Dawson Geophysical Q4 2025 Earnings Report

Dawson Geophysical EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.02
• Consensus EPS: $0.06
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.04
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Dawson Geophysical Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $26.95 million
• Expected Revenue: $45.00 million
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$18.05 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Dawson Geophysical Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2025
• Date: 3/30/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, March 31, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 10:00AM ET

Dawson Geophysical (NASDAQ:DWSN) was a provider of land-based seismic data acquisition services for the oil and natural gas industry. Its work helped exploration and production companies evaluate underground geological formations and identify potential hydrocarbon reserves.

The company’s services historically included the acquisition of two-dimensional, three-dimensional and time-lapse seismic data. Dawson supported projects through activities such as survey planning, permitting, land surveying, seismic recording and field operations, with data used to guide exploration, development and reservoir-management decisions.

Founded in 1952 and based in Midland, Texas, Dawson Geophysical served customers in the United States and Canada. The company experienced financial and operational challenges in the late 2010s and early 2020s, and publicly available information indicates that its historical business and securities status may differ from that of an actively operating public company.

Dawson Geophysical Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: The company reported a strong fourth quarter and full-year improvement with fee revenues of $22.9 million in Q4 (up 67% YoY), Q4 net income of $0.6 million versus a prior-year loss, and annual Adjusted EBITDA rising to $4.7 million (up 139% YoY).
• Positive Sentiment: Dawson invested in technology, purchasing $24.2 million of new single-node channels (final delivery in Jan 2026) and now has over 180,000 channels, with lighter ~1 lb nodes that management says improve efficiency and competitive positioning on large surveys.
• Positive Sentiment: Liquidity strengthened as the company generated $14 million of operating cash flow in 2025, ended the year with $4.9 million of cash (vs. $1.4M a year earlier), and holds a revolving credit facility with up to $5 million available and no outstanding borrowings as of year-end.
• Positive Sentiment: Operational momentum continued with higher crew utilization (4 crews in the lower 48 and expanding Canada operations to 3 crews in Q1 2026) and increased bid activity, including diversification into carbon capture, geothermal, and critical minerals projects.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and welcome to the Dawson Geophysical fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Statements made by management during this call with respect to forecast estimates or other expectations regarding future events, or which provide any information other than historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and include known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which the company is unable to predict or control, that may cause the company's actual future results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by those statements. Wherever possible, we will try to identify those forward-looking statements by using words such as believe, expect, anticipate, pursue, forecast, and similar expressions.

[Operator]

These risks and uncertainties include the risk factors disclosed by the company from time to time in its filings with the SEC, including in the company's annual report on Form 10-K, expected to be filed with the SEC on March 31st, 2026. Furthermore, as we start this call, please also refer to the statement regarding forward-looking statements incorporated in the company's press release issued yesterday. Please note that the contents of the company's conference call this morning is covered by those statements. During this conference call, management will make references to adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, which are non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in the company's current earnings release, a copy of which is located on the company's website, www.dawson3d.com. The call is scheduled for 30 minutes and the company will not provide any guidance. Shareholders who might have questions are encouraged to contact the company directly. I would now like to turn the call over to Tony Clark, President and CEO of Dawson Geophysical Company. Please go ahead, sir.

[Tony Clark, President and CEO at Dawson Geophysical]

Thank you, Livia. Good morning and welcome to Dawson Geophysical's fourth quarter 2025 earnings and operations call, conference call. As Livia said, my name is Tony Clark, President and CEO of the company. Joining me on the call is Ian Shaw, Chief Financial Officer. Before I start the call, I have a few items to cover. If you would like to listen to a replay of today's call, it will be available via webcast by going to the investor relations section of the company's website at www.dawson3d.com. Information reported in this call speaks only of today, Tuesday, March 31st, 2026, and therefore you are advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay listening. Turning to a review of our current operations, outlook, and fourth quarter year-end December 31st, 2025 results.

[Tony Clark, President and CEO at Dawson Geophysical]

I am proud of the continued progress the Dawson team made during 2025, generating $14 million in cash from our operations and reinvesting the portion of that into new single node channels to increase our capacity and strengthen our foundation for profitability in our future. We purchased $24.2 million of new equipment, primarily new single node channels, and received our first delivery in August 2025. Excuse me. Due to demand from our customers, we accelerated our delivery timeline throughout the fourth quarter and received the final delivery in January 2026. This equipment has been highly utilized in our U.S. and Canadian operations. These single node channels weigh approximately one pound compared to our legacy equipment, which weighs approximately 10 lbs. We believe that lighter weight equipment will provide us with improved efficiency in our operations.

[Tony Clark, President and CEO at Dawson Geophysical]

Currently, we have over 180,000 channels of legacy and new equipment available to service the industry, and we are increasing our efforts to secure passive seismic monitoring with positive activity. We believe that we have a significant competitive advantage for larger seismic jobs due to our high channel count and our quality of vibrator energy source units. While we continue to grow our top line and invest in our future, we are continually monitoring our cost structure and reduced our general and administrative expenses 9% in 2025 compared to 2024. We believe that the Dawson team has shown continuous improvement over the past two years, which is evidenced by the continued improvement in our profitability metrics. We expect that improvement to continue into 2026. I will now turn the call over to Ian Shaw, who will review the financial results. I will return with some final remarks on our operations and outlook into the first quarter of 2026. Ian.

[Ian Shaw, CFO at Dawson Geophysical]

Thank you, Tony, and good morning. For the fourth quarter ended December 31st, 2025, the company reported fee revenues of $22.9 million, an increase of 67% compared to $13.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2024. The company reported net income of $0.6 million or $0.02 per common share, compared to a net loss of $0.8 million or $0.03 per common share for the quarter ended December 31st, 2024. The company reported adjusted EBITDA of $3.3 million compared to $0.9 million quarter-over-quarter. Now we'll cover some results for the year ended December 2025.

[Ian Shaw, CFO at Dawson Geophysical]

The company reported fee revenues of $61.9 million, an increase of 16% compared to $53.5 million in 2024. In 2025, the company reported a net loss of $1.9 million or $0.06 per common share compared to a net loss of $4.7 million or $0.13 per common share in 2024. The company reported adjusted EBITDA of $4.7 million for the year in 2025 compared to adjusted EBITDA of $2 million for the year in 2024, which was a 139% increase year-over-year. Regarding our capital budget and liquidity, in 2025, we generated $14 million in operating cash flow and increased our cash balance to $4.9 million as of the end of the year compared to $1.4 million at the end of 2024.

[Ian Shaw, CFO at Dawson Geophysical]

In October 2025, we entered into a revolving credit facility with a maximum lender commitment of $5 million and had a borrowing base of $4.9 million and no balance outstanding on our revolver as of December 31st, 2025. The company's board of directors approved a capital budget of $3 million for 2026, which included the final payment under the equipment single node channel purchase of $0.9 million, which was made in January 2026. With that, I'll turn the call back to Tony for some comments on our operations and outlook.

[Tony Clark, President and CEO at Dawson Geophysical]

Thank you, Ian. As indicated in our earnings release issued yesterday, activity levels during the fourth quarter increased with four crews operating in the lower 48 and two crews operating in Canada. The company was operating one large channel crew and three smaller channel crews operating in the United States and into the first quarter of 2026. High crew utilization in the fourth quarter results in healthy margins and profitability, and we're experiencing an increase in utilization revenue in the first quarter of 2026. We resumed our Canadian operations in the fourth quarter of 2025 with two crews and moved into the first quarter of 2026 with three large channel count crews. We anticipate our Canadian operations to have a successful first quarter.

[Tony Clark, President and CEO at Dawson Geophysical]

We've expanded our customer base to include more unconventional exploration such as carbon capture, geothermal, and critical rare earth minerals, as well as other uses of seismic acquisition capabilities. We are seeing an increase in bid activity for these projects as well as oil and gas exploration. I wish to thank all of our hardworking employees, valued clients, and trusted shareholders. Now we will open up the lines for any questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question at this time, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Please stand by for our first question. We have a question coming from the line of John Daniel with Daniel Energy Partners. Your line is now open.

[John Daniel, Founder at Daniel Energy Partners]

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for including me. I've been away from the seismic market for some time, so my question might show some ignorance, and for that, I apologize. How would you characterize sort of the quality of the service technology that you all provide today versus maybe what you would have had five to 10 years ago? In other words, just what are some of the key developments that you all have accomplished over the last several years?

[Ian Shaw, CFO at Dawson Geophysical]

Tony?

[Tony Clark, President and CEO at Dawson Geophysical]

Oh, I'm sorry. What was the question again? I'm sorry. You said that, what are some of the key accomplishments we had in the last couple of years?

[John Daniel, Founder at Daniel Energy Partners]

Well, I mean, I'll just, I'll dumb it down for me. As you know, I haven't been super close to this part of the space for a while. I'm just curious, like, how has the service, the technology, how has it evolved over the last, say, five to 10 years? Just a little bit of history would be hugely helpful.

[Tony Clark, President and CEO at Dawson Geophysical]

Okay. Well, obviously the big factor is going to these single nodes, which like I quoted, going from a 10 lbs node to a 1 lbs node. It certainly helps in our acquisition characterizations of MOB and DEMOB, getting equipment to the job site from the job site, reduces our footprint in the field with less personnel, less equipment, decreases the HSE portion of our operations. It's a higher technology. We went down from a 10 Hz phone to a 5 Hz phone. That's a main movement of our operations.

[John Daniel, Founder at Daniel Energy Partners]

Okay. An unrelated follow-up. I know you don't want to give guidance, and that's fine, but just in light of the, what's going on in the Middle East, have you seen any early signs or changes in demand for services as a result of the conflict?

[Tony Clark, President and CEO at Dawson Geophysical]

Well, we saw an uptick for the last three quarters of increase in bid opportunities and utilization as shown in our quarterly reviews. We're not sure that there's been a major uptick because of the war or the conflict. You know, these budgets were set last year for exploration this year with projects identified. There may be some, but we anticipate if this conflict was resolved soon, that the activity level would remain at its present consistency.

[John Daniel, Founder at Daniel Energy Partners]

Okay. That's all I've got. Thank you for including me.

[Tony Clark, President and CEO at Dawson Geophysical]

Sure.

[Operator]

Thank you. Again, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. Again, the star one one to ask a question, and we'll give it a moment. I am showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I'll turn the call back over to Mr. Tony Clark.

[Tony Clark, President and CEO at Dawson Geophysical]

We wanna thank everybody for attending and listening this morning. We wish y'all well. That concludes our call.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, that does end our conference call for today. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Ian Shaw, CFO
• Tony Clark, President and CEO

Analysts

• John Daniel, Founder at Daniel Energy Partners