Now I'll move to Slide 8 to discuss our outlook for the third quarter and full year 2026. Now in the third quarter, we expect revenue between $21 million and $22.6 million at the midpoint of $21.8 million. This represents mid-single-digit year-over-year revenue growth. Adjusted gross margin is expected to be between 56% to 58%, and adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $1.5 million and $2.5 million. Now, turning to the full year, based on first half top-line strength and ongoing commercial momentum in our NPI, telemetry, and CMT portfolios, we are updating our full year 2026 guidance. We are raising our full-year revenue growth guidance to 3% to 5%, up from 2% to 4%. Now, to account for higher CMT portfolio volume and strong China demand, we are adjusting our full-year adjusted gross margin target by 100 basis points to 57% to 59% from 58% to 60% to reflect product mix dynamics. We are reaffirming our full-year adjusted EBITDA growth guidance of 6% to 10%. Now, to paint a clearer picture of how we believe this will look in the second half, we expect adjusted EBITDA expansion versus the first half, particularly as we enter the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter historically has been our strongest revenue and EBITDA quarter. We expect this acceleration will be driven primarily by revenue growth in the second half generating strong flow-through over a fixed cost base as well as ongoing operational discipline, including modest commercial restructuring actions we executed in July. We're pleased with the progress we've made since this time last year. The improvements we've made to date are the result of structural changes we've made in line with our strategic focus areas, which leaves us confident our results in the first half of this year are setting the stage for sustainable improvement in the business. We want to thank all of our shareholders for their support, and we look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter. With that, I'll turn the call back to Michelle, our operator, to take questions. Michelle?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Paul Knight with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Congratulations on the quarter. The electroporation business grew to what level in the quarter, and then also same kind of question on the organoid Mesh MEA product.

Yes, so thanks, Paul. And first, in terms of the electroporation, it grew strong double digits, and we're seeing the same in our year-to-date strong performance in our organoids or Multi Channel Systems products.

And with the China demand that we're seeing, could you talk a little bit about it specifically? Is it electroporation products? Is it the Mesh MEA, and then how do you control your China sales? Is it distributors or direct?

In terms of -- first of all, as a reminder, last year in Q2, there were the retaliatory tariffs, so we had a lower baseline. That being said, we had very strong sales into China, and in terms of the product categories that drove that growth, I'll just mention several: organoids or the Multi Channel Systems, BTX for electroporation, as well as telemetry and respiratory inhalation. Those were all strong sales in China. In terms of how it's sold, much of our sales in China are sold through distributors.

Yes, that's our largest contribution to revenues through distributors as a lot of companies in China.

And your Q3 is implying what? Mid-single-digit growth? And what are you implying in 4Q?

Yes, mid-single digits and probably slightly lower in Q4. Obviously, we hope to overachieve. That's why we raised the guidance, Paul. But we obviously had a very strong fourth quarter last year.

So the midpoint of the range that we provided is $21.8 million in revenue, which would be a 6% revenue growth over last year.

Right, and I think Q4 then would indicate 4% to 6% as well.

Our next question comes from Bruce Jackson with StoneX. Your line is open.

I'm sorry if I missed this, but what was the percentage of revenue that was due to the new product innovation products?

Yes. It was similar to the quarter 1, Bruce. It was 11% versus 3% last year.

Okay, got it. And then with the release of the NIH funding in the academic market, so that's certainly a relief in terms of the academic sales. Maybe you could comment on the outlook for that market going forward. Have there been any changes in just general budget level or research projects and the types of research projects being done? And how do you feel like you're positioned to go after that market in the future?

Thanks for the question, Bruce. The academic market in the U.S. is gradually improving. And what we have done and continue to do is look at those pockets where funds have been released to actively and aggressively go after that. And we put our salespeople as well as, as you can imagine, our distributors as well, are into those accounts, and we believe we're well positioned for year-over-year growth there in the second half.

Okay. Then last question for me. With Project Viking, have you found a sub-tenant for the Holliston lease yet?

We have, as I think we mentioned last quarter, engaged a broker. We are marketing it now. We've had a few folks on site, but we have not got to a point yet where we have a new lease. I'll be honest, Bruce, we probably don't expect anything to the fourth quarter or first quarter as far as getting something done because we won't really move out of the space until the first quarter of next year.

This concludes our question and answer session. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.