Geospace Technologies Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

  • Q2 revenue was $18.0 M versus $24.3 M last year, and the net loss widened to $9.8 M (–$0.77/share) from a $4.3 M loss, extending a first-half net loss of $1.4 M versus last year’s $8.4 M profit.
  • Smart Water segment achieved record Q2 revenue of $9.5 M, up 48% year-over-year, driven by strong sales of Hydrocon connectors and growing interest in Quanta offerings.
  • Energy Solutions revenue plunged 77% year-over-year to $2.6 M in Q2 amid global trade concerns, lower oil prices and underutilized OBN rental fleet, though a new Mariner contract suggests potential future demand.
  • Intelligent Industrial segment saw Q2 revenue decline 13% to $5.9 M due to tariff impacts and lower imaging product demand, offset by steady performance in sensor products and rising contract manufacturing inquiries.
  • Balance sheet strength remains intact with no debt, $19.8 M in cash and short-term investments, $71 M working capital and a robust backlog, positioning the company for improved H2 results and targeted acquisitions.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Geospace Technologies Q2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

Skip to Participants
Operator

Welcome to the Geospace Technologies Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. Hosting the call today from Geospace is Mr. Rich Kelly, President and Chief Executive Officer. He is joined by Robert Curda, the company's Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is being recorded and will be available on the Geospace Technologies Investor Relations website following the call.

Operator

At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star two. We ask that you please pick up your handset to allow optimal sound quality. Is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Rich Kelly. Sir, you may begin.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Thank you, Bo. Good morning, and welcome to Geospace Technologies conference call for the second quarter of fiscal year twenty twenty five. I am Rick Kelly, the company's Chief Executive Officer and President. I am joined by Robert Curta, the company's Chief Financial Officer. In our prepared remarks, I will first provide an overview of the second quarter, and Robert will then follow-up with more in-depth commentary on our financial performance as well as an overview of our financials.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

I will then give some final comments before opening the line for questions. Today's commentary on markets, revenue, planned operations and capital expenditures may be considered forward looking as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on what we know now, but actual outcomes are affected by uncertainties beyond our control or prediction. Both known and unknown risks can lead to results to differ from what is said or implied today. Some of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in our SEC Form 10 ks and 10 Q filings.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

For convenience, we will link a recording of this call on the Investor Relations page of our geospace.com website, which I invite everyone to browse through and learn more about Geospace, our subsidiaries and our products. Note that today's recorded information is time sensitive and may not be accurate at the time one listens to the replay. Yesterday, after the market closed, we released our financial results for the period ended March 31, our second quarter of the fiscal year. For the three months ended 03/31/2025, we reported revenue of $18,000,000 with a net loss of $9,800,000 For the first half of our fiscal year, we had $55,200,000 in revenue with a net loss of $1,400,000 Like many companies, the second quarter provided volatility for our company. We had record performance in our smart water segment, with our Hydrocon universal connectors continuing to outperform year over year.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

We are also experiencing increased interest in our Quanta product offerings. We anticipate continued organic growth in this market segment. Offsetting that is the ongoing uncertainty in the Energy Solutions segment. Global trade concerns, tariffs and decreasing oil prices have impacted project decisions for our customers, resulting in delayed and canceled opportunities. The OBN rental market and land equipment sales continued to underperform previous years.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

That being said, we recently announced a Mariner contract and have ongoing inquiries for possible future requirements for OBM solutions. Combined with the ongoing PRM studies, this reinforces the market's interest in our technology and possible future resilience. Our Intelligent Industrial segment is negatively impacted by tariff concerns, especially for our XOL products. Recognizing those external factors, we are working to optimize our supply chain to minimize the impact to our company and our customers. Our industrial sensor products remain steady, and with increased interest in American made products, there are more inquiries into our contract manufacturing business.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

We are well positioned to exploit the tremendous potential we have created with our innovative IoT technologies, our talented staff and our continuing diversification into new high margin markets in the smart water and intelligent industrial segments. Additionally, our current backlog places us in a strong position going into the second half of the year. Importantly, the long standing strength of our balance sheet with no debt and $19,800,000 in cash and short term investments illustrate our conservative approach to managing the business. Executive leadership continues to address workforce costs and development expenses on our path to sustained profitability. Beyond our traditional conservative fiscal management in our profitability plan, we continue to pursue growth through acquisition and immediately accretive additions to our top line revenue.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Overall, I have continued optimism that our company is well positioned to perform in our newer markets. I will now turn the call over to Robert to provide more detail in our financial performance.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

Thanks, Rich. Good morning. Before I begin, I'd like to remind everyone that we will not provide any specific revenue or earnings guidance during our call this morning.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

In yesterday's press release for our second quarter ended 03/31/2025, we reported revenue of $18,000,000 compared to last year's revenue of 24,300,000.0 The net loss for the quarter was 9,800,000.0 or $0.77 per diluted share compared to last year's net loss of 4,300,000.0 or $0.32 per diluted share. For the six months ended 03/31/2025, we reported revenue of 55,200,000.0 compared to revenue of 74,300,000.0 last year. Our net loss for the six month period was 1,400,000.0 or $0.11 per diluted share compared to last year's net income of 8,400,000.0 or $0.65 per diluted share. Our smart water generated revenue of $9,500,000 for the three month period ended 03/31/2025. In comparison, revenue for the same prior year period was $6,400,000 an increase of 48%.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

Revenue for the six month period of 2025 was 16,800,000.0 compared to 10,600,000.0 from the same period of fiscal year two thousand twenty four. This marks a record high level of second quarter and first half revenue for our smart water segment. Our energy solutions segment second quarter revenue totaled $2,600,000 This compares to $11,000,000 in revenue for the same period fiscal year twenty twenty four, representing a decrease of 77%. Revenue for the six month period of 2025 is $26,900,000 a decrease of 47% over the equivalent prior year period of 50,900,000.0. The decrease in revenue for the three month and six month periods was due to lower demand for our marine wireless products and lower utilization of our marine ocean bottom node rental fleet.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

The three month period was also impacted by concerns of collectability of receivables from our OBN rental customer. Our concern resulted in rent receivable in the rent receivable balance due from this customer 2,200,000.0 to be reversed against rental revenue. Any future cash we receive from this customer will be recognized as rental revenue. The Intelligent Industrial segment revenue totaled $5,900,000 for the three month period. This compares with $6,700,000 from the equivalent year ago period, representing a decrease of 13%.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

Revenue for the six month period of fiscal year two thousand twenty five was 11,500,000.0. This compares to the same prior year period revenue of 12,600,000.0, a decrease of 9%. The decrease in revenue for both periods was primarily due to revenue recognized for the three six months ended 03/31/2024 on a government contract that we completed in the fourth quarter of fiscal year twenty twenty four and lower demand for our imaging products. The decrease for both periods was partially offset by an increase in demand for our sensor products. Our operating expenses increased by 1,600,000.0 or 16% for the second quarter of twenty twenty five and increased 4,600,000.0 or 23% for the six month period ended 03/31/2025.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

The increase in operating expenses for both periods is due to higher personnel costs, increased research and development project costs, and higher higher sales and marketing expenses. Our six month cash investments into our rental fleet is $900,000 and property and plant property, plant and equipment investments is $4,400,000 Our balance sheet at the end of the second quarter reflected $19,800,000 of cash and short term investments, and our credit facility has available borrowings of $15,000,000 as of 03/31/2025. Additionally, the company's working capital is 71,000,000, which includes 36,000,000 of trade accounts and financing receivables. Lastly, we own real estate holdings in Houston and around the world that are owned free and clear without any leverage. This concludes my discussion, and I'll turn the call back to Rich.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Thank you, Robert. This concludes our prepared commentary, and I will now turn the call back to the moderator for any questions from our listeners.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Star two. Once again, that is star one to ask a question, and we will pause for a moment to allow questions to queue. And we'll take our first question this morning from Bill Dezellem at Teton Capital. Bill, please go ahead.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

Thank you. First of all, you'd mentioned the cost cutting that you all continue to work on. How are you thinking about a target breakeven level? Or is that even the way at which you're approaching the exercise?

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Good morning, Bill.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

It's a good question. We're really more focused on strategic cost cutting. So as we evaluate our overall individual business units, which ones continue to make sense, which ones are we going to invest in going forward versus which ones we were considering possible making changes. So it's more strategic and really just kind of focus on what makes the best sense for the business.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

That's helpful.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

And then the Mariner contract, I believe in the press release, you have a phrase similar to interest in possible future requirements, something to that effect. Would you please discuss what that means? That sounds like that's code for something more interesting.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

That's a good question. So that's a new customer for us over in the Caspian area, And there I think they have a business strategy where they anticipate increased activity in that area.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So once they're operational, I think that they'll be evaluating what their future business might look like. So we're definitely having discussions to be a partner with them going forward to help them grow and develop their business.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

That is helpful. Thank you. And then the federal government is working on a budget.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

What do you know about the implications of of that budget for you all and from the various various businesses?

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

I wish my crystal ball was more clear on that. I don't think Congress even knows what they're doing sometimes. I will say that we we are pretty bullish for our border security product. I think there as you read in the press, there's lots of interest in border security, border protection, and they're going to be looking at technologies and solutions that help them secure the border.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So I think that's all positive for us. We're we've not gotten any news or any indications that from them specifically. I think we just feel fairly bullish about it. The things to be said on the defense side, they are focused on growing the defense part of the business defense part of the country. And again, even though we don't today know of any specific opportunities, I we feel pretty good about it and the conversations we are having with our partners.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So overall, if congress can actually reconcile and pass a budget, I think it's gonna be positive for us as a company.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

Rich, do we understand correctly that the continuing resolution that the budget seems to have perpetually been under, that, that has negative implications or had negative implications for you all, whereas passing an actual budget, even if it is at the end of the year, does have some positive potential positives for you all. Is that correct?

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

It's interesting, you know, who you speak to with regards to the continuing resolution because even though it was a PR, it does seem that congress administration are reshuffling those dollars. So there are possibilities that some of our projects get funded as they try to divert more money to border security.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So we are we are following that closely, and we're talking to our partners, both our our lobbying partners and our our commercial partners. So it's gonna be interesting to see what happens over the coming months.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

And as funds may be favorably diverted, do do you sense that those are for different applications than you have been been testing for up to this point? Or is it a continuation of of what the border patrol has been evaluating for for many quarters now?

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So we went to the border security expo a few weeks ago over in Phoenix, and I would say the message is it's an all in approach.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So whether it's boots on the ground, whether it's a technology, whether it's support functionality, I think the message from Homan and Noam was it's all in to try to secure the border. So I think if you have an interesting solution that meets their mission, that you're gonna have an opportunity in that space. So if we think about what we offer today, I think, you know, it's an interesting technology with regards to tunnel detection and tunnel prevention. So I I feel pretty good about that.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

Great.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

And then one additional question on the PRM front that you referenced in the release in your remarks, the ongoing discussions. What implications, if any, have you heard from those that you're in discussions with about lower oil prices and or tariffs negatively impacting their decision process?

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

That's a good question, and one that we are obviously monitoring closely. Our ongoing discussions, as we said in the past, are mostly with national oil companies, not necessarily the independents. And so their decision making is more strategic long term than possible short term impacts with regards to tariffs and things like that.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So they are still we're still having conversations. They're still interested in the technology. They look at it as how to maximize the return on their investment on their overall reservoirs over the life of the reservoir. And they look at the PRM technology versus nodal technology. And if you do a total cost of ownership over the life of reservoir, PRM starts to make sense.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

And so I think that there's still interest in the technology. The FEED studies are still ongoing. And so ultimately, the national company has to make the decision on how they want to proceed. But it certainly is a short term concern, but I think long term in their decision making process, it's not as much of a weight as what the what they can gain overall from the technology.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

Great.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

That's helpful. I'll I'll step back in queue and let someone else ask about Aquana others. Thank you very much.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Thanks, Bill. Appreciate it.

Operator

Thank you. And just a quick reminder, ladies and gentlemen, any further questions this morning, please press 1. We'll go next now to Sheldon Grotsky of Grotsky Associates.

Sheldon Grodsky
President at Grodsky Associates Inc

Yes. Good morning, everybody. Back on February 17, you announced that you had this $7,600,000 contract from Mariner Ocean Bottom Notes. Did was that all received in the quarter or was any of that received in the quarter?

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

No.

Sheldon Grodsky
President at Grodsky Associates Inc

Okay. No to wish. That the we made the announcement, but the delivery was always planned for later in the year.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Okay. So so that that was not in in there.

Sheldon Grodsky
President at Grodsky Associates Inc

Okay. Well, I I think I I I'm kind of hoping you guys can touch the bottom in in this quarter. This is rather dramatically poor results, especially in terms of the revenues. And is there any expectation that the revenues will continue at this low level? I I know you had some odd items in the quarter, and and then now you just mentioned that something happened didn't happen in the quarter.

Sheldon Grodsky
President at Grodsky Associates Inc

But I I would think that it go ahead. Go ahead.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Yes. So Sheldon, I I appreciate the question. I think if you look historically at geospace, the second quarter has always been a challenge for for the business just from the cyclical nature of of how we operate.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

We do anticipate with our backlog that we're going to be much stronger in Q3 and Q4. And our indicators that we're looking at point in that direction as well. So I think, as I mentioned, there's some push out on some schedules, but no significant cancellations. We have some small things, but no significant cancellations. Our customers are still engaged.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

They're monitoring very closely what's going on in the market space. As everybody knows, it's very volatile right now, especially on the oil and gas side. But a lot of these investments that our partners and our customers are making, they're more longer term decisions. So I I, yeah, I think there's risk there, but it's we're not we're not overly pessimistic at this point.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

Sheldon, also, if that announcement gave you the impression we expected that revenue to happen in q two, We'll do a much better job of communicating when we expect that to happen in the future because it was never planned for q two.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Yeah. That we we announced the the partnership, but the the the customer always anticipated taking delivery in a later quarter.

Sheldon Grodsky
President at Grodsky Associates Inc

Mhmm. Thank you.

Operator

We'll go next now to Scott Bundy of Moores and Cabot. Scott, please go ahead.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

Morning, guys. Just a couple of quick questions. Robert, the sale of the 17 acres, you guys anticipate that we will that will be completed in the current quarter?

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

Yes, sir. That's our anticipation as of today.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

And it was originally discussed that was sort of in the July range. Is that still accurate?

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

That that's it's in that range. Yes, sir.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

And the there was a discussion in your 10 Q last time that the national company would make a final investment decision for PRM sometime in the current quarter. Is that still the case?

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So there may be a little bit of confusion, Scott. The decision with regards to FEED study is due in the current quarter. How they make a decision based on that FEED study would come later on.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

Okay.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

And lastly, can you give us a rough idea of what sort of revenue number you need from the water business to begin making money given your allocated costs?

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

From the from our smart water division?

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

Correct.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

Is that what you're asking?

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

Correct.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

I mean, we had when you say start making money, are you talking about profitability for the entire company or profitability for that division? I mean, we can we're in last It has operating income for the quarter.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

So so last quarter operating income for the year. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

So so in the October last quarter, we we increased revenues pretty dramatically, but the cost associated with those revenues were also pretty substantial. It didn't look like you were making any money. That's what I'm trying to understand.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

Yeah. We we made money.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

We we had operating income from there last last quarter. I I you know, we're gonna continue to make money from that that segment going forward even with the change in our allocation methodology for the new business segments? I think last quarter was a a result of how we allocate our overhead expenses, so much the business segment itself.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

That's exactly right.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

And and and I don't anticipate the scenarios that generated that to reoccur this fiscal year.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

That doesn't mean the scenarios can't reoccur in the future, but it won't happen again this fiscal year.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

And last my last question regarding Aquana, can you give us an idea of what percentage Aquantia is of the revenue?

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

It still continues to be an insignificant portion. Single digit, Scott.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

And do you anticipate that to change over the course of the next nine months or in terms of people testing and using the product?

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So what I what I would say is over the next nine months, probably not we're not going see that kind of significant growth compared to the overall revenue of the corporation. I would say that as a percentage of our water segment, we will see that to increase over the coming period. We've talked about this in the past. The water municipalities are slow to adopt technology, but we're getting great positive feedback from the pilots that we have. And so that that that distribution pipeline is twelve to eighteen months from initial pilot to decision making.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

And then, of course, then they phase that in over time. So I would say that in our business plan, we're looking at twenty four to thirty six months, what a quarter is going look like with regards to significant impact on the corporation.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

And what what what do you determine to be significant?

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

More than 10%.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

Okay.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Remember Thanks for your yeah. Yeah. Just one last comment on that. Remember, you know, any large energy solutions sale can significantly change the ratios. So you have to look at base business versus those kind of one off sales that we do we do get from time to time.

Scott Bundy
Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot

No. I I understand. Thanks, guys.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Thanks, Scott. Appreciate it.

Operator

Thank you. And we'll take a follow-up question now from Bill Dezellem. Bill, please go ahead.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

Thank you. I actually want to continue down the the smart water path because I realized that I I have a tendency to to jump to the what's exciting and new, which in this case is Aquana and and pass over kind of where the real bulk of activity is, which is in the Hydrocon connectors. So you've talked about, I think, 20 some million connectors. And I think in response to the last questioner's question, you said that it takes time for essentially the flywheel to get moving. So the question is relative to the Hydrocon connectors, are you at some point where you anticipate an increasing rate of growth essentially where there's just a massive momentum behind that business now?

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

Whether the answer is yes or no, would you provide some more feedback and color around kind of how that business has developed? Right now, it feels like you're an overnight success and what the opportunities and risks are. And I jokingly say overnight success because it's taken you years to get here.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

I appreciate that, Bill, because ten year cycle is not really considered overnight for most people. But yes, I mean, Hydrocon has been a part of Geospace's history.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

It was organically developed over ten years ago. And we've been partnered with our should be partner, NICOR, for a number of years. And between the two of us, we've done a great job building the inertia within the municipalities as making that connector the connector of choice. And what we're seeing today is, and we have seen for the last few years, is that continued 10% to 15% growth year on year adoption. We work directly with the OEMs now with regards to smart meters.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So all the major players are customers of ours now. Even the ones that have their own connectors, you see pressure from municipalities to adopt the Hydrocon as a solution of choice. And so yes, it's been a very bright spot for Geospace for the last number of years. We make good margins on that. It drives a good portion of our production here in Houston.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

And we're producing around 5,000,000 connectors a year now and generating a good portion of our revenue and margins are coming out of that business.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

And is there anything I guess, are you seeing an increased level of adoption so that 10% to 15% growth becomes a larger number as you move forward? And if we look at this particular quarter, the numbers were significantly greater than 10% to 15%, pushing up over 40%.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Yes. And we're very happy about that.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

I don't I tend not to be overly optimistic because the water municipality space, there is a certain level not that we're anywhere close to that, but there is a level of saturation where the larger municipalities that buy in very large chunks, once they're adopted, then it transitions to kind of the medium and smaller municipalities where you don't get the same volume, larger number of customers, smaller volumes. And so we still continue to expect growth. We're planning around growth. We have lots of flexibility on our manufacturing capacity. We see economies of scale at larger volumes.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So we are able to adapt and be flexible with regard to market requirements. So, I mean, that is one of our our best performing business segments for us today are in product lines.

Robert Curda
Robert Curda
EVP & CFO at Geospace

Bill, I also wanna remind you that we had a very good year in 2023. And, unfortunately, at the first half of twenty twenty four, our customers had overbought in the prior fiscal year, which led to a very poor first half in 2024. So this growth that we're seeing now in those two comparative periods is the result of overbuying from two years ago.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Yes. We have to kind of go back to the supply chain crunch of 2023, '20 '20 '2, '20 '20 '3, where our customers were really nervous about being able to meet their customers' demand. And so they bought our capacity as much as they could to make sure they can meet their requirements. And as Robert said, it's moved out through the first part of twenty twenty four. And I think we're back into kind of a normal growth now.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So I think if we see we'll be monitoring closely year on year growth Q3 and Q4 just to see if we're seeing that same sort of trend. But for sure, we're getting lots of inquiries, and this whole AMI smart meter movement, now that there's proven business cases at large and mid-, middle sized municipalities, the other municipalities who have been hesitant to make the decision, they're starting to see the ROI on that and starting to make decisions on investment.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

Well, first of all, I want to say keep your pessimism and so that we can continue to have 40% growth. That's fantastic. But would you say that you've shifted from the early adopters now to kind of the mainstream? Is that where we're essentially at in the cycle?

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Yes, absolutely. That's as I said, those early adopters, everyone was waiting to see a business case and a true ROI for making the investment in AMR, AMI. Those cases are well published now, well communicated. If you we attend several conferences and conventions throughout the year in this space.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

It's not a question of if they're going to make an investment, it's a question of when they're going make the investment now.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

That's helpful. One additional question then, recognizing that the Aquantum smart valves are not truly not a market of any size today. But as you look out in terms of what the quantum market size could be versus the size of the Hydrocon market, how would you relate those two to each other?

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

That's a good question.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So if we look at the the opportunity, the total addressable market in this space, there's roughly 60,000,000 water control valves in the nation. You know, just a dumb curb stop, turn the water on, turn the water off for a resident or for a company. And of that, there's still a lot of municipalities that don't actually install meters or don't measure water. And so I think that's the real some of the opportunity. Of the ones that have it, they put a they're putting smart meters in.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Now the next question is is how do I save money by being able to remotely shut off the water at the actual pit or at the actual water control valve? And that's the part that's now gaining traction is if you look at the operating cost to send a person in a truck out to a residence to turn the water off for nonpayment or move in, move out, and then back, you know, today, that's somewhere between a hundred and 50 to $250 each time they do that. So there is a business case for making an investment in a remote shutoff valve where they can, sitting at the municipal office, turn that valve off and then turn that valve back on fairly quickly without having to pay overtime or have HSE risk for seeing someone out there. So that's the business case. We do have some practitioners of that, some examples to point to now.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

So it's similar to HydroCon. You know, you had early early adopters of HydroCon. Now it's not a question of if, but when. We see that same mentality playing out in the municipalities for Aquant. So we're in the if period right now, does it make sense, you know, if we install it?

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

And I think in the next couple of years, you're gonna see it's not necessarily if, but when. There's actually a business case for it. There's actually a cost savings model for it within municipalities.

Bill Dezellem
Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management

Great. Thank you both, and I appreciate the extra time.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Thanks, Bill. You have a good day.

Operator

Thank you. Gentlemen, it appears we have no further questions this morning. Mr. Kelly, I'd like to turn things back to you, sir, for any closing comments.

Richard Kelley
Richard Kelley
President & CEO at Geospace

Thank you, Bo, and thanks to all of you who joined our call today. We look forward to speaking to you again on our conference call for the third quarter of fiscal year twenty twenty five. Goodbye, and have a great day.

Operator

You, Mr. Kelly. Again, ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude the Geospace Technologies second quarter twenty twenty five earnings conference call. Again, thanks so much for joining us, everyone. And again, we wish you a great day. Goodbye.

Analysts
    • Richard Kelley
      President & CEO at Geospace
    • Robert Curda
      EVP & CFO at Geospace
    • Bill Dezellem
      Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer at Tieton Capital Management
    • Sheldon Grodsky
      President at Grodsky Associates Inc
    • Scott Bundy
      Senior Vice President Investments at Moors & Cabot