Edward Prajzner
Analyst · Sturdivant
Thank you, Natalia. As shown on Slide 6, revenue for the third quarter was $195.5 million, a 7% increase which exceeded expectations. This growth in the quarter reflects increases across several key areas of our business, including our PCMS offering and the aerospace & defense, industrials and power generation end markets. In particular, our PCMS offering within our data solutions business grew by nearly 25% in the quarter representing the second consecutive quarter of achieving significant growth. This growth was attributed to several implementation projects of PCMS programs. As Natalia mentioned earlier, gross profit increased by $9.3 million in the third quarter with gross profit margin expanding by 300 basis points. This improvement was attributable to favorable business mix and operating efficiencies. On a 9-month basis, our gross profit margin has expanded 180 basis points year-over-year from 26.3% to 28.2%. As a result of our gross profit expansion and SG&A cost control, we generated $20.4 million of income from operations, which is an increase of $8.5 million or nearly 72% growth versus the prior year comparable period. We improved adjusted EBITDA to $30.2 million resulting in a 29.6% increase over the prior year quarter. This significant improvement reflects our proactive cost management, operational efficiency leverage and a shift towards higher margin business. Our adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 15.4% from 12.7% for the third quarter, an expansion of 270 basis points. As noted in our press release yesterday, our results reflect certain overhead and personnel expenses, which have been reclassified from SG&A to cost of revenue. This reclassification recorded within our financials was $5.7 million for the 3 months ended September 30, 2024. The impact of this reclassification for full year 2024 was approximately $20.9 million from SG&A to cost of revenue. This redistribution of overhead and personnel expenses has no impact on operating income, net income or adjusted EBITDA comparability. Selling, general and administrative expenses were essentially flat in the third quarter as compared to the prior year comparable period despite the higher revenue level achieved due to our ongoing cost control management while also making strategic investments in our business. For the third quarter of 2025, the company recorded $1.8 million of reorganization and other cost related to our continuing initiatives to reduce and recalibrate overhead cost in addition to incremental costs of other related actions. Our effective income tax rate for the third quarter was approximately 22% benefiting from discrete items in the quarter whereas we expect the full year 2025 effective rate to be approximately 25%. Interest expense was $3.4 million for the third quarter, down by just under $1 million or 21.4% from the prior year period due to a lower cost of borrowing. For the third quarter, we reported GAAP net income of $13.1 million or $0.41 per diluted share compared to $6.4 million or $0.20 per diluted share in the prior year period. This improved result of doubling year-over-year for the quarter significantly exceeded expectations. Note that the buildup of accounts receivable, both billed and unbilled, on our balance sheet as we discussed in the second quarter has continued to cause a drag on our cash flow generation in the third quarter. As we have shared earlier, this is a working capital timing item due to implementation and adoption of an upgraded ERP system in April, which is taking us longer than anticipated to come up the learning curve. Note that unbilled accounts receivable did decrease as of September 30 compared to June 30, 2025 whereas billed accounts receivable increased over the same time frame. Hence, we anticipate positive free cash flow generation in the fourth quarter of 2025. We will focus on improving our cash flow performance in the quarters to come. Specifically, improvements to our back-office structure, focused tools and accountability will contribute to reduced accounts receivable, both billed and unbilled. Although some improvement is projected in the fourth quarter, we anticipate to normalize our free cash flow generation in the first half of 2026 to more historical levels. In addition to the higher days sales outstanding experienced in 2025, the increased restructuring charges and incremental CapEx investments year-over-year have also adversely impacted our free cash flow. Due to this buildup of net working capital as of September 30, 2025, bank borrowings increased year-over-year with net debt of $174.5 million as of September 30, 2025. On the positive side, we are continuing our investment in our business for the longer term while lowering and maintaining a trailing 12-month leverage level of just below 2.7x. We expect positive free cash flow and debt paydowns in the fourth quarter and we continue to emphasize debt reduction as a priority use of our residual free cash flow. Although strong revenue growth was achieved in the third quarter, we expect full year 2025 revenue to be between $716 million to $720 million. This would represent essentially flat performance compared to the prior year after adjusting an approximate 1% reduction in revenue resulting from our ongoing efforts to voluntarily exit unprofitable business during 2025. Whereas adjusted EBITDA has continued to improve and is expected to increase for full year 2025. Accordingly, we are raising our prior qualitative adjusted EBITDA guidance range of exceeding the 2024 adjusted EBITDA level of $82.5 million. Based on our strong third quarter 2025 adjusted EBITDA performance results and the current fourth quarter forecast, we expect our full year adjusted EBITDA to be between $86 million to $88 million. Our focus for 2025 has been and remains margin improvement and adjusted EBITDA expansion such that we can generate profitable growth and invest further in our growth momentum heading into 2026. We appreciate your continued support. And at this time, I would like to turn the call back over to Natalia for her closing remarks before we move on to take your questions.