NAPCO Security Technologies - Earnings Call - Q3 2025

Executive Summary

• Revenue and EPS modestly beat S&P Global consensus: revenue $44.0M vs. $43.1M est.; Primary EPS $0.30 vs. $0.27 est. (company-reported diluted EPS was $0.28). Beat driven by resilient RSR growth and strong gross margins; yoy declines reflect distributor destocking and tough hardware comps.*
• Mix shift continues toward high-margin Recurring Service Revenue (RSR): RSR rose 10.6% to $21.6M (49% of revenue) with 91% gross margin; run-rate rose to ~$89M in April, up from ~$86M in January.
• Equipment sales fell 24.8% yoy to $22.4M on reduced purchases by three large distributors (inventory management, project timing, tariff uncertainty). Management implemented an 8.5% surcharge in late April and plans typical July price increases to protect margins.
• Profitability solid despite top-line pressure: gross margin 57.2% (up ~340 bps yoy), Adjusted EBITDA margin ~30%; cash and investments ~$89.3M, no debt; dividend raised to $0.14 (from $0.125).

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well
  • RSR momentum and quality: RSR +10.6% yoy to $21.6M, 91% GM; RSR run-rate ~$89M in April; RSR now 49% of revenue. “We achieved a 30% adjusted EBITDA margin and maintained an exceptional 91% gross margin in our service revenues.”
  • Margin resilience: gross margin expanded to 57.2% (from 53.8% yoy) on mix and carrier rebates despite equipment softness; equipment gross margin improved sequentially vs. Q2.
  • Product innovation as a growth lever: unveiled cloud-based MVP Access/MVPEZ and next-gen Starlink radios; management expects these to drive hardware and incremental recurring revenue.
• What Went Wrong
  • Hardware/locking softness: equipment revenue -24.8% yoy to $22.4M as three large distributors reduced purchases (inventory rightsizing, project timing, tariff uncertainty).
  • OpEx elevated: SG&A +16.9% yoy on legal, insurance, compensation; OpEx to remain higher near term; Q4 likely slightly higher due to ISC West.
  • EPS down yoy: diluted EPS $0.28 vs. $0.36 a year ago; effective tax rate rose due to lower R&D credits.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the NAPCO Security Technologies fiscal Q3 2025 earnings call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press the star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Monday, May 5th, 2025. I would now like to turn the conference over to Francis Okoniewski, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Francis Okoniewski (VP of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Lydia, and good morning, everyone. This is Francis Okoniewski, Vice President, Investor Relations for NAPCO Security Technologies. We want to thank you all for joining today's conference call to discuss financial results for our fiscal third quarter 2025. By now, all of you should have had the opportunity to review our earnings press release discussing our quarterly results. If you have not, a copy of the release is available in the Investor Relations section of our website, www.napcosecurity.com. On the call today are Dick Soloway, our Chairman and CEO of NAPCO Security Technologies, Kevin Buchel, President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, and Andrew Vuono, our Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer.

Before we begin, let me take a moment to read the forward-looking statement, as this presentation contains forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections of future performance based on management's judgment, beliefs, current trends, and anticipated product performance. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements relating to growth drivers of the company's business, such as school security products, recurring revenue services, potential market opportunities, the benefits of our recurring revenue products to customers and dealers, our ability to control expenses and costs, and expected annual run rate, or SaaS recurring monthly revenue. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, such risk factors described in our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K.

Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently proving to be incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance, or achievements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All information provided in today's press release and this conference call are as of today's date unless otherwise stated, and we undertake no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law. I'll turn the call over to Dick in a moment, but before I do, I want to mention we're actively planning our Investor Relations calendar for non-deal roadshow and conference attendance in the near future.

Investor outreach is an important part of NAPCO, and I'd like to thank all those folks who assist us in these types of events. We're looking forward to a packed and dynamic schedule of investor engagement this quarter. Later this month, we'll be on the ground in New York City for the Bank of America Industrials, Transportation, and Airlines Key Leaders Conference, Needham & Company 20th Annual Technology, Media, and Consumer Conference, and TD Cowen's 53rd Annual Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference. We're also participating in a couple of virtual non-deal roadshows with KeyBank and Seaport Global. In June, our momentum continues with appearances at the Robert W. Baird 2025 Global Consumer Technology and Services Conference and Deutsche Bank's 16th Annual Global Industrials and Materials Conference, both in New York, as well as the Wells Fargo Industrials Conference in Chicago.

It's a great opportunity to share our story, connect with investors, and continue building excitement around our vision and performance. With that out of the way, let me turn the call over to Dick Soloway, Chairman and CEO of NAPCO Security Technologies. Dick, the floor is yours.

Richard Soloway (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you, Francis. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our conference call. We appreciate your participation today as we review our fiscal Q3 2025 performance. Our performance in Q3 continues to demonstrate the strength and resilience of our operating model, even as we navigate an environment shaped by ongoing macroeconomic headwinds. We achieved a 30% adjusted EBITDA margin and maintained an exceptional 91% gross margin in our service revenues, which increased 10.6% to $21.6 million. Recurring service revenue remains a foundational component of our business, accounting for 49% of total revenue this quarter, with an annualized run rate of approximately $89 million based on April results, which is an increase of $3 million over the run rate for January reported last quarter. Our balance sheet remains a core strength.

We are debt-free and maintain substantial cash reserves and continue to generate strong cash flow, giving us the flexibility to invest competently and execute on our long-term growth strategy. While demand signals in the broader market have shown some variability, we remain focused on what we can control. We are accelerating innovation, and our product development pipeline is the strongest it has ever been. These advancements are helping expand our portfolio of high-margin recurring service revenue offerings, positioning us for continued success. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to our President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Buchel, who will provide an overview of our fiscal third quarter results. Following Kevin's remarks, I will return to delve deeper into our strategies and market outlook. Kevin, the floor is yours.

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

Thank you, Dick. Good morning, everyone. Net sales for the three months ended March 31, 2025, decreased 10.8% to $44 million as compared to $49.3 million for the same period a year ago. Net sales for the nine months ended March 31, 2025, decreased 5.5% to $131 million as compared to $138.5 million for the same period one year ago. Recurring monthly service revenue grew 10.6% in Q3 to $21.6 million as compared to $19.5 million for the same period last year. Recurring monthly service revenue for the nine months ended March 31, 2025, increased 15.4% to $63.9 million as compared to $55.4 million last year. Our recurring service revenues now have a prospective annual run rate of approximately $89 million based on April 2025 recurring revenues, and that compares to $86 million based on January 2025 recurring service revenues, which we reported back in February.

The increase in service revenues for the three and the nine months was due to the continued increase in the number of our cellular radio communication devices, which we put into service and have been activated. Equipment sales for the quarter decreased 24.8% to $22.4 million as compared to $29.7 million last year. Equipment sales for the nine months decreased 19.4% to $67 million as compared to $83.1 million for the same period last year. The decrease in net equipment sales for the three months was primarily due to reduced sales of approximately $5.1 million at three of our largest distributors as follows. The first distributor purchases both our intrusion and our locking products and made a corporate-wide decision to reduce purchases to stabilize their existing inventory levels.

The second distributor, a locking distributor, reduced their purchases due to the timing of a project, and the project work with their customer was less this year than it was last year. The third distributor, also a locking distributor, made the decision to reduce their inventory levels due to the uncertainty of the economy, including pending tariffs. For the nine months, $10.4 million of the decrease was primarily due to those same reasons at those three distributors I just mentioned. Plus, an additional $3.7 million of the reduction was due to reduced sales from two additional locking distributors who also made the decision to reduce their inventory levels. Gross profit for the three months ended March 31, 2025, decreased 5.1% to $25.1 million, with a gross margin of 57.2%, and that compares to $26.5 million, with a gross margin of 53.8% for the same period last year.

Gross profit for the nine months increased 0.4% to $74.2 million, with a gross margin of 56.7% as compared to $73.9 million, with a gross margin of 53.4% a year ago. Gross profit for recurring service revenue for the quarter increased 9.5% to $19.6 million, with a gross margin of 91% as compared to $17.9 million, with a gross margin of 92% last year. The decrease in gross profit percentage was a result of a negotiation of a one-time lower royalty payment in the comparable quarter. Gross profit for recurring service revenues for the nine months increased 16.2% to $58.2 million, with a gross margin of 91.1%, and that compares to $50.1 million, with a gross margin of 90.5% last year. The increase in the gross profit percentage was the result of the renegotiation of royalty arrangements and volume rebates received from the carriers.

Gross profit for equipment revenues in Q3 decreased by 35.7% to $5.5 million, with a gross margin of 24.6%, and that compares to $8.6 million, with a gross margin of 28.8% last year. The equipment gross margins for the three months ending 12/31/2024 was 23.5%, so that's an 1,100 basis point sequential improvement. Gross profit for equipment revenues for the nine months decreased by 32.7% to $16 million, with a gross margin of 23.9% as compared to $23.8 million, with a gross margin of 28.6% for the same period last year. The decrease in gross profit dollars and the percentage from equipment sales for the three and the nine months was primarily a result of product mix and lower absorption of fixed overhead costs as a result of the decrease in equipment revenue.

Research and development costs for the quarter increased 15.5% to $3.2 million, or 7.2% of sales, as compared to $2.8 million, or 5.6% of sales for the same period a year ago. Research and development costs for the nine months ended March 31, 2025, increased 20.9% to $9.3 million, or 7.1% of sales, and that compares to $7.7 million, or 5.6% of sales for the same period a year ago. The increase for the three and the nine months primarily resulted from annual compensation increases and the hiring of additional resources. Selling general and administrative expenses for the quarter increased 16.9% to $10.8 million, or 24.5% of net sales, as compared to $9.2 million, or 18.7% of net sales for the same period last year.

Selling general and administrative expenses for the nine months ended March 31, 2025, increased 16.7% to $30.7 million, or 23.4% of net sales, as compared to $26.3 million, or 19% of sales for the same period last year. The increase for the three and the nine months was primarily attributable to increased legal fees, increased insurance costs, and compensation and benefit increases, including the hiring of additional staff. Operating income for the quarter decreased 23.1% to $11.1 million, and that compares to $14.5 million for the same period last year. Operating income for the nine months decreased 14.3% to $34.2 million, as compared to $39.9 million for the same period last year. Interest and other income for the three months increased 35.3% to $862,000, as compared to $637,000 last year. For the nine months, interest and other income increased 62% to $2.9 million, compared to $1.8 million last year.

The increases for both the three and the nine months were due to increased interest income from short-term investments as a result of higher interest rates and larger deposit balances. The provision for income taxes for the three months remained consistent at $1.9 million, with an effective tax rate of 15.7%, compared to $1.9 million with an effective tax rate of 12.8% last year. The company's effective tax rate for the three months ended March 31, 2025, increased as a result of lower estimated R&D tax credits for the period. For the nine months, the provision for income taxes remained consistent at $5.3 million, with an effective tax rate of 14.4%, compared to $5.4 million with an effective rate of 12.9% last year. The company's effective tax rate for the nine months increased as a result of lower estimated R&D tax credits for the period and higher non-deductible stock-based comp.

Net income for the quarter decreased 23.3% to $10.1 million, or $0.28 per share, and that compares to $13.2 million, or $0.36 per diluted share for the same period last year, and that represents 23% of net sales. Net income for the nine months decreased 12.4% to $31.8 million, or $0.86 per diluted share, and that compares to $36.3 million, or $0.98 per diluted share for the same period last year, and it represents 24.3% of net sales. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter decreased 15.4% to $13.2 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, and that compares to $15.6 million, or $0.42 per diluted share for the same period a year ago, and that equates to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 30%.

Adjusted EBITDA for the nine months decreased 13% to $38 million, or $1.03 per diluted share, and that compares to $43.5 million, or $1.18 per diluted share for the same period last year, and that equates to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 29%. Moving on to the balance sheet. As of March 31, 2025, the company had $89.3 million in cash and cash equivalents, other investments, and marketable securities, and that compares to $97.7 million at June 30, 2024. The company had no debt as of March 31, 2025. The cash provided by operating activities for the nine months ended March 31, 2025, was $38.9 million, and that compares to $31 million for the same period last year, and that's a 25.4% increase.

Working capital, as defined as current assets less current liabilities, was $130 million on March 31, 2025, and that compares with working capital of $146.5 million at June 30, 2024. Current ratio, defined as current assets divided by current liabilities, was 6.7 to 1 at March 31, 2025, and 7.6 to 1 at June 30, 2024. CapEx for the quarter was $65,000. That compares to $361,000 in the prior year period, and it was $1.9 million for the nine months compared to $1 million in the prior year period. Finally, we paid $4.6 million in dividends for the quarter, $9.2 million for the nine months, and we spent $18.8 million on stock buybacks for the quarter and $36.7 million for the nine months. That concludes my formal remarks, and I would now like to return the call back to Dick.

Richard Soloway (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you, Kevin.

While fiscal Q3 brought external challenges beyond our control, we navigated them with resilience and remained confident in our long-term strategy and the strength of our business fundamentals. It's also worth noting that all of our growth is organically driven. Recurring revenue continued growing, increasing by 10.6% for the fiscal Q3 and representing 49% of total company revenues, with a 91% gross margin. Net income was $10 million and represents 23% of net sales, and adjusted EBITDA was $13.2 million and represents 30% of net sales. These are stats that we're very proud of, but we know there is more work to be done. We are also very pleased with the increase in the recurring revenue annual run rate, which increased to $89 million based on April 2025 recurring revenues, compared to an annual run rate of $86 million based on January 2025 recurring revenues.

In addition, to date, our recurring revenue has been principally generated from our StarLink radio line of equipment, which is just a portion of our overall equipment offerings. We anticipate continued growth in our recurring revenue from the StarLink line as we enhance and introduce new models, but we also are introducing new product lines with the ability to generate cloud-based recurring revenue, which we featured at the April ISC West Expo that we have already seen initial adoption by our dealers. Our Alarm Lock and Marks locking hardware continue to see growth in school and classroom security, healthcare, and retail loss prevention, as well as multi-dwelling commercial and residential applications. We continue to remain focused on further penetrating each of these markets.

Our balance sheet remains strong, with cash and cash equivalents and other investments and marketable securities ending the quarter at $90 million, even after the expenditure of $46 million on dividends and stock repurchases. There are millions of commercial buildings of all types, such as offices, hospitals, schools, coffee shops, restaurants, as well as residences that will still require upgrades from legacy copper phone lines. Our StarLink line of radios have the widest coverage range of both AT&T and Verizon, with rich feature sets which our dealers really love. As we've stated previously, the increase in the volume of our hardware sales results in improved absorption of our overhead costs in the Dominican Republic factory, which would result in the expansion of our gross margins. While industry sentiment has already become more measured earlier this year, we are encouraged by the strong engagement at ISC West in early April.

As many of you know, ISC West is the security industry's largest annual trade show and drew over 30,000 attendees, including manufacturers, integrators, service providers, dealers, as well as the attendance by some of our investors and analysts. The feedback from the dealers we met with was very positive, and it was clear that demand for innovation integrated security solutions remains robust. At the show, we unveiled several new offerings that received excellent feedback, particularly those that generate recurring monthly revenue, an increasingly important differentiator in today's market. Among the highlights were our new cloud-based MVP remote access control platforms available in two configurations. MVP Access, our high-end fully customized enterprise-grade solution supporting unlimited user ID types, and MVP EZ, an app-based mobile-first solution designed for smaller dealers, operated solely by smartphone and supporting up to 50 doors.

We also introduced the next generation of our fire and burglary radios, StarLink Fire MAX 2 and StarLink Black Max2. These products were very well received, and the positive dealer feedback we received reinforces our leadership in this critical market segment. We expect both offerings to contribute meaningfully to our acceleration in service revenue growth over the coming quarters. In regards to our operations, the manufacturing facility in the Dominican Republic continues to provide a meaningful competitive advantage. We benefit from a favorable cost structure, efficient logistics, currency stability, and, at least for now, relatively low tariff exposure. While there is a lot of uncertainty with tariffs, we strongly believe NAPCO is better positioned than many of our competitors who manufacture in Southeast Asia, Europe, Canada, or Mexico, regions where proposed tariffs are significantly higher.

External market and regulatory pressures may persist into the next quarter, but we are actively managing these risks, adjusting our near-term plans as needed, and focusing on the things we can control, namely driving innovation, executing operationally, and expanding our base of recurring revenue. We remain confident that our strong net income, adjusted EBITDA, and cash flow will continue to improve. As a result, and as indicated in this morning's earnings release, the company will be issuing a quarterly dividend of $0.14 per share, which represents a sequential increase over the most recent dividend paid of $0.12 per share, and will be paid on July 3, 2025, to shareholders of record on June 12, 2025. We are proud of this program as NAPCO team has created such tremendous shareholder value over the years, and this is another way for us to distribute profitable growth to investors.

Our formal remarks are now concluded. We'd like to open the call for the Q&A session. Operator, please proceed.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press Star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing Star two. Once again, please press Star one to ask a question. With that, our first question comes from the lineup, Matt Summerville with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Matt Summerville (Analyst)

Thanks. A couple of questions.

Can you maybe talk about the mix of hardware today that's capable of generating recurring services revenue and with the additional offering you launched at ISC West and what's in what sounds like a very strong new product pipeline, how that evolves over the next couple of years and when some of this incremental offering starts to be materially additive to services revenue?

Richard Soloway (Chairman and CEO)

I can describe the product line that we have. The recurring revenue, for the most part, comes from our StarLink Radios, which are fire radios predominantly and burglary radios. We also make home automation radios. The new products that we introduced at the ISC are more expansive to that. It's more advanced fire radios with dual carriers and other features that the dealers requested. It's another generation of radios, and it really propels our radios forward as staying ahead of the pack.

If you look at our radios and the dealers look at our radios, they find that they look different. They have dual antennas, more sensitivity, fabulous for the fire business because a lot of fire panels are located in basements, and you need communication strength, and our radios have it. Just looking at the radio, it's like a race car compared to an economy car with the other manufacturers. There is a big difference. We are adding more radios to do more things with more features. We are offering the MVP line, which is basically for locksmiths. We make a smaller version of it, and we are making a larger version of it for access control dealers where everything is off the cloud. There is no equipment required on the site and very reasonably priced per door.

If you're in a hospital, you're a hospital manager, you're a security manager in a department store, and you want to see what's going on real-time off the cloud, MVP can do it for you. What's interesting about MVP, not only do we make the system, but we also make all the locking products that go along with it. It's a perfect match. There are cloud-operated locking systems, but the manufacturers don't have their own hardware. We do the total integration. We offer more functionality than anything else on the market. I call it piling on. We have our fire radios, our burglar radios, our home automation radios. Now we have new models that have additional capability, and now we're piling on more MVP by the door. The future is very, very bright.

We believe it's because of the fact you imagine how many doors there are in commercial buildings where you want to see what's going on. It's a huge market, and we make both sides of it, both the recurring revenue cloud software, and we make the hardware that works with that. We're very excited about that. We've added more engineers to the company. More new products are in development. Recurring monthly revenue is now 49% of our business. We expect to cross over shortly into more than half our business and keep on building for the future.

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

One other thing, we make fire panels that have the radios built in. We get recurring from that too. We get it a lot of different ways and more ways to come.

Matt Summerville (Analyst)

Thanks.

As a follow-up, can you maybe just talk about what you're seeing in terms of quoting activities for projects and what you see as describe what you're seeing in terms of sell-through in the context of the ladder when you see these major distributors? I think you've referenced five today. When you see these major distributors kind of at a normal sort of inventory level, how much do they actually start buying again?

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

We get sell-through stats. That is the key stat to look at because that's the vibrancy of the business. That shows what our distributors are selling of our product to dealers. It's the dealers that's the key. The more dealer sales, the better it all is in the end. Despite the woes of the distributors, and the woes exist for the reasons I mentioned in our formal remarks, our sell-through stats are encouraging.

Our sell-through stats in the intrusion segment are up sequentially 7%. Our sell-through stats for a long lock, sequentially up 16%. Our sell-through stats for the marks locking up sequentially 7%. What that means, demand is getting better, and what that translates into is the ordering patterns for the distributors should improve. They're cautious. They're working their inventory down. It feels, I was saying this earlier, it almost feels like COVID times. They're very cautious. They don't know what's going to be with tariffs, etc. They're buying more cautiously. If the sell-through stats are good, they have to buy. They have no alternatives. We're feeling good about that. The quoting activity is strong. We have a lot of things going on. I can't tell you when they're going to hit.

As soon as they hit, you guys will be the first to know, but there's a lot of activity in schools and otherwise.

Richard Soloway (Chairman and CEO)

Let me describe to you what it's like. If the distributors run their inventory down because they're so cautious to a point where the dealers can't get the product from them, the dealers will move on to another distributor because they like the product. It's like you going to a store. You want Adidas sneakers, but they don't have the model. You're going to go to another store. The distributors can't play it too cautious, too tight, because the demand is such that they have to keep the inventory up. Otherwise, the dealer will go somewhere else to get it. A lot of dealers have multiple accounts. This is what Kevin is referring to. Sell-through is good.

They must have enough inventory to carry it. Otherwise, they're going to lose the business. Once they lose that business, they're going to lose other business also. The wire, the tools, the batteries, all these things, which we don't make wire, we don't make batteries, and we don't make tools, but the dealers buy those things in conjunction with our equipment. That means that the distributor will probably lose the sale to be twice as bad as the equipment. By the time they add all the accessories up, it equals the equipment price. The distributor is going to have to keep it going and not run it too tight.

Matt Summerville (Analyst)

Thank you, guys.

Richard Soloway (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Matt.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Jim Ricchiuti with Needham & Company. Please go ahead.

Jim Ricchiuti (Analyst)

Thank you.

It sounds like just from the standpoint of the equipment business, you're seeing more weakness in the locking products area, and some of that may also be the result of potentially tough comps with larger projects. I wonder if, first of all, if you could just give us a little bit more detail on that. The follow-up question really is around the impact that you're seeing on tariffs as it relates to, I assume, your taking steps on pricing to help mitigate that. What are you hearing or seeing from competitors that source product from Southeast Asia? By that, I mean, do you anticipate potentially being in a stronger pricing, having a stronger pricing advantage as you look out over the balance of calendar 2025?

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

Distributors are nervous. As we said, their sales are down with us for various reasons.

A lot of it is tariff-driven. A lot of it is trying to manage their own inventory levels beyond us. One of them relates to a large project that we had in 2024. We do not have it this year. Obviously, they are buying less from that front. Beyond all of that, that to me is just noise. The key thing, you have to have good sell-through. If the sell-through stats that I just read were down, then I would tell you these numbers may stay down for a while, but they are up. When they are up, like I said earlier, these guys have no choice. They have to buy or they will lose the business. We are feeling overall very good about that. We do not know what is going to happen with tariffs. We do know we are in a better spot than any of the competition.

Many of you have seen our competitive landscape slide. You know our competitors are in China. They're in Mexico. They're in Canada. They're in Europe. These are all.

Richard Soloway (Chairman and CEO)

We have the Dominican Republic is a lot of our manufacturing. It has the lowest tariffs of all the countries that our competitors are located in. We also manufacture a nice amount in the USA because when we started the business, it was all in the USA. Then slowly, we had to move offshore to get enough labor to assemble it because our products have a lot of labor to them. We have low tariffs of the DR. They're the lowest. They're 10%, and only a portion of that is charged for tariffs. Very low on import duties. Everything else is made in New York. We think we have an advantage.

Some of the distributors said, "Holy macro, all our products come from Southeast Asia." We better before they raise their prices, whatever they're going to be, 30%, 50%, we don't even know. Before they raise their prices, these other competitive manufacturers, we should have our open to buy, buy some of that stuff because the next time we buy, it's going to be at the higher prices. That impacted our distribution, but it's not a permanent thing. It's a temporary thing. As Kevin was just stating, they got to buy product to satisfy the dealers, to get for the dealers to keep doing their jobs. The dealers are busy, and they're buying both our products and all the tools and the support peripherals that they need. The distributor will lose all of that if a dealer moves to another distributor and gets the merchandise.

It's going to come around and come back. Meantime, we're beating the bushes for new customers, new blood. We want new blood. That's a big push in our company. We want new dealers, integrators, locksmiths. We want large OEM accounts, private label accounts. That's a big driving force, and that's part of the growth strategy going forward.

Jim Ricchiuti (Analyst)

A quick follow-up question just on OpEx. Obviously, you've got the ASC trade show expense in the current quarter, but your OpEx levels are at somewhat more elevated levels. Kevin, I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about how you see that even beyond the unusual trade show expense that you have in the quarter.

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

OpEx was higher, A, because of legal. We have some legal matters going on. OpEx was impacted by that. Impacted by we added some personnel.

We have an internal auditor on staff. Our goal, as you guys all know, is we do not want any material weaknesses. Come our SOX audit that is coming up. We want to make sure we do what is needed for that. I think we are at a higher level now. We have Deloitte as our auditors, a Big Four firm. The SG&A level you saw in Q3 is kind of where we are going to be for a while. In Q4, it will be even a little higher because of ISC West. These levels will carry into fiscal 2026. We will have ISC East, which will be in Q2 of fiscal 2026. These are the levels that we are at now. As we always do, we will work hard to keep our SG&A costs, our OPEX costs as tight and as tidy as they could be.

Jim Ricchiuti (Analyst)

Thank you.

I'll jump back in the queue.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Jason Smith with Lake Street. Please go ahead.

Jason Smith (Analyst)

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Just curious if you could discuss any sort of price increases around the portfolio that you're implementing, just given the tariff background.

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

We implemented a price increase. I call it a surcharge. Not really a price increase, but it's a surcharge. It is in the form of a price increase to cover the tariff costs that we're faced with. We announced it in April, towards the end of April. It was taken as a very fair request on our part. A lot of locking dealers, a lot of locking distributors, rather, placed orders to try to beat the increase because we put a timeframe.

It's going, "We're implementing that increase by such and such a date." We saw a lot of activity. That's a good thing. I don't know what's going to happen as the rest of the quarter progresses, but that was a good thing. We typically take a price increase in July. We do it once a year, typically. We typically announce it in May. I expect we'll probably announce something soon. Usually, that helps sales in the fourth quarter as they try to beat the rush for that too. Again, we'll see what happens. As I said earlier, we're not going to allow tariffs to impact our margins. We're going to cover whatever is needed, and we'll take price increases as we do every year. In our business, we're mostly commercial. There's not a lot of pushback over pricing.

Got to have the product they expect to pay.

Jason Smith (Analyst)

Gotcha. That's helpful. Just as a follow-up, can you discuss how the relationship and rollout at ADI is progressing?

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

Right. ADI, the relationship is about two years old now, or it will be soon. Maybe it's a year and a half. Good. Their sell-through stats are very good. They buy a lot of radios. We'd love them to buy more things, more locks. Right now, they do a very good job. They've introduced us to a lot of dealers, like a Securitas, which we've mentioned before. Their entree to a lot of large dealers, that part's a good thing. On previous calls, I thought I said maybe they'll get to be a 5% of total revenue customer. That's still a possibility. They're doing well.

Jason Smith (Analyst)

Okay. Thanks a lot, guys.

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

Thanks, Jason.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Lance Vitanza with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Lance Vitanza (Analyst)

Thank you for taking the questions. I have two, basically. The first is back on the tariffs. Clearly, from the standpoint of supply and cost, you have something of a strategic advantage relative to your peers. Thinking about tariffs from the demand side, could you talk about, historically speaking, how sensitive is the demand for security systems just relative to the just general ups and downs in the economy? If we have a tariff-driven recession, do you see that in a pullback in end-user demand, or how resilient should we think about security in the context of that?

Richard Soloway (Chairman and CEO)

I think if you talk about what's going on around the country, people are very concerned about crime and protection of what they have. There is a lot of criminality that's going on.

The government wants to deport these people, but there's a whole faction that doesn't want these people deported. There's a lot of nervousness in the general public. There's a lot of shoplifting that goes on in the stores. There's a certain decay of law and order in the U.S., and everybody knows about that. We believe that we supply great security and safety to protect commercial buildings, inventories of all types, as well as residential. The dealers are always going to be very, very, very busy, from what we could tell. Our goal is to come out with new products, win more market share so that more of those dealers that are out there doing these jobs have the best product to offer, which does a lot of things like the MVP product for the door locks and the cloud communications. That's our goal.

We had predicted that we were going to be more than 50% in recurring monthly revenue. That's a very important part of our driving force going forward. The manufacturing of that equipment in the Dominican Republic factory will amortize our overheads and give us more margin on the hardware. That's what we see. We expect to have continued success going forward. Long term, we've been very, very successful in growing our business, and we expect it to continue.

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

Yeah. Lance, you know we've been doing this a long time. We've been through recessions, economic downturns, whatever it is. We think our business is pretty much recession-resistant, recession-proof, whatever words you want to use. People need security, good times and bad times. We'll navigate through this like we have in the past.

Lance Vitanza (Analyst)

Great.

My other question was on the cash flow conversion, which looked pretty strong. Could you maybe comment on cash flow conversion as a percent of EBITDA for 2026, or if you prefer, maybe just talk about it on a normalized basis? I guess related to that, the share repurchases have accelerated, right, throughout the course of the year. Basically, share repurchases over the first nine months of the fiscal year have been equal to 100% of EBITDA. If the shares remain undervalued, would you continue to sort of use the bulk of your cash flow to repurchase shares in 2026, or is there a reason that we should think that 2025, these past nine months have been something of a fluke?Again, we do not know where the stock is going to go, but if the stock were to stay where it is today.Thank you.

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

Yeah. It's a hard question, Lance, because in these times, buying back stock may not get you what you think it'll get you. I like having a lot of cash. If you look at how much we spent in the nine months between dividends and buybacks, we spent a lot of money. We generated cash from operations about $39 million in the nine months, and we spent way more than that. That's the beauty of having powerful cash flow. We don't rule anything out. It's possible we'll do more buybacks. We got to see. We got to see how things, how the stock behaves, how the economy behaves. It's nice to have the luxury, have the ability to do it if we want to do it. We're not saddled with any debt. Cash flow will stay strong.

It's been strong for the last several years. It's not going to get any weaker. We'll watch it. We'll see. We don't rule anything out.

Lance Vitanza (Analyst)

Fair enough. Thanks, guys.

Operator (participant)

As a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We do have our next question coming from the line of Jeremy Hamblin with Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please go ahead.

Jeremy Hamblin (Analyst)

Great. Thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to come back to the price increases or the surcharges that you noted and just get a sense for the magnitude of what you announced in April. I think maybe as you get to July 1, typically you're more in like a 2, 3, 4% range. Just to get a sense for the magnitude of how much cumulatively you're looking at here.

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

We announced an 8.5% increase.

Again, I call it a surcharge, but it was to cover tariffs. That went in effect end of April. Separate and apart from that, we take a price increase typically once a year. In COVID times in the past, we did multiple price increases. The expectation is we'll announce one soon. It'll be effective for July. As you mentioned, it usually was 3% or 4%. It might be more than that this time. We're looking at it. We haven't decided that yet.

Jeremy Hamblin (Analyst)

Got it. Helpful. As we look ahead here, typically fourth quarter, as you noted, you're strongest. From a seasonal perspective, you had a little bit softer equipment revenues, though, the last couple of quarters, which can sometimes impact your service revenue growth. Wanted to get a sense as we look here at Q4 if that typical seasonality plays out.

As you have had a little bit softer equipment sales, will that kind of impact the beginning of fiscal 2026 from a service revenue growth perspective?

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

Well saw the benefits, I will call it, of the strong radio quarter that we had in Q1. You started to feel it, to taste it. The run rate was $89 million versus $86 million. The pure increase, sequential increase, was $400,000. It was $100,000 prior. We need strong radio quarters. We expect to have strong radio quarters going forward, as evidenced by sell-through stats that we see. That is part A. Part B, Q4 has always been the best quarter for a few reasons. The weather gets nicer. The selling season. People tend to do more jobs, projects, etc., in the spring, in the summer than in the heart of the winter. Historically, we have always had a strong April, May, June.

Announcing a price increase that's going to take effect in July, that helps too. That's kind of how we've always done it. Hard to say if we're going to feel that strength of the Q4 again. We usually do. There are craziness, tariff mania out there. I don't know. I can't predict to you 100% it's going to happen. That's why Q4 is always so good. Q4 is usually the best of the four quarters. Our hope is it'll be that way again. We can't really comment on it anymore. Going forward in 2026, because sell-through stats are good, because we're good in any kind of economic environment, security is needed, I think the outlook is good. We'll get through these distributor issues that's going on now.

Richard Soloway (Chairman and CEO)

The product we showed at the expo, ISC, and that we've increased our engineering department to come out with new innovations and new products that the dealers are liking. We expect to pick up share in the business. We have the fundamental Dominican aspect of our business, which has the lowest tariffs of all the countries in the world. It's at the lowest level. If I was a dealer and I have products with competitive advantages over anything that I'm using now, do a lot more things, get me more recurring revenue, or maybe I don't get recurring revenue at all from the products that I am using. The NAPCO, Alarm Lock, Continental, and Marks products do get me recurring revenue. The prices are going to be less expensive than the products I'm using now.

The sales force is out beating the bushes to bring new blood in. As a dealer, I would be remiss not to start using the NAPCO products with better pricing and better functionality. That is an important advantage for NAPCO, having a Dominican connection, manufacturing our products between the Dominican and America, virtually 100%, and having the advantages over the competition. It bodes well for the future for us.

Jeremy Hamblin (Analyst)

Great. As a follow-up question, what about in terms of dealer incentives? If you are in a more strong competitive advantage, given your supply chain, do you sense that kind of dealer incentives that you might need to offer or that your dealers are offering, is that something that you feel like might come down in this environment? Any color you might be able to share on that would be great.

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

We announced the 8.5% increase.

Wasn't sure what the reaction to that was going to be. The reaction was, "That's good. That's fair." We saw a lot of distributors race to get in there. I don't know if we have to incentivize. We usually take that and play that as we go. We make enough good margin. If we had to offer more incentives, we could. I think we're doing a lot already. We'll just watch that as it comes. Obviously, we're not afraid to be aggressive, especially with radios. You remember what we did years ago when we were the only company who could get that hard-to-get micro to build radios. Nobody could get it. We had to pay $50 for the micro, the normal price of five. Everybody else froze. They wouldn't do it. We did it. We picked up share.

We picked up a lot of big dealers who were dying to get radios at that time. I think we're pretty sensitive to market conditions. If we need to be more aggressive, we will be.

One of the things we did show at the show, which Kevin brought up before, I just want to add to it. We showed our line of fire panels. Fire is a legislated type of product for buildings, commercial buildings. We have new fire panels that we showed. All those fire panels have a radio. In the days previous to the radio business, they connected those fire panels up to copper wires. They don't do that anymore. Our line of fire panels are great for new construction, putting up a new building.

It could be from a small building to a very, very large building with our fire panels and the radios. We get recurring revenue for the new work, as well as all the millions of jobs that still have to be upgraded that are still using traditional copper. We figure there's 5 to 10 years' worth of upgrading that has to be done, and then all the new work. We keep coming out with new models, as I said, of more radios, which help the dealer communicate to a central station, fire signals, burglar signals, and home automation control with a smartphone.

Jeremy Hamblin (Analyst)

Great. Thanks so much for all the color and best wishes.

Richard Soloway (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Jeremy.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Jim Ricchiuti with Needham & Company. Please go ahead.

Jim Ricchiuti (Analyst)

Hi, thanks.

We've gotten a few questions just in light of some of the spending actions on the part of the federal government as it may relate to school funding. I know you guys are a little bit removed from being able to identify specifically how much of the business is coming from that area. In general, what are you seeing as it relates to that market opportunity if you could?

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

That market is as good as ever. Whatever cuts are going on in the federal government, the government's not going to mess with school security. The shootings continue. We all know this. The funding is available. It's not touched. It's just a question of getting more schools to take action. There are many schools that still have not done anything about it.

The two most recent shootings that we had last month, in both cases, they didn't have equipment to protect the kids. They were barricading chairs against the doors. It's the same old story. We have to keep trying to educate these school districts and universities. They have the money, whether it's through legislation or endowments. They have the money to do it. Nothing has changed with that. We continue to push to get as many schools to do upgrades as possible.

Jim Ricchiuti (Analyst)

Thanks. One quick question, if we could, an update on Prima. I haven't heard much on that. How satisfied are you with the progress you're seeing on that product?

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

We said we thought this could be a big 10,000-a-month product. It hasn't gotten to that point. It's much better than it was.

I think you've heard us say that we introduced it too soon, didn't have all the accessories, has all the accessories. Numbers have improved. We're still working hard because we wanted to improve even more. It's a very cut-throat segment. Residential is much different than commercial. As you know, Jim, we're mostly in commercial. There is an area there, and we're working it hard. You saw it. If you were at ISC, you saw it. You got a lot of attention. It's still a product in development, getting those numbers higher to the point where we want to be.

Jim Ricchiuti (Analyst)

Got it. Thank you.

Kevin Buchel (President, COO and CFO)

Thank you, Jim.

Operator (participant)

We have no further questions at this time. I would like to turn it back to Richard Soloway for closing remarks.

Richard Soloway (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you, everyone, for participating in today's conference call.

As always, should you have any further questions, please feel free to call Fran, Kevin, or myself for further information. We thank you for your interest and support and look forward to speaking to you all again in a few months to discuss NAPCO's fiscal Q4 and full-year results. Thank you, and bye-bye, everybody.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, presenters. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.