Energy Recovery Q3 2025 Earnings Report

Energy Recovery EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.12
• Consensus EPS: $0.09
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.03
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Energy Recovery Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $32.00 million
• Expected Revenue: $29.94 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$2.06 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Energy Recovery Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2025
• Date: 11/5/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 5:00PM ET

Energy Recovery (NASDAQ:ERII) develops and manufactures energy-recovery and fluid-management technologies for industrial applications. The company is best known for its PX Pressure Exchanger, which transfers hydraulic energy from high-pressure reject streams to incoming feedwater, helping reduce the energy requirements of seawater and brackish-water desalination systems.

Its products and related technologies are used in municipal and industrial water treatment, desalination, oil and gas, chemical processing, and other applications involving high-pressure fluids. Energy Recovery has also developed specialized pumps, turbochargers, and fluid-handling systems designed to improve efficiency, reliability, and operating costs in demanding industrial processes.

Founded in 1992, the company serves customers internationally through direct sales, project relationships, and industry partners. Its technologies are used in water-treatment and industrial facilities across global markets, including North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and other regions with significant desalination or high-pressure fluid-processing needs.

Energy Recovery Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Energy Recovery reported strong sales execution this quarter with improved mega project shipments and rebounding wastewater revenue, and management reiterated its four-year revenue guidance.
• Positive Sentiment: Management has aggressively controlled costs, is lowering its four-year OpEx guidance, and expects only modest operating expense increases next year while still investing in wastewater growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Summer testing of the PXG CO2 refrigeration system validated key benefits — up to 15% energy savings, significant water savings in adiabatic-cooler regions, and added capacity during high-heat days — and OEM engagement is strong.
• Negative Sentiment: Commercialization of the CO2 product will take longer than initially hoped — OEMs and large retailers want another summer of customer testing, so broad commercial agreements are likely in 2026 with real commercialization more probable in 2027, delaying potential revenue.
• Neutral Sentiment: Wastewater momentum includes targeted hiring and a $350,000 lithium-extraction project in Argentina, and management expects modest backlog entering 2026 with the business remaining backloaded into the second half of the year.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Energy Recovery's third quarter 2025 earnings call. During today's call, Energy Recovery may make projections and other forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions contained in the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company. These statements may discuss our business, economic and market outlook, growth expectations, new products, and other performance, cost structure, and business strategy. Forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to the company and on management's beliefs, assumptions, estimates, and projections. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and other factors. We refer you to documents the company files from time to time with the SEC, specifically the company's annual Form 10-K and quarterly Form 10-Q. These documents identify important.

[Operator]

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements. All statements made during this call are made only as of today, November 5th, 2025, and the company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during this call to reflect subsequent events or circumstances unless otherwise required by law. Our hosts for today's call are David Moon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Energy Recovery, and Mike Mancini, Chief Financial Officer. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Moon.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Thank you and good day, everyone. Earlier today, we released a letter to shareholders on the investor relations section of our website. That reviews business and financial performance during the quarter. Prior to opening the line for questions and answers, I'd like to highlight a few important takeaways from that letter. First, we had a strong quarter of sales execution. Mega project shipments improved during the quarter and wastewater revenue continued to rebound such that we are reiterating our four-year revenue guidance. Second, the team has done a nice job this year controlling costs, and we are reducing our four-year OpEx guidance even further. We have made a number of decisions to drive efficiency and lower costs while still investing in our growing wastewater business. We expect growth in Q4 and next year to be achievable with only modest increases in operating expenses.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Finally, our CO2 business had a nice summer season of testing. While OEM engagement is strong, we remain in the very early days for commercialization. We are focused on gaining traction in 2026 and plan to provide clear updates on our progress. As always, I want to thank our employees here at Energy Recovery. Our sales execution and cost control were strong this quarter, and this could not have been done without a lot of great teamwork. With that, we'll now move to the question and answer portion of our conference call. Operator, please open the line for questions.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad, and a confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question comes from the line of Ryan Pfingst with B. Riley Securities. Please proceed.

[Ryan Pfingst, Senior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities]

Hey, guys.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Hey, Ryan.

[Ryan Pfingst, Senior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities]

Thanks for.

[Ryan Pfingst, Senior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities]

Hey, David. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll start where you left off there on CO2. Just curious, what were some of the main takeaways from the recent white paper that you think customers and investors should most be aware of?

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Yeah, so I think there are three. The first, similar to the white paper from last year, we just validated the fact that we save energy and up to 15% at peak times. Strong energy savings performance, so that's number one. Second is to the extent that a store is located in a part of the country or in Europe and Southern Europe where adiabatic coolers are required, we can save tremendous amounts of water. That's number two, and we validated that as part of our summer season of testing here in California. Then I think the third, and a really important part of our value proposition that we did not talk about, we should have talked about more last year, was the fact that we provide an increased performance during high heat load days.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

When the system is working at its hardest, the PXG allows for additional capacity during those high heat load days. Those are the three critical parts of the value proposition that we proved out over the course of this summer.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Appreciate that. You touched on this, and maybe you want to save it for your next update. Was wondering if you could tell us about your progress with OEMs and your confidence in signing a commercial agreement with an OEM partner over the next few months.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Yeah, so I think. So look. This summer season of testing was about working closely with OEMs to prove our value proposition in the field. I think we checked the box on that. What's the next step? What is happening now is that OEMs are now beginning to have conversations with some of their largest end users about the PXG, to the extent that they already haven't done so. What's going to happen, Ryan, is that most likely those customers are going to want to test the PXG themselves over the course of next summer. I think we have another summer season of testing in front of us. I think because of that, we're probably a year away from being able to sign a commercial agreement with a large OEM. I think the large OEMs are going to want to.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

See that summer season of testing, a successful testing season with some of their larger customers before they're going to sign a commercial agreement. Now, we've signed an MOU with Hillphoenix already. We are on a path to being able to sign a commercial agreement with them, but it's likely going to be 2026.

[Ryan Pfingst, Senior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities]

Got it. Appreciate that. Turning to the water side, we've seen the U.S. administration kickstart efforts across different industries, such as nuclear energy or critical minerals. Do you think there's a possibility that we could see something like that on the water front, maybe for desalination?

[Mike Mancini, CFO at Energy Recovery]

Yeah, Ryan, this is Mike. Look, I think that all of the AI and the energy that's going to serve it only goes to improve our long-term water trends, right? There's a long-term desalination trend already, and I think it does help the long-term trends. I think what we're going to be cautious about is translating that to near-term results for us because this infrastructure takes a long time to build. I think we're highly encouraged with the long-term trends and some additive stuff there. We want to be cautious about near-term expectations on it.

[Ryan Pfingst, Senior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities]

Appreciate that, Mike. I'll just sneak in one more. Somewhat related to your comments there on the data center opportunity. Curious if there's anything new to report there, either on the wastewater front or refrigeration.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

No, look, Ryan, we continue to monitor it closely. I think we said on the last call that because CO2 is still a very small part of the refrigeration portion of data centers, there likely was not going to be any near-term opportunity for us. Now, should CO2 jump to the front of the refrigeration lines, that could change. I think as it relates to refrigeration, still nothing near-term that we see. I think as it relates to water reuse and water treatment for data centers, that is something that we are just starting to better understand. I think we will have a better view of that over the next couple of quarters.

[Ryan Pfingst, Senior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities]

Great. I appreciate it, guys.

[Operator]

The next question comes from the line of Larry Solo with CJS. Please proceed.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Hey, Larry.

[Larry Solow, Partner at CJS]

Thank you. Hey, good afternoon. I guess just to follow up on the CO2 question first. It sounds like the white paper takeaways and the data were in line or with your expectations and good. Maybe your confidence in the adoption hasn't changed or maybe even better, but timing sounds less certain. I'm just curious, and I know it's more about you changed your strategy more to a top-down OEM to customer versus vice versa. I guess at the end of the day, some of these larger customers still, do they normally make the decision, or is it in conjunction with the OEM, or do the OEMs.

[Larry Solow, Partner at CJS]

Since their reputation is on the line on a big switch like this, is it just taking them more time and they just need to, they want their customers to be on board as well, or is there just anything that's holding up the adoption or pushing it out a little bit?

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

No, it's a good question. Look, large retailers, both in the U.S. and Europe, rely on OEMs not only for the design of the equipment design, but the install, and in some cases, the service aspects. They really want to pull along their OEMs, especially when it comes to new technology. That's what we knew was going to be the case, and that's certainly what we're finding. Our path to a large retailer like a Walmart is going to go through a large OEM like Hillphoenix. The two are going to have to be in lockstep. What we expect to happen as a next step, now that we've gotten through a successful summer season of testing, is that we expect Hillphoenix will now.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Start promoting us to the likes of a Walmart, and we'll get test stores in the first half of the year with them. We'll start that process, confirming the technology with a couple of these larger retailers over the course of next year. It is going to be with these large retailers pulling the OEMs along in lockstep. That's just the way it's going to work.

[Larry Solow, Partner at CJS]

Okay. So it doesn't sound like your confidence has changed at all, right? Or the inevitable. Listen, the ROI, I guess, goes down a little bit because it's pushed out one year. It doesn't feel like, right, that's kind of the one change, I guess. I know you're not ready to make any major decisions today, but it sounds like you're not going to get to that sort of four or five customer adoption next year, but that doesn't necessarily mean your confidence in the overall program has changed. Is that a fair summary?

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

No, look. No, I think, look, I think we had a good summer season of testing. That's what we know. And we know that OEMs are now starting to talk to some of their larger customers, which is a good thing. We know that we're going to have another season of testing in front of us in 2026, and that real commercialization is likely going to happen in 2027. Our review is that OEMs are still very, very interested in the product. Still very interested in the product. We're getting pulled, and so it's just a question of speed.

[Larry Solow, Partner at CJS]

Okay. That's fair. No, I appreciate that. Just quickly on the detail, it sounds like I know the longer-term fundamentals do not change much. Just so fast that is just curious, we're somewhat newer than them. Your visibility, I know, always could move around a little bit from quarter to quarter. This time of year, as you look out to the next year, 2026, without giving us numbers, does your visibility start to fill in as we look out on a 12-month rolling basis, even though I know quarters could slip a little bit?

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Yeah, we should start to see backlog building now for 2026. Now, it'll be relatively small. Because if you think about our last, now what's going on in year three, sort of the pattern of backlog build for us has been sort of slow first half, very heavy second half. That is not going to change for 2026. We expect the same sort of pattern. We should enter the year with some backlog. It is likely not going to be significant, but the second half is where the story will be told. That has been the MO for the last three years.

[Larry Solow, Partner at CJS]

Great. Thank you for the call. Appreciate it.

[Operator]

The next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Campbell with Seaport Research Partners. Please proceed.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Hey, Jeff.

[Jeffrey Campbell, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Good afternoon and congratulations on the solid results. David, I wondered if the impressive operating cost reduction that you have highlighted, did it benefit in some way from your efforts to establish an international footprint, or did they occur in spite of those changes, or were they just completely unrelated to each other?

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Yeah, they're unrelated to each other. Jeff, we were able to reduce cost, and we've been very mindful of cost since starting last year. We've been able to really, really watch our costs over the course of the year, especially when tariffs hit us so hard in the first quarter. We took action very quickly. That is why we've been able to be so successful this year, to be able to drive OpEx down. It has not stopped us from investing in growing wastewater, nor did it stop us from investing in this manufacturing option to be able to forgo the tariffs in China. We've been able to do both.

[Jeffrey Campbell, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Okay. The announced lithium project is an application of PX that I was excited to see progressing from a pilot to a project. I just wondered, is there enough potential work in this area to make it a meaningful niche in wastewater treatment?

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Yeah, I mean, this lithium extraction project that we just won, which is in Argentina, that's a $350,000 project. That should hit us this quarter. We think this is the first. We've had several projects in China already where we've been able to win lithium extraction projects. We think there are more to come here.

[Jeffrey Campbell, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Okay. I was just curious. You've talked intermittently about hiring new people for the wastewater effort as your confidence in this growth has increased. I just want to know, what do you look for in these kind of hires? Are you looking for existing relationships or industrial knowledge or something else?

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Yeah, so we're looking for people that have a track record in the wastewater space. That's number one. Number two, a track record within at least one or two of the five verticals that we're focusing on, so that they bring experience, they bring relationships with OEMs, with end users. Those are the two primary attributes that we're looking for when we're hiring new salespeople and technical support people.

[Jeffrey Campbell, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

For the last question, regarding this retailer test for next year that you kind of laid out for us in CO2, are these likely to be skid installations as you've done in the past?

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Yeah, more than likely, Jeff. I would say the majority will be skids. Existing CO2 locations with a skid install.

[Jeffrey Campbell, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Okay. Great. Thank you.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back to David Moon for closing remarks.

[David Moon, President and CEO at Energy Recovery]

Thank you, operators. Thank you to all of our stakeholders for your continued support. We look forward to updating you on our next call. Enjoy the rest of your day.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.

[Operator]

Goodbye.

Participants

Executives

• David Moon, President and CEO
• Mike Mancini, CFO

Analysts

• Ryan Pfingst, Senior Research Analyst at B. Riley Securities
• Larry Solow, Partner at CJS
• Jeffrey Campbell, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners