Geospace Technologies - Q1 2026
February 5, 2026
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Welcome to the Geospace Technologies First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Hosting the call today from Geospace is Mr. Rich Kelley, President and Chief Executive Officer. He is joined by Mr. Robert Curda, the company's Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is being recorded and will be available on the Geospace Technologies Investor Relations website following the call.
At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star two. We do, we do ask that you please pick up your handset to allow optimal sound quality. Lastly, if you should require operator assistance, please press star zero. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Rich Kelley. Sir, you may begin.
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
Thank you, Katie. Good morning, and welcome to Geospace Technologies conference call for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026. I am Rich Kelley, the company's Chief Executive Officer and President. I am joined by Robert Curda, the company's Chief Financial Officer. In our prepared remarks, I will provide an overview of the first quarter, and Robert will then follow up with more in-depth commentary on our financial performance, as well as an overview of our financials. I will then give some final comments before opening the line for questions. Today's commentary on markets, revenue, planned operations, and capital expenditures may be considered forward-looking, as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on what we know now, but actual outcomes are affected by uncertainties beyond our control or prediction.
Both known and unknown risks can lead to results that differ from what is said or implied today. Some of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in our SEC Form 10-K and 10-Q filings. For convenience, we will link a recording of this call on the Investor Relations page of our Geospace.com website, which I invite everyone to browse through and learn more about Geospace, our subsidiaries, and our products. Note that today's recorded information is time-sensitive and may not be accurate at the time one listens to the replay. Yesterday, after the market closed, we released our financial results for the period ended December 31, our first quarter of fiscal year 2026. For the three months ended December 31, we reported revenue of $25.6 million, with a net loss of $9.8 million.
This past year was not without its challenges, many of which are reflected in our first-quarter performance. We continue to operate in an environment shaped by economic uncertainty. Inflation drove up material costs faster than we could adjust pricing, tariffs impacted margins, and supply chain challenges forced us to carry higher inventory costs. With that said, we remain committed to what we can control: serving our customers, running the business efficiently, and making smart, long-term decisions that benefit our clients, our shareholders, and our employees. Overall, I am encouraged by how our organization performed in this difficult operating environment. We continue to invest wisely in our future, advance our strategic initiatives, and leverage innovative technology to further diversify our business. These efforts position us well to drive sustainable growth and long-term value for our shareholders. The Smart Water segment continues to operate in a stable, yet increasingly demanding environment.
As is typical of the first quarter, revenue is reduced due to seasonal deployment schedules and the timing of municipal government budget cycles. However, long-term demand for for water infrastructure, treatment, and management services remains strong, driven by population growth, urbanization, aging infrastructure, and heightened regulatory and environmental standards. We are expanding the geographic reach of our sales and marketing operations, where these pressure points are most acute, where demand criteria exists, and our technology offers significant added value. At the same time, the industry faces challenges, including rising operating costs, climate-related variability, evolving compliance requirements, and the need for sustained capital investment. These dynamics reinforce the importance of prudent planning, operational discipline, and long-term asset stewardship. The environment surrounding our Energy Solutions segment is defined by uncertainty and change.
The global energy demand remains resilient, reflecting the essential role that oil and natural gas play in supporting economic activity, industrial production, and energy security. We were encouraged by the award of the large permanent reservoir monitoring contract in fiscal year 2025, which reinforces the strength of our capabilities and marketing position. In addition, our Pioneer land node solution continues to drive interest in the market. We have completed several sales and anticipate additional sales later this year. At the same time, the sector faces ongoing volatility driven by geopolitical events, inflationary pressures, regulatory developments, and evolving expectations from investors and policymakers. While commodity prices have fluctuated over the past year, these movements reinforce the importance of maintaining a disciplined approach rather than reacting to short-term market signals. Look, the long-term fundamentals of our industry remain intact, but success requires caution, adaptability, and operational excellence.
Our intelligent industrial segment continues to generate steady, predictable revenue from our industrial sensors, imaging products, and contract manufacturing solutions. As previously announced, we strengthened our security portfolio with the acquisition of Geovox Security, the exclusive licensee of a human heartbeat detection algorithm developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Since the acquisition, customer interest and engagement has exceeded Geovox's historical levels, driven largely by the reduced product form factor and the introduction of a monthly subscription model, which simplifies procurement by enabling purchase orders under operating budgets rather than capital expenditures. Combined with the consistent revenue from our long-established industrial product lines, this recurring revenue model positions the intelligent industrial segment for growth in 2026 and beyond. Over the past year, we prioritized safe and reliable operations across our company. We managed costs carefully, maintained capital discipline, and continued to strengthen our strategic position.
Our investment decisions were guided by conservative assumptions and rigorous return criteria, ensuring that capital was deployed where it could generate durable value. Looking ahead, we expect continued uncertainty in global markets. While challenges remain, we believe the company is well-positioned due to the quality of our portfolio, the experience and professionalism of our workforce, and our conservative financial framework. We will continue to evaluate opportunities carefully, avoid speculative investments, and remain guided by returns, risk management, and long-term shareholder value. I will now turn the call over to Robert to provide more detail of our financial performance.
Robert Curda (EVP and CFO)
Thanks, Rich. Before I begin, I'd like to remind everyone that we will not provide any specific revenue or earnings guidance during our call this morning. In yesterday's press release for our first quarter ended December 31, 2025, we reported revenue of $25.6 million, compared to last year's revenue of $37.2 million. Net loss for the quarter was $9.8 million, or $0.76 per diluted share, compared to the first quarter of last year's net income of $8.4 million, or $0.65 per diluted share. First quarter revenue from the company's Smart Water segment totaled $5.8 million for the three months ended December 31, 2025. This compares to $7.3 million in revenue for the same period a year ago, a decrease of 21%.
The decrease in revenue is due to lower demand for the company's Hydroconn cable and connector products. The Energy Solutions segment revenue totaled $14.6 million for the three months ended December 31, 2025. This compares to $24.3 million in revenue for the same period a year ago, a decrease of 40%. Revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2025, included $10.6 million of Pioneer and related equipment for an order to Dawson Geophysical, announced in August 2025. However, in comparison, revenue for the first quarter of the prior year included a $17 million OBX marine wireless product sale. Additionally, the reduction in revenue for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 was due to lower utilization of the OBX rental fleet.
Revenue for the company's Intelligent Industrial segment totaled $5.1 million for the three-month period ended December 31, 2025. This is compared with $5.6 million for the same year-ago period, a decrease of 8%. The decrease in revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2025, was primarily due to lower demand for industrial sensor products. This decrease was partially offset by an increase in demand for our contract manufacturing services. As of December 31, 2025, the company had $10 million in cash and cash equivalents. Additionally, the company's working capital was $52.2 million, which includes $25.4 million of trade accounts and financing receivables as of December 31. The company continues to own unencumbered property and real estate in both domestic and international locations.
In fiscal year 2006, management anticipates a capital expenditure budget of $5 million and does not anticipate additions to the rental fleet given current market conditions. This concludes my discussion, and I'll turn the call back to Rich.
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
Thank you, Robert. This concludes our prepared commentary, and I will now turn the call back to the moderator for any questions from our listeners.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad now. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star two. We do ask that you please pick up your handset to allow for optimal sound quality. We will pause for just a moment to allow questions to queue. Again, that is star one if you would like to ask a question now. Again, we will pause for just a moment to allow everyone the opportunity to ask questions. Please press star one at this time. Our first question will come from Martin Lorenzen, private investor. Please go ahead.
Martin Lorenzen (Investor)
Good morning.
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
Good morning, Martin.
Martin Lorenzen (Investor)
Can you talk about the strategic importance of the Heartbeat installed base? Specifically, when should we expect a meaningful portion of those contracts to come up for renewal? And if that installed base were fully subscription-based today, which I realize it's not, but just hypothetically posing, what would be the implied annual recurring revenue for us?
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
Thanks for the question, Martin. So, I'll break it into two pieces. The first one is that we have reached out to the historical installed base. You know, the prior system was designed to last for many, many years. However, that equipment is aging out, and there is obviously interest in replacing their legacy equipment with the new subscription model. However, that base is pretty diverse, and it's international in nature. We've not really run the numbers if we did 100% replacement, knowing that really wasn't possible, so I don't have a good answer for you. But that clearly would be, you know, there's several hundred installed bases, so you can sort of imply what that might be. That's a good question.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. Our next question will come from Bill Dezellem with Tieton Capital. Your line is open.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
Thank you. I have a group of questions. First of all, on the U.S. government's website, there is a reference to Homeland Security doing an RFP for persistent surveillance detection system for 15 miles. Did you all bid on that?
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
Good morning, Bill. Thanks for the question. So even though that's out there, if you also look, they actually did a direct award. We followed up with that, and this administration, in order to expedite contracts, has taken the mindset to do direct awards where applicable. And so in the areas of interest, they did direct awards. We were not direct awarded in relationship to that. So there is no expectation of a further RFP.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
Okay, thank you. And then shifting to Petrobras and that contract win. Would you discuss the timeline for the deployment of that and how you anticipate revenues will be reflected over time?
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
Do you want to speak to the revenue recognition?
Robert Curda (EVP and CFO)
Yeah. The revenue recognition will be an over time model, which will be very similar in nature to percentage completion. So as we accumulate a cost against what our total anticipated cost, we'll recognize revenue proportionately.
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
We anticipate recognizing revenue for the first time in Q3?
Robert Curda (EVP and CFO)
Yeah, beginning in Q3.
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
And that project is slated to, as you know, as you remember, Bill, the prior discussions, the goods contract, which is our portion of that, expects to be completed in Q1 of 2027. So we'll have revenue recognition through that. And then on the actual installation, that's the consortium that we're partnered with in Brazil, and there'll be a small other portion of revenue recognition later in Q4 in 2027.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
And so as we shift into Q3, what is your anticipated revenue level that you would experience that quarter and then in Q4?
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
We're not really speaking in actuals at this time, Bill, but if you could imagine, I mean, the portion of the contract, if you divided it in over the next three quarters, roughly, it'll be a slightly lower in the first quarter as we build up in production capacity, full capacity in Q4, going into Q1, and then downgrading at the end of Q1. So you can think about the revenue curve being, you know, kind of a curve versus a fixed number.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
Got it. And literally, you do think it will be over three quarters that this will be recognized?
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
The expectation is that we ship this equipment out in Q1. So yeah, I mean, the goods portion should be completed Q1, possibly, depending on the customer's final schedule, in Q2 of 2027.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
Okay.
Robert Curda (EVP and CFO)
We'll continue to recognize revenue on the services contract as services are performed.
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
After we,
Robert Curda (EVP and CFO)
Afterwards.
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
Yeah. Yep.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
Robert, roughly how large will that be?
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
The total value of the contract, which we've announced in the past, is in the $90 million range.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
With the vast majority.
Robert Curda (EVP and CFO)
With the vast majority.
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
We've never announced what the difference is between the goods and the services, Bill.
Robert Curda (EVP and CFO)
Yeah. The services is a much more insignificant portion in comparison to the goods.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
Okay, that is helpful. And then let's shift, if we could, to Geovox. Would you provide a detailed update on the deployments that you have experienced to date, and on the pipeline... essentially, the pipeline?
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
So we've just started shipping the units this quarter. So we'll have revenue recognition in this quarter, which we'll announce at the next call, the next release. We anticipate a couple of hundred units in this year, and then that building over the subsequent periods. There is a tremendous amount of interest, both domestically and internationally, in that.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
So if you think about the pipeline, what's the magnitude or what's the size of it? You mentioned you have a couple hundred units that will be deployed. It sounds like starting next quarter?
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
The first deliveries are this quarter, ramping up into next quarter. As far as the pipe, I mean, we anticipate, I mean, and we've talked about this in the past, I mean, the overall market size is in the thousands. It's not, you know, tens of thousands. And so, we anticipate, over the next couple of years, you know, reaching a saturable, a close to saturable level.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
Is the market continuing to be prisons and jails, essentially incarceration facilities?
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
Short term, yes. And then, of course, border crossings. And then we are trying to expand into secured sites like nuclear power facilities, power transfer stations, where you want to protect the egress and ingress on the site.
Robert Curda (EVP and CFO)
Yeah, that's really the new market we'll be moving towards as we develop that product line.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
Relative to the border, where does the Border Patrol's interest lie in this product, and how large could that be?
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
There's, they're definitely interested in the technology. I mean, they, they utilize a couple different technologies today. They're obviously looking at ways to make it more efficient and effective. As, you know, as we've said in the past, the number of trucks that are checked coming across the border are, you know, in the single percentiles. They would obviously like to increase that, and, and they do like the, the efficiency as far as the timeliness of, of the system. There are 300 border crossing points in the U.S. alone. So if you talk about multiple units on each site to build, check multiple trucks, you know, it could be, you know, a 1,000+ units for CBP.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
That's helpful. And then two additional questions. You did increase the contingent consideration on one business here this quarter by, I think, $196,000. Which business was that?
Robert Curda (EVP and CFO)
It's related to H, Heartbeat Detector.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
Okay, thank you. And then lastly, what's the prospects for the rental fleet seeing activity levels pick up and a little more on the deployment front?
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
So, you know, overall, the Ocean-Bottom Node business, as of last year, are expected this year still to be flattish. We have seen a number of requests for quotations going into the summer season, but none of those have developed into orders yet. So the volume has increased as far as requesting information, but we've not seen any actual impact on orders yet.
Bill Dezellem (Founder, President, and CIO)
Great. Thank you.
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
Thanks for the question, Bill.
Robert Curda (EVP and CFO)
Yeah, thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad now. We will pause for once, once more. Again, that is star one to ask a question. Thank you. We do have a follow-up from Martin Lorenzen. Your line is open.
Martin Lorenzen (Investor)
Thank you. Just, just on PRM, could you disclose the number of parties you have ongoing discussions with, excluding Petrobras?
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
No, due to confidentiality, we're not able to discuss which parties. There's a couple other companies we're talking to, but we're not allowed to disclose those discussions at this time.
Martin Lorenzen (Investor)
Just the number of those, is it, is it one additional party, or is it two, three? Without going-
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
I would say it's multiple. I would say it's multiple, Martin.
Martin Lorenzen (Investor)
That's helpful. Thank you, and good luck.
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. At this time, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd now like to turn the meeting back over to management for any final or closing remarks.
Rich Kelley (President and CEO)
Thank you, Katie, and thanks to all of you who joined our call today. We look forward to speaking with you again on our conference call for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026. Thank you, and have a good day.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. That brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.