CPS Technologies Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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May 1, 2025

There are 2 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the CPS Technologies First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen only mode.

Operator

The floor will be open for questions and comments following the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Chuck Griffith, Chief Financial Officer at CTS Technologies. Chuck, the floor is yours. Thank you, Tom, and good morning, everyone. Today, I am joined by Brian Mackie, our President and CEO.

Operator

We look forward to discussing our first quarter twenty twenty five results with you. Of course, Chris Witty, our Investor Relations Advisor, will provide a brief safe harbor statement. Chris? Thanks, Chuck, and good morning, everyone. Before I begin the business portion of today's call, I would like to point out that statements in this conference call that are not strictly historical are forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and should be considered as subject to the many uncertainties that exist in CPS' operations and environment.

Operator

These uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, other geopolitical events, economic conditions, market demands and competitive factors. Such factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in any forward looking statement. Additional information can be found in our filings with the SEC. Now I will turn the call over to Brian to offer his perspective on the first quarter. After Chuck will review the financial results in greater detail.

Operator

Brian? Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to report that our revenue for first quarter established a new record for our company at $7,500,000 This is particularly noteworthy as our previous quarterly record of $7,400,000 included $2,800,000 in armor revenue, while the most recent quarter had no armor revenue. In summary, we have fully replaced the loss of armor revenue with growth in sales of our other products. Additionally, we generated an operating profit for the quarter of approximately $130,000 While there is still room for improvement, this does put us back in the black.

Operator

This affirms that our ongoing efforts are paying off and provides renewed encouragement to continue the work of improving our margins as the year progresses. Sales rose year over year even without any sales of Hybri Tech Armor, primarily due to the strength of ongoing contracts, increased production output and recent and ongoing SBIR award. This is compared to revenue in the first quarter of fiscal two thousand twenty four of $5,900,000. We are excited about the continued turnaround that is underway based on rising demand for our products, and we are well on our way to a record year for revenue for CPS Technologies. With a strong backlog, increased manufacturing capabilities and improving efficiencies, we anticipate that our efforts will lead to growth in both margins and profitability as the year plays out.

Operator

I will now turn the call over to Chuck to provide further details about our financial results, after which I'll provide some additional perspective. Chuck? Thanks, Brian. As we've just mentioned, we're very pleased with this quarter's performance, particularly on the revenue side. The company's revenue for the quarter totaled a record 7,500,000 compared with $5,900,000 in Q1 of fiscal twenty twenty four.

Operator

In the year over year comparison, most of the change was due to continued robust customer demand, strong order backlog and our ability to increase manufacturing throughput through various measures, including the addition of a third shift of production. This all led to higher capacity utilization. As Brian indicated, our strong first quarter had no revenue for Hydrotech Armor versus last year, meaning that we're succeeding in broadening and growing the company's sales of core products to new and existing customers. We expect to see continued strong top line performance in the quarters to come. We reported a gross profit in the first quarter of $1,200,000 or approximately 16.4% of sales compared with $900,000 or 15.3% of sales last year.

Operator

This increase was due to higher overall revenue and improvement in manufacturing efficiencies, along with the fact that last year's margin has been negatively impacted by quality control issues. While we're pleased with the improvement in our margins, the entire CTS team remains committed to driving continued margin expansion as the year progresses. Selling, general and administrative expenses totaled $1,100,000 in the first quarter versus $1,200,000 in the prior year period. We continue to manage our costs even while ramping up production output and advancing strategy of investing for future growth through continued product development initiatives in response to market demand. The company posted an operating profit of about $130,000 in the first quarter compared with an operating loss of approximately $260,000 last year.

Operator

We reported net income of just under $100,000 or $01 per share versus a net loss of around $140,000 or negative $01 per share in Q1 of fiscal twenty twenty four. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $1,900,000 of cash and $1,000,000 in marketable securities versus $3,300,000 in cash and $1,000,000 in marketable securities at the start of 2025. Great accounts receivable have grown as our revenue has increased, totaling $6,300,000 as of 03/29/2025 versus $4,900,000 as of 12/28/2024. Inventories also grew as revenue grew to $4,800,000 at the end of the first quarter compared with $4,300,000 at the start of the fiscal year.

Operator

Turning to the liability side, payables and accruals totaled $4,200,000 at the end of the first quarter versus $4,000,000 as of 12/28/2024. Now Brian will provide a more in-depth discussion of the period. Thanks, Jeff. As previously noted, our quarterly revenue set a new record for the company. It represented an increase of 27%, both year over year and sequentially from the February.

Operator

Demand remains strong for the company's Altic and Traumatic Pactane products, and our order for films have accelerated in response to customer demand. Although our previous order for Hybertech Armor was completed in February, future orders for Armor are possible given their real world applications and the value to the US Navy fleet. Our ballistic solutions address a large market across various types of ships as well as other military applications, and we believe they have gained significant support within the Navy as well as on Capitol Hill. Early indications of a strong defense budget next year could positively impact this side of the business. While our revenue growth was impressive even without armor sales, we recognize there is still work to do to expand our margins and grow the bottom line.

Operator

The priority of these efforts is well understood within our organization. We have a number of initiatives underway to enhance the company's profitability through higher asset utilization and improved operating efficiencies. Regarding order volumes, since the end of the COVID pandemic, we have seen the demand for our MMC products, some of which are incorporated into the power modules for electric training, returns to strong volume levels. Additionally, we believe there are new opportunities emerging that may fuel significant future growth. Historically, computer server farms are not good candidates for AlSiC products as their power demands are continuous, whereas an AlSiC baseplate is instrumental in addressing the challenges related to frequent temperature cycling.

Operator

Now, however, we are seeing significant movement toward wind farms, both offshore and on land, such as in Europe, which can be used to address the dramatically increasing need for electric power driven by artificial intelligence. There is significant interest in IGBTs that use optic materials for these high voltage DC transmission applications, which would represent additional volume beyond our legacy traction business. While we cannot influence the adoption of our customers' technologies in these applications, we believe that products using Altek materials offer competitive advantages, particularly when used in remote and offshore applications as these installations are difficult to service and therefore require the extended lifetime associated with the Alta products. These initiatives represent a key opportunity for continued CPS growth in the coming years, which would leverage our well established product portfolio. Turning now to product development, which continues to expand our growing number of solutions, including our family of metal matrix composite products, which we collectively refer to as hybrid tech.

Operator

We now have six active externally funded research program, including five SBRs, five SBIRs, two of which are phase two and three of which are phase one, as well as one contract from NAVAIR. We are also waiting for responses to other proposals, including an additional potential Phase two contract. As a reminder, all three active Phase one awards began in the first quarter, are funded by the U. S. Army and represent values of $250,000 each over a six month period of performance.

Operator

One of these is our first externally funded program for fiber reinforced aluminum or FRA, where we are leveraging its properties to improve the mileage and operational range of hybrid electric military ground vehicles, which is part of the Army's hybrid electric powertrain, power and propulsion systems initiative or HEPPS. This is an encouraging early indicator of market interest and the advantages that FRA can provide. FRA's lightweight relative to competing materials as well as its higher strength at elevated operating temperatures make it an appealing alternative for a variety of applications, including aerospace. Several relevant applications of FRA each have market sizes above $1,000,000,000 including aerospace bearings and liners and replacement of titanium structures. We expect that material samples in the hands of potential customers later this year.

Operator

The other two active phase ones in are both in support of US army artillery. One uses ultra low temperature co fired ceramic to provide electromagnetic protection for artillery shells, while the other is focused on using additively manufactured tungsten to replicate the sheer properties of depleted uranium. All of our funded SBIR initiatives, again, five in total, are exciting endorsements of our technology, which can lead to new growth opportunities going forward. Our product development team continues to address the challenging requirements of our customers in novel ways, and we are fully committed to expanding into new markets wherever and whenever we can. Of course, the product development process sometimes involves challenges, of which we are well aware.

Operator

For example, we previously announced that we had received our first commercial purchase order for Hybri Tech radiation shielding. Unfortunately, we recently received a stop work notification from our customer, which was followed promptly by a cancellation of the purchase order. The entire program we were supporting was canceled due to reasons unrelated to CPS. Relevant subcontractors, including ourselves, will be paid for the work done prior to the cancellation. We will keep our investors informed that the contract is renewed in the future.

Operator

In the meantime, we continue with our phase two DOE radiation shielding contract, which extends until late two thousand twenty six. Although we are early in phase two, we continue to address early commercial interest in our radiation shielding offerings from customers with a variety of use cases. The market is affirming that our novel solution has real world value. Our Hypertech radiation shielding is targeting an estimated $4,000,000,000 market with multiple form factors, which include modular walls, cladding, glove boxes, and truck shelves. We continue our work to drive a broadening portfolio of products for commercialization in 02/2025, particularly in areas of hybrid tech radiation shielding and fiber reinforced aluminum.

Operator

As we've said before, we believe CBS has unique technologies and capabilities to meet demanding requirements for a host of potential clients worldwide. We also remain on track to use our new internal five axis machining capability for our first customer shipments this summer. This additional production enhancement for magnetic packaging is helping lay the foundation for addressing a broader array of market opportunities. Specifically, we estimate the available market for five axis machined chromatic package components to exceed $50,000,000, with gross margins in the low to mid 30% range in high volumes and potentially higher on smaller orders. We continue to leverage our proprietary know how, including the design, manufacture and testing of aluminum infiltrated products under the hybrid tech name to deliver unique material properties.

Operator

We are identifying specific customer challenges where we believe we can bring value to novel solutions based on our core competencies and material science. In closing, we're prepared we are pleased with our ongoing successful turnaround and the outlook for 02/2025. Our production levels and shipments are at record levels, which we believe puts us in a position for our best year ever. We also anticipate as production climbs and efficiencies increase that our margins will continue to expand through the remainder of the year, leading to further improved bottom line results, strengthening our balance sheet in the process. Given strong demand for our products, new market opportunities, and expanding portfolio of products under development, the coming quarters look bright.

Operator

I'd like to thank our employees for their passion and dedication and our investors for their patience and interest in the future of CPS. We'd now like to open up the call for questions. Tom? Certainly. The floor is now open for questions.

Operator

If you would like to join the queue to ask a question at this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Once again, please press star one on your keypad at this time if you wish to join the queue to ask a question. We do ask if listening on speakerphone this morning that you pick up your handset while asking your question to provide optimal sound quality. Once again, please press star one at this time if you wish to join the queue to ask a question. Please hold a moment while we pull for questions.

Operator

Our first question this morning is coming from Kenneth Pounds. Kenneth, your line is live. Please go ahead. Hi. Good morning, Excellent quarter.

Operator

Seems like you're really advancing on several different product categories. So is the potential to bring in other other partners to to help market your unique technologies? We have we have thank you, Chad, for the question, and good morning. We have some partners that we utilize on a day to day basis in certain places. We have a a long and established relationship with the partner in hermetic packaging as well as several sales rep in different geographies.

Operator

And I think going forward, we'll continue to look at those opportunities as they emerge and we get closer to commercialization in a given area. You know, for example, the fiber reinforced aluminum is very relevant to aircraft, and we have ongoing discussions with some of the participants in that market and are keeping our eyes open for opportunities that might be fruitful going forward. Great. You talked a lot about the radio radioactive shielding. You said there was one one contract was canceled, but there there's other several important opportunities there.

Operator

Yeah. What we're what we're hearing from the market is interest in our solution. We were originally funded by the DOE to develop a solution to be used in trucking, a lightweight barrier to radiation, particularly neutron and gamma radiation and under the simple concept that the the lighter the truck is, the more cargo you can put on the truck and targeting the transportation of NMRs, nuclear micro reactors. What we found as soon as we started sharing our results from the early development effort was other market players were intrigued by what we're offering, particularly places like facilities. So if you're able to use one of our designs for a modular wall, you don't need a a much thicker, much heavier concrete wall or a lead wall or some of these other alternatives that are problematic for specific applications, like if you have a small glove box.

Operator

So we're getting a lot of interest, which is affirming that we have something that's unique and valuable, and we're exploring those even while we're still early in phase two. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Your next question is coming from Ron Richards.

Operator

Ron, your line is live. Please go ahead. Good morning, guys. Congratulations on the record revenues. Just had a question.

Operator

Do you have, like, any other potential armor opportunities in the pipeline besides the Navy contract? Yeah. The Navy contract is is certainly number one. We do have other opportunities that we're pursuing. Most notably, I would point to the phase one army solution that we developed with SBIR phase one funding, which was targeting luring for military helicopters that have ballistic protection.

Operator

So we used our method to develop a a flooring. And during the phase one, we conducted a successful box drop test, which is literally, you know, can drop a heavy box on it, and it provides the structural support you need. Unfortunately, the army did not have any funding for phase two for any applicant, so we didn't even make a proposal. But after the phase one, we conducted our own ballistic shoot of those panels that we had developed and had very nice ballistic results. So you really need to do two things, have the structural support that passes the box off test, and number two, ballistically stop a a projectile from the bad guy underneath.

Operator

And we were able to demonstrate that. So we're now sharing those results with people like helicopter OEMs and pursuing those conversations, and we're interested to see where that goes as well. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Operator

And once again, as a reminder, if you wish to join the queue at this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question this morning is coming from Steven Fosse. Steven, your line is live. Please go ahead. Thank you.

Operator

Good morning, guys. Sorry. I missed the annual meeting the other day. I had more traffic than not than expected, but then was able to to make it happen. Anyway, my question is about the current tariff environment.

Operator

I mean, I it's hard to keep track of all these things, but seems like there are tariffs on aluminum, the last I heard, and and, of course, any overseas products might be subject to tariffs either way. And so how do you see that? Do you Yeah. Sure. So the I guess the good news from our standpoint is that, you know, materials or raw materials don't make up a huge percentage of our finished product.

Operator

So aluminum is probably a good example. You know, the cost of of aluminum in a in a baseplate, you know, is probably in the neighborhood of of, you know, five to 10%, know, depending on the size of of that baseplate. And so a a an increase an an increase in the cost of aluminum, while certainly is not something that we're look forward to, it's also not something that's gonna have a, you know, huge impact on, you know, of the bottom line in terms of in terms of what those tariffs might bring. And and we also again, I guess, the the sort of a two sided coin. We we also know that somebody will be get hit domestically produced.

Operator

But, of course, the other side of that coin is that the domestic producers realize that they can raise their prices too, maybe not as as high as the foreign the importers, but certainly, you know, they're gonna take advantage of that opportunity if they can. So, you know, I I don't I don't think it's going to be a major problem for us, but it's certainly not it's certainly not a good thing. Let's let's put it that way. Yeah. On on the import side, we're keeping an eye on the different supply chain items that are either coming directly to us, you know, from an overseas supplier or or sourced domestically, but maybe originate somewhere else and adjusting our our purchasing accordingly.

Operator

Obviously, there's a lot of uncertainty today. On the sales side, we're monitoring that as well because we do ship internationally. We as of today, we have not seen any impact from retaliatory tariffs on the sales markets. And and I should also just mention that we're we're we're constantly, you know, reviewing our supply chain, our vendors, see, you know, who is out there and if there are opportunities for cost savings, you know, by going to a different source. So, you know, that that that's kind of an ongoing thing as well, which, you know, could potentially, you know, help us out if if a vendor today gets hit particularly hard by tariffs, but there are other ones out there that that won't.

Operator

Alright. Great. Thanks. I have one more kind of related question, if if I might. So if I haven't looked at the the financials closely, but if you were gonna tell me you had revenue of 7 and a half billion, I would have thought the profit margin might have been larger than that.

Operator

Was it a product mix, or am I just plain wrong about that? So I I I agree. I think that what what we've talked about recently is the fact that when we added our third shift, which started last summer, late last summer, you know, we had a lot of we had a big learning curve to go through. And if you were to look at our product yields going back a year ago, you would see that they were, you know, very good or reasonably good. Those yields came down, down, down.

Operator

We they probably hit the hit the trough or hit the bottom maybe, you know, October, November of last year, and they've now been coming back up again. They're still not to the level that we want them at. And we you know, they're still not to the level they were, you know, a year ago. So we're continuing continuing to improve in those areas, but I think that's that's probably the major reason why we didn't see the higher, you know, higher margins than what we did see. And as as Brian mentioned during during his talk earlier, we're you know, it's something that we're very focused on, get that improvement so that you know, hopefully, we do the same number in q two.

Operator

We'll see a better, you know, much better bottom line. Yes.

Speaker 1

And two things to add to that.

Operator

The the armor revenue was beneficial to our gross margin percentages. So without that, there is an impact there. But we do have a number of initiatives underway both for internal operations as well as supply chain, which we anticipate will continue to move that number in the right direction. Okay. Great.

Operator

Thanks very much. Sure. Thank you. Your next question is coming from Greg Weaver. Greg, your line is live.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Hi, good morning, gentlemen. Nice to see you in the black here this quarter. Following on to the prior question, and that's where I was going with the similar vein. So Chuck, you mentioned about the yield issue. So as I recollect, there were two issues.

Speaker 1

You had a process issue and then a staffing issue with Greenstaff that was, you know, causing yield fallout. I guess, kind of kind of where are you on both of those items as it relates to your ramp back?

Operator

Yeah. So I I I think that, you know, I think from a staffing standpoint, we're, you know, we're still we're still working our way through that. I mean, certainly, we've got some folks now, in particular, on the third shift that have been here for a period of time and are, you know, and are getting it. But, you know, there's still, you know, there's there's there's still turnover. I don't think that'll probably ever go away completely, but, you know, you know, we're we're basically just working working our way through it.

Operator

And, you know, the more, you know, the more stability we can get them, obviously, the better off we are. So as I said before, we're not there yet, but, you know, but we're we're continuing to improve. And I think, you know, like I said before, we you know, we think if, you know, if we if we were to do the same same top line numbers again this quarter, then I would I would anticipate, and I would hope that we'll see some some improvement in in the bottom line. And, Greg, I think your the other part of your question was going back several months to a quality issue. And the short answer is we do believe we have that addressed, and what we're seeing now is is unrelated to that.

Speaker 1

Alright. Good. Yeah. Thanks, Brian. Yeah.

Speaker 1

That's helpful. Alright. So so do you dare at this kind of run rate with this product mix care to share any kind of goal you might have to where you'd like to see gross margins get to if could tighten up some of these things? I mean, mentioned utilization, but you're on a third shift. So, I mean, you're you're running this thing pretty hard in terms of utilization.

Operator

Yeah. I mean, I I think, you know, we we we do have some internal initiatives to you know, for margin improvement. I think, you know, that well, I mean, obviously, you can look and you can see that we had margins in the neighborhood of 30% for a couple of quarters, you know, back end, let's say, in 2023. Certainly, you know, if you wanna talk about a goal, you know, that would be a a nice goal or is a is a goal. I'm not sure that, you know, with the current product mix, we can get to that level.

Operator

But, you know, certainly certainly, as we said before, we're we're doing everything we can to try. And, you know, obviously, you know, 16 and a half percent, basically, this this past quarter. You know, if we can get, you know, get get to 20, get to 22 to 25, you know, that kind of thing, that would be that would be great.

Speaker 1

Yeah. With the demand that

Operator

we have, I mean, there's there's certainly an ROI on all of this work. So we have some initiatives that will bear fruit in the short term. Those will be relatively small due to the time frame. Some of the larger initiatives we have will take more time to play out and potentially have a bigger impact on margins. And the third shift is for our out sick or no matrix composite products, whereas on the hermetic packaging side, we're really at two shifts or, you know, one plus.

Operator

You know? So there's there's also opportunity there, but I I would agree with Chuck's numbers.

Speaker 1

Okay. Thanks, Brian. So just last for me. I mean, given your top line run rate, you mentioned how you're filling in the hole from the armor. I kind of believe with this semi backdrop here that you have to be taking share from your competitor, right, at your end customer.

Speaker 1

I mean, what do you attribute the strength to? I mean, his business got that much better?

Operator

I think it's a mixture of both. I think we're picking up market share. I think we're picking up some new customers, which is probably taking someone else's business. I think we're picking up additional products from existing customers such as in dramatic packaging. But I I also think both of these product lines, the hermetic packaging and and Alpiq are we're we're we're riding the growth of these markets as well as combination of factors.

Speaker 1

Okay.

Operator

Yeah. I think I'm sorry. Gotcha. Yeah. I was just gonna say, you know, what what Brian has mentioned earlier, you know, just about you know, the the growth of the market due to the expansion of, you know, the electrical grid and back then.

Operator

Again, you know, I know The United States is not it's not as big a thing, but certainly, we've seen overseas the the, you know, the desire for more and more wind farms. And those are areas that you have you you need an Alpiq IGBT module with an Alpiq baseplate. And so we think that a lot of it is coming from just from the growth of the market.

Speaker 1

Okay. Great. Well, thank you for answering the questions, and keep it going. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Bye bye.

Operator

Thank you. At this point, there appear to be no further questions in queue. So I'll turn the call back to Mr. Mackey for any closing remarks. Great.

Operator

Thanks, Tom. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today and your ongoing interest in CPS Technologies. We look forward to speaking with you again at the end of the second quarter. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please reach out to our Investor Relations adviser. We will also be participating in the Sidoti Virtual Investor Conference later this month.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you once again for your participation.

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Key Takeaways

  • Q1 FY25 revenue reached a record $7.5 million (27% YoY), entirely replacing prior armor sales with core product growth, and delivered an operating profit of $130k and net income of $100k versus a loss last year.
  • Gross margin improved to 16.4% from 15.3% YoY, driven by higher revenue, manufacturing efficiencies, and controlled SG&A, with ongoing initiatives to drive further margin expansion.
  • Installed a third shift to boost manufacturing throughput, leveraging strong backlog and rising demand for AlSiC and hermetic packaging products, positioning the company for continued top‐line growth.
  • Advancing six externally funded R&D programs (five SBIRs and a NAVAIR contract) in hybrid tech, including fiber‐reinforced aluminum, ultra‐low‐temperature ceramics, tungsten AM, and radiation shielding targeting an estimated $4 billion market.
  • Preparing to launch new five‐axis machining capability for magnetic packaging this summer, addressing a >$50 million addressable market with expected gross margins in the low‐to‐mid 30% range.
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Earnings Conference Call
CPS Technologies Q1 2025
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