Geospace Technologies - Q3 2024
August 9, 2024
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Welcome to the Geospace Technologies third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Hosting the call today from Geospace is Mr. Rick Wheeler, President and Chief Executive Officer. He is joined by Robert Curda, the company's Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Rich Kelly, the company's Chief Operating Officer. Today's call is being recorded and will be available on the Geospace, 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 ask that you please pick up your handset to allow optimal sound quality.
Lastly, if you should require operator assistance, press star zero. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Rick Wheeler. Sir, you may begin.
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
Thanks, Jamie. Good morning, and welcome to Geospace Technologies conference call for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024. As mentioned, I'm Rick Wheeler, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, and I'm joined by Robert Curda, the company's Chief Financial Officer, and Rich Kelly, the company's Chief Operating Officer. In our prepared remarks, I'll first provide an overview of the third quarter, and Robert will then follow with more in-depth commentary on our financial performance. Following Robert's update, Rich will speak to some of our operations and shed some light on our strategic direction. 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 hope everyone will browse through and learn more about Geospace, our subsidiaries, and our products as well. 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 third quarter and first nine months of fiscal year 2024, which ended June 30, 2024.
With only three months of fiscal year 2024 remaining, we continue to maintain a profitable year, reporting positive net income of $6.3 million, or $0.47 per share. In addition, there's been no change in our long-standing and unwavering commitment towards sustaining a strong balance sheet, which remains firmly intact with zero debt and holdings of $42.5 million in cash and short-term investments as of June 30, 2024. Nonetheless, further gaps in our OBX rental contracts had a negative impact on third quarter revenue from our oil and gas market segment. This led to a net loss of $2.1 million for the three months ended June 30, 2024. During the quarter, a combination of unexpected weather delays, customers' operational difficulties, and unawarded client surveys contributed to the extended gaps, although some of the work is expected to resume in the fourth quarter.
In quite a contrast, our adjacent market segment generated yet another all-time revenue record for the third quarter, generating $16 million. This represents an increase of $1.1 million over the previous quarterly record, which was set a year ago. The ever-growing industry acceptance of our water meter cables and connectors is a strong enabler for additional revenue from these products. In addition, we anticipate substantial revenue contributions to this segment from our Aquana smart water valve and IoT technology products as market traction grows and increasing sales backlog continues to gather. In combating the very familiar and often extreme volatility we experience in our oil and gas segment, the careful expansion of products and market diversity in our adjacent market segment has been a long-standing part of our strategic vision for Geospace.
The noteworthy continuation of record-setting performances from this segment is strong evidence that this strategy is on track to provide long-term value to our shareholders. Our emerging market segment posted $640,000 of revenue in the third quarter, with the largest portion coming from the fulfillment of a DARPA contract that is now essentially complete. As an outcome of this project and other independent efforts, multiple government agency security projects and advanced energy and energy transition monitoring projects offer future opportunities where this technology can be uniquely applied. In addition, as of June 30, 2024, this business segment had a backlog of approximately $750,000, primarily derived from an extension through April of 2025 of our existing US Border Patrol contract.
In other news, we were pleased to reveal some specifics of the company's board of directors' management and leadership succession plan, wherein Rich Kelly will become the company's President and Chief Executive Officer on October 1, 2024. I have complete confidence in the skills and business acumen exhibited by Rich Kelly in his time with Geospace. As such, I look forward to an effective and smooth transition that will progressively preserve and increase shareholder value. In a few moments, Rich will speak on the call to give additional insight on our operations and strategic direction. But first, I'll turn the call over to Robert to provide more financial detail on the third quarter and nine-month performance. Robert?
Robert Curda (CFO)
... Thanks, Rick, and good morning. 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 third quarter, ended June 30, 2024, we reported revenue of $25.9 million, compared to last year's revenue of $32.7 million. The net loss for the quarter was $2.1 million, or 16 cents per diluted share, compared to last year's net income of $3.2 million, or 24 cents per diluted share. For the nine months ended June 30, 2024, we reported revenue of $100.2 million, compared to revenue of $95.2 million last year.
Our net income for the 9-month period was $6.3 million, or $0.47 per diluted share, compared to last year's net income of $7.8 million, or $0.59 per diluted share. Our oil and gas market segment produced revenue of $9.2 million for the 3 months ended June 30, 2024. This compares with revenue of $17.7 million for the same period of the prior fiscal year, a decrease of 48%. For the 9-month period, the segment contributed revenue of $59.9 million versus $56.2 million, an increase of 6.6%. The decrease in revenue for the 3-month period was due to lower utilization of our OBX rental fleet.
The 9-month period increase in revenue is due to a $30 million sale of our Mariner ocean bottom nodes, which occurred in the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, which was partially offset by lower utilization of our OBX rental fleet. Our adjacent market segment revenue for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 was $16 million, compared to $14.9 million for the same prior year period. Revenue for the 9-month period into June 30, 2024, is $38 million, a very modest decrease over the same period in fiscal year 2023 of less than 1%. The increase in revenue for the 3-month period is due to higher demand for our water meter, cable, and connector products, partially offset by a decrease in demand for our contract manufacturing services.
Finally, revenue from our emerging market segment for the third quarter was $640,000, compared to $109,000 for the same period in 2023. The nine-month revenue for this segment for fiscal year 2024 was $2 million, compared to $400,000 for the same prior year period. The increase in revenue for both periods is due to revenue recognized from the completion of a DARPA contract we announced in 2023. Our operating expenses increased by $100,000 for the third quarter of 2024, while they decreased by $800,000, or 2.6%, for the nine-month period ended June 30, 2024.
The increase in the three-month period is primarily due to higher sales and marketing costs, while the decrease in operating expense for the nine-month period is primarily due to lower personnel costs as a result of our workforce reduction in the first quarter of fiscal year 2023. Our nine-month cash investments into our rental fleet is $8.2 million, and property and plant and equipment investments are $3.6 million. For fiscal year 2024, we expect to invest a total of $12 million in equipment for our rental fleet and $5 million for our plant and equipment. Our balance sheet at the end of the third quarter reflected $42.5 million of cash and short-term investments.
Our credit facility has available borrowings of $15 million, thus our total liquidity is $57.5 million as of June 30, 2024. Lastly, we own real estate holdings in Houston and around the world that are owned free and clear without any leverage. This concludes my discussion, and I'll turn the call to Rich.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Thanks, Robert. Greetings, everyone. As Robert mentioned, I am Rich Kelly, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Geospace Technologies. Since joining Geospace, the team has been welcoming and supportive. I've enjoyed getting to know the company and the team over the past several months. As previously mentioned by management, Geospace has a strategy to diversify beyond the traditional seismic industry, given the ongoing challenges in that market. While we will continue to support our customer base and bring new products to market, we will also explore exciting opportunities for growth in our adjacent and emerging markets. As Rick and Robert mentioned, our adjacent markets posted record revenue this quarter. We look forward to expanding this success further. Our Aquana product line continues to gain acceptance in the market, and we anticipate continued growth driven by the value of industrial Internet of Things, or IoT, and cloud-based technologies.
Our subsidiary, Quantum Technology Sciences, continues to explore interesting uses for its analytics technology outside of traditional markets. Our team is focused on continuing to identify and develop opportunities to leverage our knowledge and expertise in these growth markets. Lastly, I wanna thank the board for having the confidence in my ability to lead the company going forward. I also wanna thank Rick for his guidance and support these past few months, and look forward to continuing to work with both Robert and Rick as we move along the succession plan through the remainder of the calendar year. Thank you. Thanks, Rich. As a final note, I'd like to draw attention to the success of our stock repurchase program, authorized by the board of directors in May of 2024.
Under this program, as of August seventh, 2024, the company has repurchased approximately 512,000 of its common shares on the open market. In addition, our board of directors has approved an extension of the program that will allow up to an additional $2 million of shares to be repurchased. With that, this concludes our prepared commentary, and I'll now turn the call back over to Jamie for any questions from the listeners.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. At this time, if you have a question or comment, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If at any point your question is answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star two. Again, we ask that while you pose your question, that you pick up your handset to provide optimal sound quality. We will pause for just a moment to assemble a question queue. We'll take our first question from Josh Goldberg with G2. Please go ahead.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
Hi, good morning. This question is for Rich. First of all, congratulations on your promotion, and certainly excited-
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Thank you.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
-to see where you're taking this, this great company. I, I guess for me, I just want to hear a little more about what you see on the adjacent market growth. You know, I think, you know, my own opinion, it probably shouldn't be called adjacent markets anymore because it's gonna be as meaningful maybe as your oil and gas markets. And what are you thinking about, or how are you planning on driving double digit or more growth at the adjacent markets over the next few years?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Thank you, Josh. I appreciate the question. Clearly, as we look at what we are, the space we're playing in today with adjacent markets, especially around smart water and water metering, we have seen significant growth in that space year on year over the last several years. And so we have a strategy to continue to diversify in that, growing our existing product lines through consideration of possibly adding to that. That's always up for discussion and part of our strategy going forward.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
You mentioned on the press release that Aquana has a backlog for the first time. Can you tell me a little bit about what that product is and why are you able to have a backlog of that product?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
So Aquana is our smart valve technology that allows municipalities to control the valve at the point of use. That is gaining traction with municipalities as they look to increase the smartness and intelligence of their of monitoring their product, which is water. And that is a newer technology to that industry, and it's taken us a while to educate and grow that technology in that space, which is not really known for technology, but it's gained some significant traction over the last couple of years, and it's really plus, the product has matured now, so we're really starting to see an uptake and acceptance of that technology.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
Okay.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
The other place that we're starting to see growth, so that's municipalities. We're also starting to see interest in multifamily usage. So we're seeing a lot of growth in that space, if you, as you know, and smart water metering is important to that industry.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
Do you have a sense that Aquana could be a $5 million-a-year business in a year from now?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Well, that's certainly our hope and anticipation.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
Okay.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
For sure.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
Regarding your business with Itron, have you disclosed how much of your revenue is coming from that relationship, and what could the opportunity be with them?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
No, we don't share that information specific to, particular relationships like that.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
Okay. But it's fair to say that with Aquana coming on stronger and some of the other businesses, adjacent markets could be a double-digit grower going forward.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
We certainly anticipate that. I mean, if you look at what the industry itself is advertising, they are advertising 10%-15% growth over the next 5-6 years.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
Okay.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
And, you know, we're seeing that trend in our water meter business, so we fully anticipate seeing similar to that, but there's no guarantees, obviously.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
Sure. No, because this year you guys are down 1% through the first nine months, and I know some of that was inventory issues. So you should probably not have the same issues next year.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Well, and two, just to add, there is some seasonality to all of this, so there are always ups and downs. But if you go back and look at the history, and, and Josh, I know you've already done that, but when you look at the history of our adjacent markets and in particular, that industrial component, as it's been reported, it has just done nothing but grow. And we certainly, as Rich just said, we, we certainly anticipate that to be continued in the future.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
Do you think that, you know, the adjacent market business, pretty good operating margins. You know, you guys are doing about $4.6 million on the $16 million, so, you know, close to 25% maybe margins. Does that stay at that level, or does Aquana make you guys have lower margins going forward?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
... Well, we're always going to strive for higher margins. You know, we really beat up on our costs of production and our manufacturing operations. You know, Rich has an extreme acumen in helping with that and is gonna make some inroads, you know, very prolifically in that regard. But, you know, as a company, we need to make margins, but, you know, it has to be of value to the customer. So that's one of the reasons that we're pursuing technology avenues within that domain, because that's where the value really exists for the customer base. And, you know, higher technology products can demand higher margins.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
Okay, great. Just going to the oil and gas section. I mean, obviously, it is a lumpy business. Sometimes you guys have had a stronger year, other times it's been somewhat weaker. Could you give us any sort of visibility or pipeline on what you think could happen over the next sort of nine to 12 months, where you can possibly grow your oil and gas business? And I have one more question.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
You know, the oil and gas business is exactly as you described. It's very lumpy. It's very volatile. It is hard to navigate around that oftentimes, hence, you know, our conservative approach to managing cash and our balance sheet, et cetera. It's very difficult to predict. I mean, something I tell you today, tomorrow, when there's news from the Middle East, that will be entirely false. It will not represent any real truth at that point in time. What we do see is there's certainly more recognition worldwide at this point, that economies need energy. And the fact is that oil and gas will remain an energy provider of consequence for many, many years to come, if not decades.
So that being said, you know, the part of that industry that we are a part of, which is on the very front end of it, with respect to instrumentation and sensing and that sort of thing, has its ups and downs, and is largely volatile because it can be cut off and then turned on in rapid succession. It's really difficult for me to give you some meaningful prediction as to how that will go, but we're certainly gonna try to take advantage of every one of those opportunities that present themselves by having, as Rich said, continuing to support those customers with good products, as time goes on.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
Okay. Last one for me on the balance sheet. Currently, you are bullish on your future with the stock buyback. I noticed that your inventories also went up quite a bit. What was there, at least your current inventories, is there a you know, focus on being ahead of the curve with that? Or what was the reason why your current inventories went up so much?
Robert Curda (CFO)
So there, there's kind of two aspects to that question, with the main one being, we're identifying long lead components that we can strategically buy to ensure we have supply when needs come up for our gas components, oil and gas instruments. We've also have recently sold some items that have been in inventory and built out of components that have been in an inventory a very long time, for a very long time, some of our long-term inventory. So as a result of that, generating usage and sales, it's changed the aspect of some of those components as we view them for a long-term versus current estimate.
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
Adding to what Robert said, Josh, you know, to the extent that, you know, we've increased some of these inventories on the raw components that Robert mentioned, you've got to recall that there have been great upheavals in the supply chain worldwide, with respect to components, even things as simple as plastics in some cases. So that definitely throws a curve in terms of managing the business and trying to ensure that we can get our products out. But we do try to diligently examine where, you know, some of those components that we assure ourselves will get used or put on the shelf so that we can, you know, make production work.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
Okay, gotcha. Well, I just wanted to thank, Rick, for, I mean, I want to thank Walter for all his hard work over the last few years. I know from a long-term experience how much effort and time and how much value he's created for the company, and I just want to wish him much success in the future.
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
I thank you very much.
Josh Goldberg (Portfolio Manager and Founder)
We'll be in touch. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Once again, if you do have a question, you may press star one on your telephone keypad at this time. We'll hear next from Bill Dezellem with Tieton Capital. Please go ahead.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
Thank you, and congratulations on your retirement, Rick. We'll miss having you on the calls.
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
Thank you very much, Bill.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
So I'm gonna assume that others will ask a little bit more about the oil and gas market, and the prior questioner asked about Aquana. So I'm gonna jump into the, you know, what's currently the smallest business, the emerging markets. Because you it seems like you gave us some insights into what's going on there. So let's start, if we could, with the DARPA contract, and would you please talk about the spillover benefits that you're seeing from that that were referenced in the press release?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
... Specific to the DARPA contract, that went very well for us. We got great feedback from DARPA, and there are a number of opportunities that they've identified within the military community where they could potentially apply that technology and that application. Even since our report out on that, we've had a couple of really good meetings with other parties within the government. We do see some really interesting opportunities. Nothing that's been formalized yet, but definitely some interesting conversations and some real interest on their side in including our technology going forward.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
I'm not familiar with how this, those processes work. Talk to us about the timeline. If in fact, you know, something were to develop, how quickly can that go? And I recognize I won't ask how long can it go, because that could be decades, but how quickly could it go on the other end if things were to move along at a favorable pace?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Yeah. So as you can expect, I mean, dealing especially with anything government-related, we're at the mercy of appropriations of, you know, and approvals. Once the money is allocated and the project is kicked off, these projects are not short-lived. They take time to develop. They can be, you know, 12-24 months type projects in a lot of cases, and even longer.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
And so-
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
But they're not the typical commercial, where you get an order and six months later you deliver.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
Okay, so are you saying that once the money has been allocated, it can take an additional 12-24 months before you begin delivery? Or once the money has been allocated, the delivery process can be up to a couple of years?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Yeah, I really can't get into specifics because every project is unique when dealing with these particular parties. But what I really wanna drive home is there's not gonna be money is allocated, three months later, we're gonna recognize that as revenue as an organization. It'll be a partnership that will take time. Government contracts are always phased, and so there's a lot of complexity there. So, what's really more interesting to us is that we're starting to see the technology actually be mentioned by name within these organizations and a real interest in that. And so that is really what's more exciting to us at this point.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
Great. Thank you. And, let me kind of shift, if I may, to the backlog. It's referenced that that's due to an extension of the Border Patrol contract, which we understand that they have done extensions in the past, but I guess, I'm a little bit surprised with the at least the CBO report would indicate that in the spring there's going to be a more significant decision coming. Walk us through that extension, why they would do that in advance of a larger decision, and is this potentially a very positive signal to how the equipment is performing versus the competing products?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
So we can't speak too much to that because that's still an ongoing project, and quite honestly, we don't get a lot of feedback from Border Patrol. We do know that the testing is still ongoing. They're doing the acceptance testing. That project is due to expire in April of 2025, thus the early Q1 or Q1, Q2 timeline for the extension. They will make a decision. They are obligated to make a decision next year on how to move forward, and so we'll hear. We expect to hear back Q calendar year Q2 next year.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
Actually, allow me to have a little fun with that. Originally, that decision was supposed to be in September, so next month. So when you say that they're obligated to make a decision, is that obligated kind of as, as we might think to pay the IRS, or is this obligated, like I might, I might consider going to a friend's for dinner next week?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Well, I mean, I'm sure all of you are familiar with the way our government's worked the last few years, and we would hope that at some point they actually can pass a budget and allocate money appropriately. But we do anticipate, being an election year, fickleness within our government agencies, you know, most likely a continuing resolution. And so these budgets will probably not firm up until next year. So our anticipation is after that's happened, then these monies will be allocated and projects will move forward.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
Okay, that is helpful. And then would you take this Quantum discussion towards the energy industry and discuss the comments that you referenced in the release about the energy industry, the application of Quantum, and the timing that this could convert to revenue?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
... Sure. So Aquana has, Quantum, I'm sorry, my apologies. Quantum has conducted a number of, I would say, research projects over the past couple of years in the energy industry, particularly with carbon capture and sequestration, with some success. But as we know, that industry is still trying to find itself. And while we've had success, we don't really anticipate much opportunity within the next short term, I would say. There are some other applications within the energy industry, which are early days, that take advantage of that technology in new and interesting ways, and we do see interest in that. So we anticipate the possibility of that developing into a commercial, releasable, and sellable product within the coming, you know, years, I would say.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
Great, thank you. And then one additional question, coming back to Aquana, if I may. That $900,000 of backlog, what were the circumstances that led to that developing?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Sales, really. I mean, fundamentally, you know, as traction has been gained on the Aquana product, you know, we've seen that sales pipeline start to begin filling. And to that extent, you know, we have these opportunities to deliver these valves. You know, we announced the Jordan order some time ago, and so there's certainly fulfillment of that that's taking place as well.
Robert Curda (CFO)
I'd also like to add to that, Bill, that we've been priming that pump for quite a while, supplying customers with valves to test and use to see if they like its performance, if it meets their needs. So I think what we're seeing now is that priming is resulting in orders coming our way, and as a result, we now have backlog.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Yeah. Yeah, as I mentioned, I mean, that's a new technology to that industry, and it's taken them a while to really understand the benefit of that. As Robert said, you know, we have provided samples to them to test, and that, as he said, that pipeline is very... it's got a very pretty long pole on it. So we are just now starting to see the fruits of that labor from Geospace for the last several years in that market. And we anticipate that to grow going forward. As that pipe continues to evolve and grow, we fully anticipate additional revenues from it.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
So, is the $900,000 a single customer order? Is it multiple orders? And, you know, where is Aquana at in terms of its ability to manufacture?
Robert Curda (CFO)
It's certainly multiple orders across multiple applications, so not just municipalities, but also the multifamily, application that we discussed. So we're seeing, uptake of that technology and that product across all of the areas we're interested in. And yeah, I mean, we fully expect that to continue.
And on the manufacturing question, we're there.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, so, that product is now released, in some of its variants, and we are shipping essentially from inventory.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
Great. Okay, so the backlog is not due to a manufacturing bottleneck.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
No.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
It's just a timing, shipment timing phenomenon.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Exactly. Yeah, the kind of the normal lead time of those orders coming in, and some of those orders are fairly new.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
Great. Well, congratulations on that, and I'll turn the floor over to someone else.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Thank you, Bill.
Operator (participant)
We'll go now to Scott Bundy with Moors & Cabot.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
Good morning, guys.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Hi, Scott.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
Good morning, Rick, Rich. Welcome. So I'm just gonna follow up-
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Thank you.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
- on Aquana for a second. If I were a distributor and I gave you an order for 5 million of the various Aquana products, could you deliver on that?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
If I had the proper timeline, absolutely. Could I deliver tomorrow? No. I mean, we still have supply chain, and we still have ramp up in manufacturing, but we have the process now, we have the supply chain now. It's just a matter of the lead time, the componentry and the lead time through manufacturing. But, being able to come up to scale—coming up to scale for us should not be an issue given the facilities that we have, the team that we have, the capabilities that we have.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
So, Rich, timeline is an interesting word. So could you deliver within a six-month period of time, if in fact, that happens?
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
You give me an interesting what up, what if, and put me in the spotlight. I don't really know I could answer that today, but I would say that we would give it a good go.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
Okay. Robert, just a quick question. Is the first buyback complete, the first $5 million complete?
Robert Curda (CFO)
Yeah, as of today, yes, or very close to complete as of today.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
Okay, great. Thank you. And so, so Rick, just a little background here. Where do you see the seismic market relative to, you know, your years in the industry? I mean, you guys are spending $12 million on new equipment. That certainly implies utilization of your existing equipment is gonna go up. Am I wrong to think that?
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
Well, not really. I mean, we've come out with new designs that, you know, incorporate the latest technologies out there. And in fact, that was the large sale that we made in Q1, was a direct result of having technology that didn't exist in any other quarters. So, you know, the thing is, though, it's a market that, as you're well aware, you know, just has significant ups and downs. Certainly, and exactly as Rich said earlier, we intend to service that market, but we will service that market, you know, in a very cautious way to make sure that we don't overextend ourselves. The market itself lends itself to a, you know, that sort of approach.
We believe our manufacturing capabilities are able to keep up with the demand as it manifests. But you know, the days like it was with geophones, where you keep, you know, thousands of those in stock on the shelf, ready to go, is not the-- that's, that's not the, you know, the situation that we live in these days. So it's, it's more of a on-demand situation. But we're prepared to fulfill that demand as it comes up.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
Is bidding activity stronger now than it was, let's say, you know, 16, 18 months ago? Can you just give us an idea of what sort of activity is going on in that space?
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
I think compared to 16-18 months ago, it probably is. Now, last year was a significant year with respect to activity, particularly in the ocean bottom node market. We've seen a lull in that, as we've said in the recent quarters, and that extended itself into this quarter. So, compared to a year and a half or two years ago, I think it's an increased level of activity. But I think even our customers, the contractors are very cautious about things and being very selective about how they go about accepting these bids.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
Rick, is that, you think, a direct result of the consolidation in the industry?
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
I think that does have a bearing on it. The consolidation in the industry does change, you know, the discussions in terms of how the, the clients, the oil companies and the, and the library houses go about trying to service, their own customers and needs. So it does have a bearing on it, but I, I don't think it's, a paradigm shift or anything like that, but it is... There's always some turmoil when you have consolidation within an industry.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
Along the lines of PRM, are there still discussions out there? Are they more active? Do you see any final investment decisions within the next 3-9 months?
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
The 3-9 months, no, I don't. The discussions, absolutely. Those are continuing, and in fact, extending themselves in many respects. So that is a market that still remains viable, but it is, it is one, as you well know, that is not a, a steady, ongoing business in terms of the, the types of contracts that are made available. Very sporadic and long spans of time in between. But those discussions are very active, so, you know, we don't expect anything to come across that quickly, but in the next several years, we do.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
Would you anticipate another pilot program similar to the one that was done 18 months or 2 years ago as a, you know, checking out the product?
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
That's very likely, even if it's one that we don't announce or anything of that nature, but yes.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
Great, thank you-
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Yeah, adding to Rick, I think we still see an interest in PRM, for sure. So, you know, the oil companies are still interested in what value that could add over time for their reservoirs.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
Okay, terrific. Thank you. I'm just gonna... One last question: In the release, when you guys say, I'm not gonna quote it correctly here, but significant revenue with Aquana or substantial contribution from Aquana. Substantial is different in everybody's mind. What's it in your mind?
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
Well, I think what we're seeing is that it's going to be noteworthy revenue, to where you see it as a line item on our P&L. And to me, that's significant. To the extent that it's a notable contribution, not unlike our water meter cables and connectors, as it contributes to that particular segment under the industrial market. Now, it was mentioned earlier that maybe that's not the right name anymore. We're gonna consider how best to sort of organize, you know, our filings and our, you know, our reporting of this data and the revenue that might lend itself a little better to understanding where Aquana fits into all that.
But what we mean is something notable that's gonna create value, and gross profit and net income.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
... Sorry, last question. Regarding cross-border tunnel threats as it's related in the CBT, it's interesting that you can find all the information regarding your subsidiary, Quantum, but nothing about the competitors. Is that what you're finding also?
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
Isn't that interesting? Yes, it is the case. You know, I guess, us being a public company and certainly making ourselves known in Quantum, making sure that, you know, they're represented in the discussion space out there with respect to, you know, homeland security and other parts of the defense industry, maybe that contributes to it, but you're right. There's not nearly as much information available as what might be available about Quantum.
Scott Bundy (SVP of Investments)
That's unbelievable. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Rick.
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
Thanks, Scott. Appreciate it.
Operator (participant)
Our next question comes from John Elliott, private investor.
John Elliott (Financial Advisor)
Good morning, gentlemen. I was gonna ask if PRM was dead, but you briefly discussed that with Scott. Do you know why companies are so slow to use PRM again?
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
Well, it requires a significant capital investment, and when the oil companies are putting their budgets together, you know, the fight in the boardroom is over projects about LNG facilities, about refineries and other things that draw significantly more on the capital of the organization. Although the operating expense approach, which is to pay for the reservoir monitoring in a over time manner of speaking, where you hire a contractor to come in, lay out equipment, record data, and then take it all back, and then come back a year later or whatever the time span may be, those cost more, and it takes about, oh, 5-7 years, depending on the span of time between these surveys, before you recoup your upfront capital investment in a PRM system.
So there is, you know, there is some concern, I guess, within the oil companies about the volatility they see within their own markets, about laying out capital, that spans a length of time like that. Now, many of them do realize that benefit, and that-- those are exactly the ones that, that have serious discussions about this. And in the long run, they save money. But it's really just a matter of balancing their capital budgets, as they go forward.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
One other level of complexity is a lot of these fields have multiple partners, and so to come to an agreement across those partners about the capital outlay can add just another level of complexity to the PRM decision.
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
That's true.
John Elliott (Financial Advisor)
I believe when Scott was asking some questions, you said that, you know, there could be perhaps a tender in the next several years. Or maybe I misunderstood you, but does that mean you're not expecting any activity with PRM in 2025 or the near future?
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
No, to clarify on that, I think a tender could come out much sooner than that, but there would not be any revenue recognition because these systems will take, you know, you know, the better part of a year to manufacture, with effective design that has to take place upfront, with respect... Because each field is a different animal. Each one has its own requirements that have to take place. So a tender could easily come out sooner than that, but you know, the likelihood of one coming out in three to nine months is those are short odds, I would think.
John Elliott (Financial Advisor)
At one time, it seemed like there were, I can't remember if the term used was a handful of companies that were interested in PRM and were in discussions with Geospace about that. Would you say that the number of companies who are interested in it, that the number is the same? Has it increased? Has it decreased?
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
No, I think it's about the same.
John Elliott (Financial Advisor)
Okay. All right. Well, thank you for answering my questions.
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
You're welcome.
Richard Kelly (Chairman of the Board)
Thank you, John.
Operator (participant)
Again, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We'll return now to Bill Dezellem with Tieton Capital.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
Thank you. A couple of additional questions that your comments prompted. The first is, have you considered using your balance sheet for PRM and leasing, lease to own, whatever you'd like to call it, or rental, to essentially combat that decision by the oil companies that they don't wanna make a big upfront dollar amount? What's your view on that?
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
No, that's a very good question, Bill, and we actually have considered, you know, what other means of approach might be amenable to that sort of thing. As it turns out, generally, within the oil companies, if it's laying on the bottom of the ocean, they wanna own it. So, you know, they're not really receptive to those sorts of ideas wherein one would lease the equipment back, or have not to date. And we have actually had some discussions, certainly internally, about how we might try to organize an approach like that, but it doesn't seem to get very much traction when we present something like that.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
It creates quite a riddle if they're not receptive to leasing product on the ocean bottom, but nor are they receptive to writing a check for product on the ocean bottom.
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
That's a hard squeeze, isn't it?
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
It certainly is. Okay, and just for clarification, relative to a tender, was the implication of what you said that the second half of fiscal 2025 is when you think a tender could come out, or are you thinking more second half of calendar 2025?
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
No, I think second half of 2025 is probably the higher probability. But, you know, things could be a little more accelerated than that, but I don't anticipate that to be true.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
Got it. Okay, that's helpful. And then you were talking earlier about the seismic exploration market and that the level of demand has taken a pause relative to the high strength that you were seeing. And yet, you invested, I think it was $4.2 million in rental equipment in the third quarter, and you're planning on another $3.5 million to be invested in the fourth quarter. So that's a little bit in contrast. It seems like there may be something else going on there. So why are you investing in the rental business or in rentals if you're being a bit cautious about the market demand?
Robert Curda (CFO)
Yeah. A good portion of that is related to us building out Mariners for a rental contract we announced earlier this year. So we have a contract that is in hand, that we're ready to go, but unfortunately, our customer's not quite ready to go to work yet. So, we're waiting for them to decide to take the equipment out and start gathering data for us.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
What's your current understanding? Is this the comment in the release, late in the fourth quarter, or is that a different contract?
Robert Curda (CFO)
That, that's the... That's it.
William J. Dezellem (President and CIO)
Great. Okay. Thank you all again.
Robert Curda (CFO)
Thanks, Bill.
Operator (participant)
Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions at this time, I'd like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Rick Wheeler for any additional or closing comments.
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
All right. Well, thank you, Jamie. And thanks to all of you who joined our call today. We certainly appreciate it and appreciate the questions, and we look forward to speaking with you again on our conference call for the fourth quarter and year-end of fiscal year 2024, that will come in November. So thanks-
Operator (participant)
Thank you.
Rick Wheeler (President and CEO)
and goodbye.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. This does conclude today's Geospace Technologies third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Please disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day.