Ultralife Corporation (ULBI) Q4 2025 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ultralife Corporation Fourth Quarter 2025 Results Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to hand the conference over to Jody Burfening. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Liz, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us this morning for Ultralife Corporation's earnings conference call for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025. With us on today's call are Mike Manna, Ultralife's President and CEO; and Phil Fain, Ultralife's Chief Financial Officer. The earnings press release was issued earlier this morning. And if anyone has not yet received a copy, I invite you to visit the company's website, www.ultralifecorp.com, where you'll find the release under Investor News in the Investor Relations section. Before turning the call over to management, I would like to remind everyone that some statements made during this conference call contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results could differ materially from those projected as a result of various risks and uncertainties. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially include uncertain global economic conditions, reductions in revenues from key customers, delays or reductions in U.S. and foreign military spending, acceptance of new products on a global basis and disruptions or delays in our supply of raw materials and components due to business conditions, global conflicts, weather or other factors not under our control. The company cautions investors not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect the company's analysis only as of today's date. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Further information on these factors and other factors that could affect Ultralife's financial results is included in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, on today's call, management will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that management considers to be useful and differ from GAAP. These non-GAAP measures should be considered supplemental to corresponding GAAP figures. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Mike. Good morning, Mike.

Good morning. Welcome to Ultralife's Q4 and full year 2025 results call. Earlier today, we announced Q4 revenue of $48.5 million, an increase of 10.6% year-over-year, with an operating profit loss of $10.6 million after a onetime noncash impairment, which results in a loss of $0.45 EPS. We finished the year 2025 with revenue of $191.2 million, with over $30 million from new products less than 5 years old, which is a growth of 16.2% year-over-year, which after the noncash write-down resulted in a full year operating profit loss of $5.9 million, which equates to a full year loss of $0.35 EPS. During 2025, we completed the Electrochem transition and various operational initiatives to reduce ongoing costs. I am excited to see our backlog grow to $110 million exiting the year, diversified across several markets and applications with over $6 million of it driven from new products released in 2025. In 2026, I expect the Communication Systems business to rebound as new product sales begin and long-delayed programs start selling through, with the Battery & Energy business improving gross margin and revenue from new product launches. Our improved brand promotion and collaboration of worldwide resources will drive organic growth and new customer opportunities. I will turn it over to Phil to talk through the detailed numbers.

Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Earlier this morning, we released our fourth quarter results for the quarter ended December 31, 2025. We have also updated our investor presentation in the Investor Relations section of our website and plan to file our Form 10-K with the SEC in the near future. Turning to our financial results for the fourth quarter. Consolidated revenues totaled $48.5 million compared to $43.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, driven by strong performance for our Battery & Energy Products segment. Revenues for this segment were $45.9 million compared to $39.9 million last year, a 15.1% increase. Excluding third-party sales for Electrochem acquired on October 31, 2024, from both periods, sales for this segment increased 9.5% year-over-year. This organic growth was driven by a 39.6% increase in medical, a 20.4% increase in industrial and other commercial and a 1.2% increase in government defense, partially offset by a 3.6% decrease in oil and gas market sales. The sales split between commercial and government defense for our battery business was 73-27 compared to 70-30 reported for the 2024 quarter, and the domestic to international split was 71-29 compared to 62-38 for the 2024 period, primarily reflecting our acquisition of Electrochem. Revenues from our Communications Systems segment of $2.6 million declined 35.2% from the $4 million we reported last year, primarily attributable to timing of expected orders, which were delayed by the U.S. government shutdown. On a consolidated basis, the commercial to government defense sales split was 66-34 compared to 62-38 for the 2025 and 2024 full years, respectively. Our total backlog exiting the fourth quarter was $110.2 million, an increase of $20 million or 22.1% from the $90.3 million exiting the third quarter and remains diverse in nature across our commercial and government defense customer base. The replenishment rate remains high, and the backlog represents a very healthy 58% of TTM sales. Virtually all of the backlog is expected to ship in 2026. Our consolidated gross profit was $12.1 million, up 13.7% from the 2024 period. As a percentage of total revenues, consolidated gross margin was 24.9%, a 70 basis point improvement from the 24.2% reported for last year's fourth quarter. Gross profit for our Battery & Energy Products business was $11.5 million compared to $9.5 million last year, an increase of 23.7%. Gross margin was 25.1%, a 170 basis point increase from the 23.4% reported for last year's quarter, primarily due to product mix and higher factory cost absorption. For our Communications Systems segment, gross profit was $0.5 million compared to $1.3 million for the year earlier period. Gross margin was 19.9% compared to 31.9% last year, primarily due to lower factory volume. Operating expenses were essentially flat year-over-year, when excluding the $12.2 million noncash intangible asset impairment charge as we transition from numerous sub-brands reflecting the names of our acquisitions to the Ultralife master brand and the onetime costs of completing the transition of Electrochem to Ultralife systems, legal fees associated with our cyber insurance claim and certain consulting costs to help expedite our gross margin improvement and upgrade our operations leadership. Operating loss was $10.6 million, reflecting the intangible asset impairment charge and the onetime costs compared to operating income of $1.5 million last year. Other income was $0.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2025 as the interest expense from the financing of our Electrochem acquisition was more than offset by our expected $1.4 million refundable tax credit for certain qualifying battery cells and packs we manufacture under the 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit established by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which runs through 2032. This compares to other expense of $1 million for the year earlier period, primarily reflecting the acquisition financing. Our resulting tax benefit for the fourth quarter was $2.8 million compared to a provision of $0.3 million last year, computed on a GAAP basis at statutory rates. The benefit primarily reflects the reversal of deferred tax liabilities associated with the impairment charge. Net loss was $7.4 million or $0.45 per share on a GAAP basis, which includes $0.57 for the intangible asset impairment charge, net of the related tax benefits. This compares to net income of $0.2 million or $0.01 per share for the 2024 quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, defined as EBITDA, including noncash stock-based compensation expense and onetime acquisition and other costs not reflective of our ongoing operations was $5.7 million or 11.7% of sales compared to $3.9 million or 8.9% for the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA on a TTM basis is $17.3 million or 9% of sales. Turning to our balance sheet. We ended the fourth quarter with working capital of $68.5 million and a current ratio of 2.8 compared to $67.9 million and 3.3 for 2024 year-end. Our liquidity remains solid. During 2025, we reduced our acquisition debt principal by $4.8 million, which exceeds the $2.8 million amortization required for the full year under our debt agreement. Going forward, the increase in our backlog, the sheer number of our growth initiatives, consulting expertise in our largest facilities to expedite the execution of our gross margin improvement plans and help transition our new upgraded plant leadership, the transition of various sub-brands to the Ultralife master brand and the realignment of our oil and gas thionyl chloride operations into a unified business under a single leader position us well to realize the leverage of our business model. I will now turn it back to Mike.

Thank you, Phil, for the detailed review of the Q4 and full year 2025 results. As mentioned in the last call, we closed out a year with a lot of momentum and focus on preparation for future growth expectations. During 2025, we transitioned our largest acquisition to date, Electrochem, out of their parent systems and in Ultralife systems for ERP, MRP, networking, mail and office. We closed 2 of our smaller manufacturing facilities in North America, which decreased our North American locations from 7 to 5. We began systems consolidation at our Houston facilities, brought in external lean and operational support for our Newark facility and launched global rebranding efforts to eliminate customer confusion and better align sales and marketing resources worldwide. As we transition into 2026, we have 4 distinct priorities underway. We need our Communication Systems business to be profitable and growing. We have several new products in the commercial capture phase with initial orders received and multiple new products slated for release in 2026. We are actively working with multiple partners on large programs of record and long-term projects that we will bring -- that we believe will bring recurring baseline revenue back into the business. The second priority, which is in the Battery & Energy side of the business is improved gross margin with the initial target being our Newark operation. We have several recurring yield issues and inefficiencies that we continue to address with the help of external consultants in conjunction with the new leadership team that recently joined. We have revised pricing in several product areas and have cost-down projects ongoing with multiple customers. We continue to expand vertical integration opportunities enabled by the acquisition of Electrochem, allowing us to incorporate Electrochem cells into existing pack assemblies and broaden our addressable pack assembly market in areas such as pipeline inspection, seismic telemetry and sonobuoys. Internally, we decided as part of our strategic planning process to align several of our Battery & Energy facilities under single leadership to drive these transitions and maximize the synergies. The facilities that will encompass the newly formed Telemetry Power Systems division are the U.S. locations of Houston and Raynham, our Surrey location in Canada and our wholly owned facility in Shenzhen, China. This reorganization is expected to be completed in Q1. Lastly, we will focus on the company-wide branding alignment. We had a complex and confusing number of brands and trade names for a company of our size. This effort will reduce the redundant costs of supporting and justifying multiple brands and trade names, shore up messaging both internally and externally to customers that we are a global critical power provider of energy and RF products. Switching to development projects. We continue to invest in products on both sides of the business to drive revenue and opportunities for organic growth. The Communication Systems business continues to focus on the market expansion of ruggedized server cases through new programs and multiple server variants, providing greater opportunity to increase the market share in ruggedized computing environments. Several military programs are reviewing this solution now for possible fielding as components of the broader readiness upgrades. We have a road map to enhance our current DC power supply supporting a forward vehicular and DC power applications to the open compute standard. Being OPC compliant opens the business aperture for our power supply to support other computer manufacturer hardware in forward field environments. Our new A-2303 amplifier has completed testing with multiple customers and initial orders received with deliveries expected in Q2 2026. We are currently engaged with multiple radio manufacturers to pair a new amplifier solution with radios globally. Our Crescent man wearable compute solution continues to evolve as we held meetings with multiple agencies refining the voice of customer requirements. This critical feedback enables us to accelerate progress and ensure form fit and function for initial prototypes expected in 2026. On the Battery & Energy side of the business, we are focused on new business growth through transformational projects and OEM partnerships. I will start with the conformal wearable battery used to power dismounted soldier systems, where we've now begun shipping production quantities and shipped our first order in full. We have orders in backlog that will ship in the first half of 2026 and have quoted multiple large volume opportunities, mainly for international customers with expected awards for 2026 deliveries. We will continue to refine the production process as we receive and ship additional orders. Our 19 amp-hour Thin Cell has passed all performance validation testing requirements, and we're now waiting for our customers' device certifications and initial production planning to complete. We have begun new product development activities with an OEM powering a remote surveillance system with a rechargeable power pack. This development is anticipated to be completed in Q3 with productions and deliveries beginning in Q4. On a project we have not mentioned due to its long development cycle, now just over 7 years, we have received production orders for a battery pack to provide power backup for a new pump application for a major medical OEM. These orders are scheduled to start shipping in mid-2026 concurrently as our customer ramps their device manufacturing. As mentioned earlier, we have established initial production capabilities for our thin cell technology to support customers in the medical wearable sector and various item tracking applications. The sales pipeline continues to strengthen with several new projects now in the qualification phase. We are investing additional development effort in the product line with unique cell designs that further reduce the thickness of the product, while reducing manufacturing complexity with an eye on large-scale automation as we expect thin wearable sensors will continue to proliferate. These smaller thinner designs will enable a more discrete wearable sensor than typically available in today's marketplace, allowing for better patient experience and longer device life. Growing our medical cart power options, we released the X5-SuperLite, a USB-C hot-swappable power system, which has now completed all certifications and is in production. We have received initial production orders for shipment in 2026. This product will be on display at the HIMS Show in Las Vegas this week. Investing in new product development is essential to continuing to diversify and strengthen our product portfolio, driving future growth and building on our legacy of delivering critical power solutions. Our priorities remain converting long-term development efforts into revenue, advancing vertical integration where possible and maintaining a strong focus on operational efficiency initiatives. As I continue to focus on the strategic projects and future of the business, we entered 2026 with the Electrochem transition completed, the largest number of new products for sale ever in our Communication Systems business, multiple large opportunities for both sides of the businesses, a reduced North American facility count, a unified back-office systems across most of North America and a strong brand architecture evolution underway. With a healthy backlog, including over $6 million of new products to begin the year, I believe we are well positioned for future growth with the overall reduced operating costs throughout 2026. I'll now pass it back to the operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions] We have a question from Gregory Weaver with Invicta Capital Management.

It sounds like there's a lot of good growth as well as margin expansion opportunities. Would you care to help us frame that a little bit and kind of what your goals are in terms of organic growth rate or kind of where you want to get that 9% EBITDA margin?

Yes. I mean, overall, we started really a road map a few years ago really to get our new product pipeline on both sides of our business really humming and delivering organic growth. And as much as we'd like to have it just happen immediately, there's time. It's not -- we're often part of someone else's solution. We're very seldom selling an end solution to the marketplace. So it's not only us developing our stuff, it's our customers getting their things through all their quals and certifications into market. But overall, we're targeting to be 2x GDP as a minimum in our organic growth side. We'd love to be greater than 10% EBITDA to start short term. Long term, we'd love it to be higher. And long term, we continue to look for other ways we can grow the business. As we pay down the debt on this last acquisition, we'll be looking for what's next.

All right. I appreciate that. So on the Comm Systems business, I mean, when I was involved in the company years, probably 20 years ago, you had a huge order in that business, and you were right in that and now it's extremely low levels here, I guess, but you said you want to get it back to a baseline revenue. I guess kind of what's your definition of baseline revenue for that business.

Baseline is $25 million. That's where we need to be with the potential for breakaway large orders, maybe not to the extent of what we experienced years ago with SATCOM, but there are some very, very large opportunities out there, starting with Joint Fires that's received a lot of publicity. It's through the R&D stage and into the solicitation stage. And I think we're aligned with the right parties to be in a position to execute on what we see going forward for the business.

Okay. I appreciate that, Phil. And I guess just last one. You mentioned offhand, Mike, about -- I've listened to some old calls here about this medical order. As I remember, that was kind of a -- if it's the same one, it was kind of a topic for quite a while and then I guess the customer kept dragging their feet. So I guess what's the ramp look like there? And is that a sizable opportunity?

Well, the new medical order, we don't often talk about a lot of the medical projects just because the history has been that they drag on for an extended period of time. And no one wants to hear about something that's 5 years out typically. We still have some of that in the thin cell area where we have some medical projects with thin cell that we expected to see revenue by now, and we're still kind of waiting for these POs. On the order that we have, it's an OEM that we've been working with for a number of years, obviously. We already have a pretty good relationship with the customer, and we have a good revenue stream already. This will be a 6-figure plus opportunity per year, and it's just beginning to be a product launch. So we expect this to be a good little pop to the business.

Okay. Maybe it was the thin film one that I was thinking of beforehand that you've been waiting for, right?

Yes. We're still waiting for.

Yes. Okay.

[Operator Instructions] I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back to Mike Manna for closing remarks.

All right. Thanks, everyone. We look forward to talking to you at the next call for the Q1 2026 earnings. Have a great day. Bye now.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.