CPS Technologies - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Record revenue and sequential growth: Q2 2025 revenue reached $8.08M (up 61% YoY; up ~8% QoQ), with gross margin at 16.5% and a return to GAAP profitability (EPS $0.01). Management expects H2 revenue strength, gross margin expansion, and improved profitability.
• Cost/efficiency progress and constraints: Operating income was $0.14M as capacity additions (third shift) and higher output drove efficiencies; tariffs are a current headwind to margin expansion despite mostly domestic sourcing.
• Strategic momentum: First commercial order for AlMax (fiber-reinforced aluminum) and the company’s fourth SBIR contract of 2025 (ACV weight-reduction) enhance medium-term optionality alongside seven active externally funded programs in Q2.
• Estimates context: S&P Global consensus for Q2 2025 EPS and revenue was unavailable; hence no beat/miss can be determined. Actuals: revenue $8.08M, EPS $0.01 (consensus N/A*).
• Potential stock catalysts: continued sequential growth with margin expansion, commercialization milestones for AlMax, additional SBIR/DoD awards, and any re-emergence of armor orders as defense budgets prioritize relevant applications.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Record quarterly revenue and sequential growth with sustained profitability: “new quarterly revenue record … $8,100,000 for Q2 … 8% growth sequentially … dedicated to improving bottom line results.” EPS positive at $0.01.
• Margin recovery and operating leverage: Gross margin improved to 16.5% (vs a gross loss in Q2 2024) on higher volumes and manufacturing efficiencies; Q2 operating income turned positive.
• Strategic wins/optionality: First AlMax order and fourth SBIR of 2025 (ACV weight reduction) broaden future revenue streams; seven active externally funded programs provide pipeline depth.

What Went Wrong

• Margin headwinds from tariffs: Management cited tariffs’ indirect effect on domestic pricing as a headwind to near‑term margin expansion despite domestic sourcing.
• Capacity tightness: Demand is robust enough that CPS added a third shift and continues to work through capacity expansion plans to support higher run‑rates.
• Radiation shielding contract cancellation: A prior radiation shielding PO tied to a high‑level program was fully canceled (CPS will be paid for work performed), though management remains optimistic on the broader opportunity set.

Transcript

Speaker 4

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to CPS Technologies Corporation's second quarter earnings call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and we will open the floor for questions following the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Chuck Griffith, of CPS Technologies Corporation. Chuck, the floor is yours.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Jenny, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'm joined by Brian Mackey, our President and CEO, and we look forward to discussing our second quarter results with you. First, Chris Witty, our Investor Relations Advisor, will provide a brief Safe Harbor statement. Chris?

Speaker 2

Thanks, Chuck, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin the business portion of today's call, I would like to point out that statements in this conference call that are not strictly historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and should be considered as subject to the many uncertainties that exist in CPS's operations and environment. These uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, other geopolitical events, economic conditions, market demands, and competitive factors. Such factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in any forward-looking statement. Additional information can be found in our filings with the SEC. Now, I will turn the call over to Brian to offer his perspective on the quarter, after which Chuck will review the financial results in greater detail. Brian?

Speaker 6

Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. I am pleased to announce that for the second consecutive quarter, we have established a new quarterly revenue record for the company at $8.1 million for Q2. Not only is this up quite significantly year over year, but it represents 8% growth sequentially from the first quarter of this year. We continue to execute across our various products and are focused on fulfilling strong demands for the remainder of this year and beyond. We're on track for our best revenue year ever, and as I'll explain further in a moment, are dedicated to also improving our overall bottom-line results. We're excited by all aspects of our operating environment, including ongoing strong demand, increased defense spending, a growing portfolio of marketable technologies often created with external funding, and a highly capable team with a demonstrated ability to address our customers' material science challenges.

I'll now turn the call over to Chuck to provide further details about our financial results, after which I will provide some additional perspective. Chuck?

Speaker 1

Thanks, Brian. We're very pleased with our second quarter, second consecutive strong quarter of 2025, which is further evidence of our effective approach to growing CPS. The company's revenue for the quarter totaled a record $8.1 million compared with $5.0 million in Q2 of fiscal 2024, an increase of 61%. In the year-over-year comparison, most of the variance was driven by strong customer demand combined with our approved ability to increase manufacturing output, including the addition of a third shift of production. We continue to broaden the company's core product offerings with new and existing customers and anticipate continued strong revenue results. We reported a gross profit in the second quarter of $1.3 million or approximately 16.5% of sales compared with a gross loss of $0.2 million last year. The increase was due to the higher revenue and greater manufacturing efficiencies.

While pleased with the much improved margins year over year, we remain focused on growing our profitability going forward. We believe the coming quarters will show the results of our efforts to further improve manufacturing efficiencies, increase capacity utilization, and bolster return on assets. Selling, general and administrative expenses totaled $1.2 million in the second quarter versus $1.1 million in the prior year period. We continue to manage our costs even while ramping up production output and investing for growth. The company posted an operating profit of about $137,000 in the second quarter compared with an operating loss of approximately $1.3 million last year, and we reported net income of just over $100,000 and $0.01 per share versus a net loss of about $0.9 million or $0.07 per share in Q2 of fiscal 2024.

Turning to the balance sheet, the end of the quarter was $2.4 million of cash and $1.0 million in marketable securities versus $3.3 million in cash and $1.0 million in marketable securities at the end of 2024. Of more significance is that our cash and marketable securities increased by almost half a million dollars from the end of Q1 of 2025 to the end of Q2 of 2025. Trade accounts receivable totaled $5.6 million as of June 28, 2025 versus $4.9 million as of December 28, 2024. Inventory growth of $5.2 million at the end of the second quarter as we've produced more to meet our customers' growing demands compared with $4.3 million at the start of the fiscal year. Turning to the liability side, payables and accruals totaled $4.3 million at the end of the second quarter versus $4.0 million as of December 28, 2024.

Now, Brian will provide a more in-depth discussion of the period.

Speaker 6

Thanks, Chuck. We are in the middle of CPS Technologies Corporation's best revenue year ever. We also know that even better days lie ahead. Manufacturing capacity has increased dramatically over the last several quarters in response to increased demand. New technologies are being brought to market, and we continue to land new development contracts as we develop the latest solutions to real-world problems. As previously announced, we recently won our fourth new SBIR development contract of the year, continuing our partnership with the US Navy to support next-generation defense solutions. This particular Phase I SBIR with funding from the US Navy is focused on reducing the weight of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle, or ACV, a vital transport platform for the US Marine Corps operations. This is a six-month award worth $140,000 with an optional six-month extension at the end of the period of performance worth another $100,000.

Given our expertise in advanced composites and engineering, we will be evaluating various vehicle components such as hatches, armor, suspensions, et cetera, to identify opportunities for a redesign with lightweight alternatives to improve fuel efficiency, buoyancy, and operational range. This evaluation is applicable to all variants of the ACV, whose designs have significant overlap of their constituent parts. It's a great contract that could lead to additional work going forward, given the military's interest in making vehicles lighter, more durable, and fuel-efficient. This process will be led by Matthew Carnick, one of our material scientists and now a two-time SBIR award recipient, who has a strong background in composite innovation and structural optimization. I'd like to publicly thank Matthew for his great work at CPS Technologies Corporation over the last three years. In addition, we also recently announced the receipt of our first purchase order for Almax Materials.

As a reminder, last year we became the exclusive global licensee of fiber-reinforced aluminum composites, originally developed and patented by Triton Systems. We're now making headway commercializing this technology under the Almax Materials brand and are excited to announce this initial contract. Relative to aluminum, Almax Materials offers superior performance, including exceptional wear resistance and greater strength at both room temperature as well as elevated temperatures. Indeed, we are seeing expanded interest across multiple large addressable markets for the unique performance advantages that Almax Materials provides. Customer feedback has been highly encouraging. This first order from a domestic manufacturer signals promising commercial traction and an important milestone as we pursue a variety of intriguing opportunities for commercializing this material.

Additionally, we are now executing two distinct Phase I SBIR programs, one funded by the Army and one funded by the Navy targeting the ATV, where these Almax Materials may offer key advantages for improving the operability of military ground vehicles. Together, the new SBIR contract and Almax's first commercial order underscore our ongoing commitment to innovation in material science and our mission to deliver practical, mission-ready solutions for governments and industrial customers alike. Technical work on our other funded efforts continues. Though I will not go into detail on each of them here, I will note that we recently filed a non-provisional patent application for our radiation shielding material. We are less than halfway through the two-year development effort for radiation shielding that is funded by the Department of Energy, and we continue to pursue relevant commercial opportunities as development work continues in parallel.

This recent patent filing provides necessary protection for the intellectual property developed by CPS Technologies Corporation. These development activities build upon a very positive growth outlook. At the same time, we are committed to expanding our gross margin and improving bottom-line results. We are dedicated to increasing manufacturing efficiencies, which ultimately generate stronger profitability and better returns for our shareholders. This is a key area of focus for the entire company. We have a number of initiatives underway that we expect will have a positive impact on margins. These range from smaller cost-down initiatives to larger modernization programs, each with its own timeline for execution and implementation, and their impact on the income statement will be realized as each is incorporated into our daily operational activities. We have faced some headwinds in our ability to improve margins in the near term, including in the form of tariffs.

While we source many of our raw materials domestically, tariffs nevertheless have an impact on domestic pricing. Domestic producers, in some cases, can raise prices if their competitors who import goods are compelled to do so due to tariffs. Although the impact of these tariffs is not a severe threat, it does work against our efforts to improve margins. The opportunity for future armor orders remains possible given the strong track record that has been built with the US Navy, by CPS, and our key partner, Kinetic Protection, or KP. The federal budget for fiscal 2026 prioritizes defense spending, and our ballistic solutions address a large market across various types of ships as well as other military applications. Productive discussions are ongoing between CPS, KP, and relevant members of the Department of Defense, and we remain optimistic about the opportunity for additional orders in the quarters to come.

With regard to our SBIR portfolio, including the new program I spoke of earlier, we now have four active Phase I, two active Phase II, as well as non-SBIR funding from the US Naval Air Command at China Lake. Now with seven active programs, this provides another significant milestone for CPS in terms of the number of externally funded projects underway. Aside from one Department of Energy program for radiation shielding, all of these are funded by the Department of Defense. Given priorities of budget in Congress, these represent real opportunities for further military R&D and commercialization upon successful outcomes of the funded research. As always, we continue to pursue additional SBIR contracts when we believe we can provide a unique technical solution that also offers commercialization potential for CPS.

Demand remains strong for our core products, which include both metal matrix composites and cement packaging, including our newly added capability of five-axis machines. We have a solid backlog in hand and will continue to execute throughout the year and beyond to meet the robust demand we are experiencing from both existing and new customers. In closing, we're excited by the accomplishments we have consistently demonstrated thus far in 2025 and look forward to even better days ahead. Fifteen months ago, our armor ship has ended as we fulfilled that contract. Since then, we have more than made up for the loss of revenue through the growth of our other products and with additional revenue from externally funded development contracts.

While actively pursuing additional armor awards, we are leveraging our unique capabilities in radiation shielding, hermetic packaging, Almax Materials composites, and a host of SBIR awards to accelerate growth going forward. As I mentioned earlier, we are committed to expanding margins and improving the company's underlying performance, leading to greater profitability and cash flow in the quarter to come. We're proud of everything our team has done to put us in position for our best revenue year ever, and we are confident that our commitment to growth through innovation, commercialization of our technologies, and ongoing operational improvements will provide enhanced returns to our investors. At this point, we can open up the call for questions. Jenny?

Speaker 4

Thank you very much. We are now opening the floor for questions. If you have any questions, you can press star one on your phone keypad now. We ask that while you're posing your question, you please pick up your handset if you are listening on the speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality. Please wait a moment while we poll for questions. Thank you. Your first question is coming from Michael Legg of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. Michael, your line is live.

Speaker 5

Thanks. Good morning. Congratulations on the quarter. Could you talk a little bit about your visibility into future revenues, what type of pipeline you may have, and just kind of get into the sales cycle and how it all develops? Thanks.

Speaker 1

I think I'll start. Thanks, Michael. I think one aspect of it is the cycle of ordering that our different customers execute on. Some of them are just a couple of months out, so in the near term, it's very clear to us. Others are sort of in the four to six months timeframe where they're adding to our order book at that window. On a less frequent basis, we'll have an order up to twelve months in advance. Collectively, I would say our window is four to six months on average, and we do continue to see strong demand as we've seen throughout this year so far. I'm testing on. As I said, I'm not going to keep you, pretty much covered. Yeah.

Speaker 5

I agree. Thanks very much.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much. Your next question is coming from Ron Richards, and he's a private investor. Ron, your line is live.

Speaker 0

Morning, Jay. Congratulations on the revenue. It's good to see. I was wondering, as far as the build-out in data centers, does CPS expect that all that money spending in that area is going to benefit them somewhere down the line?

Speaker 1

Yeah, thanks for the question. Good morning. It's certainly an area of great interest to us, which has significant opportunity for us. The high-voltage DC lines or HVDC, there's a number of projects that are cropping up around the world, such as Europe. There's a number of things that are active that are very relevant to CPS Technologies Corporation. In the past, when we've been asked about data centers, our answer has been that they are not particularly relevant to CPS Technologies Corporation. When we are adding our base plate for our customers' high-power electronics, it's typically necessary because those electronics are switching on and off, with generally high frequencies.

You think of a subway car or a train that's starting and stopping or a wind turbine starting and stopping, it's generating heat in the electronics through that starting and stopping, and it requires our base plate to help dissipate that heat but stay in contact with those electronics through mapping of the coefficient of thermal expansion. Those data centers are typically on and hot 24 hours a day, which means they're typically not relevant for our solution. However, the HVDC projects, which are actively underway and being planned, include one of the sources of this growing demand for electricity to satisfy that demand being wind turbines. Wind farms, whether over land or over water. When you're generating electricity with those types of solutions, those wind farms do need base plates like ours to address that switching and therefore that heat.

This is an additive opportunity related to HVDC that is completely separate from our core markets such as traction or transportation trains, public cars, et cetera. While we've always had sales into the wind turbine market, this is a completely new opportunity that we expect to play out over the next couple of years.

Speaker 0

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much. Just a reminder that if there are any remaining questions, you can press star one on your phone keypad now to join the queue. Our next question is coming from Stephen Foggie. Stephen is a private investor. Your line is live.

Speaker 3

Hi. Good morning.

Speaker 5

Good morning, Brian. You guys had a radiation shielding contract that was terminated. Have you had any inkling that that might be reconstituted, you know, perhaps in a different way?

Speaker 3

Regarding that specific contract, we were in the middle of, we had started executing on that contract. The very high-level program was canceled. We were uncertain for a while whether that would be reinstituted. It has now become clear that it will not. That particular instance has tailed off. Other opportunities that we're pursuing are under active discussions, and this definitely is an area where we're very optimistic about our future with radiation shielding. That particular PO has been fully canceled, and we are being paid for the work done prior to cancellation.

Speaker 5

Yeah, sure. Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much. Just a reminder, if there are any remaining questions, you can join the queue by pressing star one on your phone keypad now. Wait to see if anybody else joins the queue. Oh, we do have another question come in, and it's from Stephen Foggie. Stephen, your line is live.

Speaker 3

Oh, good. Hi, Stephen. You guys have added a third shift. Are you seeing any capacity constraints in the near future with the higher run rate you've had?

Speaker 1

Yeah, the third shift was added roughly Labor Day of last year on the metal matrix composite side. There's a number of things underway that are intended to address the growing demand that we're seeing from our customers. It is a challenge for us, but there's also plans underway to address that. The third shift was the easiest way to add capacity quickly, and that demand does remain robust going forward. As I mentioned in an earlier call, we anticipate significant opportunities. It is a key point of discussion strategically for the best way for us to address those growing demands. Good problem to have. We know how to make these products, and we're seeing strong demand going forward. There are things underway to address that need because it is an area of growth for us that we anticipate for some time to come.

Speaker 3

Yeah, great. Thank you. I guess if I could follow up on one last bit about the fiber-reinforced aluminum. Do you guys, so you've licensed it. Do you bring proprietary technology to the materials you're doing that are beyond what you're licensing?

Speaker 1

Yeah, there are two elements of that. We are the exclusive global licensee of the technologies, you know, the material, the fiber-reinforced aluminum developed by Triton Systems, which they patented and developed. With our metal matrix composite know-how, we're the right place for that to take that forward. That's why we were able to work out that agreement. What we bring to that is all the other things that we were able to do. That core material, you know, developed by them, is one thing that we are making in our facility today. Over the past year, we've validated the ability to make the same products that they made and match the data sheets that they made so that when we're talking to customers, they know that this is indeed what we claim it to be. The added layer on top of that is potential combinations or overlaps.

For example, if we need a multi-layer material to satisfy a particular need, whether it's high thermal challenges or even, you know, maybe a ballistic solution or something related to the vehicles for the military, we now have that in our portfolio of products that can then potentially be combined or improved upon. That will play out going forward. It fits very well in our portfolio, and we may well see things that we tweak or improve upon. Even fundamentally, that Almax material in and of itself is generating significant interest.

Speaker 3

Great. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much. There are no further callers in the queue. I will now hand back over to Brian for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Okay. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today and your ongoing interest in CPS Technologies Corporation. We look forward to speaking with you again after the end of the third quarter. If you have any questions in the meantime, please reach out to our investor relations advisor.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much, everyone. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect from the phone lines at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation.