Lantronix Q3 2026 Earnings Report

Lantronix EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.04
• Consensus EPS: $0.05
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.01
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Lantronix Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $30.18 million
• Expected Revenue: $30.49 million
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$313.00 thousand
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Lantronix Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2026
• Date: 5/6/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 4:30PM ET

Lantronix (NASDAQ:LTRX) is a provider of secure data access and management solutions designed to simplify the deployment, monitoring and control of devices and equipment across a wide range of industries. Headquartered in Irvine, California, the company develops hardware and software products that enable connectivity for smart devices, industrial machinery, IT infrastructure and other systems in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem.

Founded in 1989, Lantronix was among the early innovators in serial-to-Ethernet device networking and has since expanded its portfolio to include secure console servers, device servers, gateways and embedded modules. Its offerings are designed to help businesses convert legacy devices to networked assets, while providing robust encryption, authentication and compliance features for critical applications.

The company’s flagship software platform, Mach10, delivers centralized device management and remote access capabilities via the cloud, allowing users to monitor device health, perform firmware updates, and troubleshoot equipment without the need for on-site intervention. Lantronix also supplies embedded modules and system-on-modules (SoMs) that integrate networking and security functions into OEM products, accelerating time-to-market for original equipment manufacturers.

Lantronix serves customers globally through a network of channel partners and direct sales, with a presence in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Its solutions are employed in sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, energy, transportation and telecommunications, where reliable and secure device connectivity is essential for operational efficiency and remote management.

Lantronix Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 revenue was $30.2 million with non-GAAP EPS of $0.04 (both within guidance), driven by strong demand for embedded IoT and a 22% year-over-year increase in embedded IoT solutions.
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised its fiscal 2026 drone outlook to $10 million-$14 million (midpoint $12M) and expects drone revenue to roughly double in fiscal 2027 to represent about 15%-20% of total revenue.
• Positive Sentiment: Profitability and liquidity improved—GAAP gross margin ~43%, non-GAAP net income $1.5M, GAAP net loss narrowed to $1.2M, cash of $23.5M and debt reduced to $8.7M, with positive operating cash flow YTD.
• Negative Sentiment: Core enterprise and networking IoT system solutions are being impacted by slower federal spending and extended procurement cycles, creating timing-driven order delays.
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic moves broaden market exposure—expanded multi-silicon strategy with MediaTek, new international customers (U.K., Ukraine), and partnerships (e.g., Unusual Machines) while expanding into counter‑UAS and spectrum dominance use cases.

Presentation

[Operator]

Welcome to the Lantronix Q3 2026 earnings call. I'd like to turn the conference over now to Mr. Brent Stringham, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you, and over to you.

[Brent Stringham, CFO at Lantronix]

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining our fiscal third quarter earnings call. Joining me today is our President and Chief Executive Officer, Saleel Awsare. A live and archived webcast of today's call will be available on the company's website. In addition, you can find the call-in details for the phone replay in today's earnings release. During this call, we may make forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from current expectations. We encourage you to review the cautionary statements and risk factors contained in today's earnings release, which was furnished to the SEC and is available on our website and other SEC filings such as our 10-K and 10-Qs. Lantronix undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances. Additionally, during the call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures.

[Brent Stringham, CFO at Lantronix]

Today's earnings release, which is posted in the Investor Relations section of our website, describes the differences between our non-GAAP and GAAP reporting and presents reconciliations for the non-GAAP financial measures that we use. With that, I will now turn the call over to Saleel.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Thanks, Brent, thank you everyone for joining today's call. We delivered revenue of $30.2 million and non-GAAP EPS of $0.04, both within our guidance range. Our embedded IoT solutions portfolio delivered extremely robust growth of 22% year-over-year, driving overall sequential and year-over-year revenue growth for the company. This performance reinforces our position as a critical onboard edge compute platform for unmanned systems, an increasingly important contributor to our business. Gross margin also remains strong at about 43%, supported by a richer mix of higher margin products and recurring revenue across the portfolio. These results reflect a disciplined execution and continued momentum across the business. Turning to our results. We continue to see strong demands for unmanned systems or drones, supported by favorable industry and military tailwinds that position Lantronix for sustained growth.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Our customer list in unmanned systems continues to expand, reflecting both the effectiveness of our drone strategy and the increasing need for reliable real-time computing solutions. Drones are physical AI in action, and we deliver that capability to our customers by enabling autonomy, edge compute, and real-time decision-making, further increasing the value of our technology. The FCC's December 2025 action, which bars DJI and other foreign drone makers on the covered list from obtaining approval for new drone models in the U.S., has meaningfully improved the outlook for domestic and trusted supplier platforms. This environment strengthens our competitive mode as a U.S. partner that is both NDAA and TAA compliant, providing trusted and secured AI-enabled edge compute platform solutions for the Group 1 and 2 drone ecosystems. Further, we are expanding both our capabilities and the number of active engagements.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Our SoMs or System on Modules provide the onboard edge compute foundation for greater autonomy, which is becoming increasingly critical as mission complexity rises and the market pushes beyond what human operators alone can support. In aerospace and defense, scale will require more intelligence, more autonomy. Lantronix is helping enable that shift. As a result, we are moving up the tech stack, evolving from supporting the camera to enabling full intelligent drone and counter-drone systems. In parallel, growing interest in swarming and coordinated autonomy is driving demand for larger fleets, requiring more advanced Edge AI and machine learning-based compute solutions to support increasingly complex missions. Beyond the drone itself, we are expanding our role into counter UAS and spectrum dominance applications. These markets require high performance, low power compute to process sensor data and enable real-time decision-making in contested environments.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

As systems become more intelligent, connected, and electronically aware, we expect our SoMs and broader technology to play an increasingly central role across more of the mission stack. Given the growth opportunity ahead, we are investing to scale. We are expanding our technical R&D talent to deepen our capabilities and capture more opportunities across the drone ecosystem, while also expanding our dedicated drone sales effort. As the unmanned aerial systems market continues to heat up, new entrants will emerge. However, our first mover advantage positions to become the go-to provider for unmanned systems compute, and these investments are designed to strengthen the moat around our business as a critical platform partner to the unmanned ecosystem. In parallel with those investments, we are also advancing the product and technology initiatives that will support our next phase of growth.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

During the quarter, we announced the advancement of our multi-silicon strategy with MediaTek's Genio family of system-on-chip or SoC platforms, strengthening our ability to serve wide range of Edge AI and Industrial IoT applications. MediaTek's SoCs deliver strong AI performance with processing power comparable to our Qualcomm platforms, while offering a feature set highly optimized for industrial and commercial use cases. By adding MediaTek, we are filling important use case coverage in our portfolio. Both MediaTek and Qualcomm are highly capable Edge AI compute solutions and together allow Lantronix to serve a broader set of customers and end markets with architectures tuned to their specific requirements. Diving deeper, we continued to build momentum during the quarter. We significantly expanded the number of OEMs we engage with, and now have shipped product to over a dozen of these partners.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Importantly, we recently converted one of these engagements into a design win, another drone as a first responder program with one of the largest U.S.-based body camera makers. This adds a new DFR customer and further validates our position as a leading compute and connectivity provider across the UAS ecosystem. We also secured a new customer win with a payload that identifies hostile drone operators, marking our expansion into counter-drones. This new win reinforces our role as a trusted partner in mission-critical applications, underscoring our expanding relevance into counter-unmanned systems, where FPV drones are used to detect, track, identify, and mitigate hostile systems in contested environments. More broadly, it demonstrates our Edge AI drone solutions support the full UAS ecosystem, including counter-drone use cases.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

In addition to expanding capabilities and applications, we have been growing beyond the U.S. market into international markets, as we are now supporting global expansion with Red Cat as they enter NATO and across the Asia-Pacific. We also made our first shipment to Evolve Dynamics, a U.K.-based developer of unmanned aerial systems serving the defense, emergency response, and critical infrastructure markets. Expanding our unmanned OEM customer base internationally is an important part of our growth strategy, and this shipment marks another step in expanding our reach across the global autonomous system ecosystem. Additionally, we recently engaged with multiple Ukraine drone makers. Ukraine is becoming one of the most leading-edge and fastest evolving market for unmanned systems globally, and its domestic drone companies have demonstrated remarkable real-world performance.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

As the United States Department of War continues to increase its investment in unmanned systems, collaborating with leading Ukrainian innovators provide us with critical insights and validation opportunities for our technology in highly demanding real-world environments. We are seeing a broader shift towards trusted platforms, with customers increasingly moving away from Chinese components towards NDAA-compliant solutions. This transition is creating meaningful opportunities for Lantronix, particularly as customers evaluate our products, such as our drone reference platform, which helps shorten development cycles and accelerates evaluation to deployment. Further, in March, we formed a strategic collaboration with Unusual Machines to support the next generation of unmanned platforms. This partnership combines Lantronix's edge compute and integrated connectivity solution with UMAC's flight components to help accelerate deployment timelines, enhance ISR, and autonomous capabilities across aerial systems.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Together, this enables both companies to pursue emerging opportunities tied to the Department of War's Drone Dominance Program, and we believe we are well-positioned to capitalize on this near-term growth opportunity. We are encouraged by the early progress made during the collaboration so far, and we'll release additional updates as appropriate. We are making a concerted effort to strengthen our position in the unmanned ecosystem by scaling the platform and introducing new capabilities that support faster, easier, and more effective deployments. As we expand the platform, we are building an ecosystem around it, one that enables customers and partners to adapt, integrate, and scale solutions more seamlessly. We are encouraged by the momentum we've built in unmanned systems since entering the market just over a year ago, and we are once again increasing our fiscal 2026 drone outlook now to a range of $10 million-$14 million.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Our team is executing with urgency, and we continue to see a clear path for unmanned systems to represent 15%-20% of overall revenue in fiscal 2027. Moving to software and services. We remain excited about the expanding ARR we are seeing. Over the last two quarters, we have expanded our software and services mix from 5%-6% to 8%-9% of total revenue, and we see a clear path of sustainably reaching double digits over the midterm. This confidence is driven by our ability to layer high-value software and services onto a growing installed base of hardware already in the field. As we integrate capabilities such as device management, analytics, AI orchestration, we are not only expanding recurring revenue streams, but are also improving overall mix and increasing the lifetime value of each deployment.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Over time, we believe this will drive greater revenue visibility, stronger margins, and a higher quality business model overall. On IoT system solutions, we continue to experience slower federal spending and extended procurement cycles, particularly with our core enterprise and networking products, which includes media converters and out-of-band management. Federal customers are moving more cautiously, continued government shutdowns have resulted in slower ordering patterns and a more measured pace of conversion. That said, these are timing dynamics, not demand issues. Importantly, enterprise and networking continue to deliver margins well above our corporate average and provide strong cash generation, giving us the ability to reallocate resources into near higher growth opportunities, such as unmanned aerial systems and critical infrastructure monitoring. In summary, I'm encouraged by our third quarter performance and the discipline of our execution as we continue to deliver strong margins and profitability.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

We are hyper-focused on growing the business, and we are putting the right team and capabilities in place to capture the growing opportunities we are seeing. Before passing the call over to Brent, I want to highlight a couple important developments, starting with a key leadership addition for our next phase of growth. In March, we appointed Sano Marsiano as our new Vice President of Operations, bringing years of leadership experience across global operations, manufacturing, and quality. Also in March, we participated in ISC West 2026, where we showcased SmartSwitch.ai, SmartEDGE Gateways, and our Edge AI solutions for autonomous systems. We saw strong interest in both our drone reference platform and SmartSwitch.ai, particularly from security and surveillance customers evaluating next-generation perimeter monitoring and agentic edge network configuration monitoring and proactive maintenance.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

A consistent theme was a growing shift towards drone-based surveillance for large compounds, complementing or in some cases reducing reliance on fixed perimeter camera infrastructure, an area where we are uniquely positioned. We offer an integrated full stack solution that spans switches and drones, offering customers a single differentiated partner for autonomous perimeter security. Nobody else in the market can deliver the breadth we provide. With that, I'll turn the call back to Brent to cover financial results. Brent?

[Brent Stringham, CFO at Lantronix]

Thank you, Saleel. I'll first start with our fiscal third quarter financial results and some of the key drivers behind our performance. After which, I'll provide our outlook for the fourth quarter ending June 30, 2026. As previously discussed, our current quarter revenue was $30.2 million. We saw sequential and year-over-year growth driven by strength in embedded compute products, including our NDAA and drone programs, and continuing momentum in software and services revenues. Federal customers are moving cautiously, resulting in slower ordering patterns for our core enterprise and networking products. Like Saleel mentioned, we believe these are primarily timing dynamics, not demand issues, and we should benefit once this market normalizes. Turning to our gross margins.

[Brent Stringham, CFO at Lantronix]

In the third quarter, GAAP gross margin was 43.1%, roughly flat compared to a year ago. On a non-GAAP basis, gross margin was 43.6%, slightly down compared to a year ago. Our current quarter margins reflect the revenue mix we have spoken to, with embedded IoT solutions, particularly our compute products, driving our growth. We continue to remain focused on disciplined cost management that has driven our execution over the last year, which we expect to contribute to sustaining our gross margins near current levels. Looking at expenses and profitability, GAAP operating expenses in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 were $14.1 million, nearly flat with the prior quarter and down approximately 12% from $16 million in the year ago period.

[Brent Stringham, CFO at Lantronix]

We continue to observe the leverage in our OpEx model based on the actions we took last year and the ongoing cost discipline that we are executing on. GAAP net loss for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 improved to $1.2 million or $0.03 per share compared to GAAP net loss of $3.9 million or $0.10 per share in the year ago quarter. On a non-GAAP basis, net income of $1.5 million or $0.04 per share was consistent with the prior quarter and an improvement from the $0.03 per share in the year ago quarter. Moving to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $23.5 million, an increase of approximately $500,000 from the prior quarter and $3.5 million from the year ago period.

[Brent Stringham, CFO at Lantronix]

During the current quarter and fiscal year-to-date periods, we generated positive operating cash flow of nearly $2.2 million and $7.9 million respectively. Net inventories were $26.4 million as of March 31st, 2026, compared to $27.1 million last quarter and $28.2 million in the year ago quarter. Our current debt balance is $8.7 million after having paid down about another $1 million during the current quarter. In the last 12 months, we have lowered our debt balance by nearly $4 million. Our net cash position on March 31st, 2026 was approximately $14.8 million. Lastly, our outlook for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 ending June 30, 2026 is as follows. We expect revenue to be in the range of $29 million-$33 million.

[Brent Stringham, CFO at Lantronix]

Non-GAAP EPS is expected to be in the range of $0.03-$0.05 per share. Back to Saleel for some closing remarks.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Thanks, Brent. Before turning to Q&A, I want to leave you with a few key takeaways as we approach the end of fiscal 2026. We remain highly confident in the opportunity ahead in unmanned systems. This market is scaling rapidly, supported by strong customer engagement, favorable regulatory dynamics, and an expanding base of OEMs and end market relationships. We continue to broaden our customer roster, win new programs, and deepen our role with existing partners. At the same time, we are moving up the technology stack beyond cameras, adding more intelligence, secure connectivity, and system-level capabilities, further positioning Lantronix as a more strategic and valuable partner over time. At the midpoint of our raised drone outlook, we are targeting $12 million in revenue this fiscal year.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

We recently had one of the largest funding catalysts yet with the fiscal 2027 Department of War budget release and a record $75 billion proposed for unmanned and autonomous systems through the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, or DAWG, reinforcing our view that the super cycle is accelerating across the ecosystem. Looking ahead, we continue to expect drone revenue to roughly double in fiscal 2027 and represent approximately 15%-20% of the total revenue. Just over nine months ago, drones contributed minimal revenue. Today, they are becoming a meaningful growth driver and helping propel our next phase of growth. As Brent mentioned, our Q4 outlook points to a strong finish to fiscal 2026. We believe we are operating from a position of strength and have greater confidence in our growth trajectory today than at any point since beginning the transformation.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

In embedded IoT, revenue grew by over 20% year-over-year, driven by strong traction in unmanned systems. We have raised our drone expectations once again, supported by a growing number of shipments, new customer engagements, expanding use cases across drone and counter-drone applications. We are also broadening our geographic reach with new international customers, further validating Lantronix's role as a trusted Edge AI compute partner for the unmanned systems ecosystem. In critical infrastructure monitoring, we completed deployment of our Tier-1 MNO customer and are adding ARR to the business, which we expect will support higher margins and greater revenue visibility over time. We also see additional land and expand opportunities in adjacent high-value cell tower applications, including power banks and rectifiers.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

While Kompress.ai continues to gain traction in the industrial compressor market. The progress we made repositioning Lantronix towards a higher growth vertical is becoming increasingly evident in our results. We believe the momentum we built will carry into next year. Based on what we are seeing today, we expect to deliver double-digit revenue growth in fiscal 2027, marking an important next step in Lantronix's evolution towards a more focused, faster-growing, higher quality and more profitable business. With that, operator, we will now open the call for questions.

[Operator]

We have the first question from the line of Scott Searle from Roth Capital. Please go ahead.

[Scott Searle, Analyst at Roth Capital]

Thanks for taking my questions. Hey, Saleel, maybe just to jump in on the drone front. You know, it's a big range of $10 million-$14 million, which implies a wide variance in the June quarter. I'm wondering if you could just give us an idea of why you're seeing such a wide range in the existing June quarter. As we're looking out to fiscal 2027, looks like you're expecting the business to nearly double somewhere in the ballpark of $20 million-$30 million. I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about, you know, some of the levers in either direction there, be it, is dollar content increasing for you? Do you have to acquire some additional technologies to continue to drive the presence there?

[Scott Searle, Analyst at Roth Capital]

Is it just unit growth and more customers that you're engaged with going into commercial production?

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Scott, thank you for the question. I guess you're right. We put the range because we've always done a $2 million range. We are confident about our midpoint, about $12 million. Remember, the midpoint last quarter was $10 million, and a few quarters back, we had said around $5 million-$7 million range. We are confident about the $12 million midpoint. I hope I answered your first part of your question. The second one, the growth we are seeing across the whole spectrum of drone business or unmanned systems. It's going beyond drones now into counter drones with spectrum dominance and things like that. We have invested it and we are seeing growth. We are also seeing early shoots on unmanned on the ground and in the sea. All those areas, we do that.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

To your point, we expect to grow the business, you know, double the business into fiscal 2027, sitting where we are at today with the list of customers we are working with, the programs that we've aligned, and it's now, as I've mentioned, beyond just aerospace and defense. We're getting drone as a first responder. We're getting into commercial areas. Really, a very positive picture as I look forward for the next 12 months.

[Scott Searle, Analyst at Roth Capital]

Great. Very helpful. If I could just follow up then, the MediaTek relationship is interesting in terms of diversifying your silicon base, but they also have a pre-existing strong channel into areas such as robotics. I wonder if you could just give us some updated thoughts on that and when we might expect a first design win on that front. Then for Brent, real quickly, just can you help calibrate us in terms of the IoT system solutions business, the mix of federal business on that front? Thanks so much.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Yeah. Let me do the MediaTek real quick, and then I'll pass it to Brent. MediaTek, to your point, we announced it at embedded world, mainly because anything with vision, they're in the robotics space. Robotics is strong in Asia. They're a big partner for us. Additionally, it's gonna go into Europe, and Asia, which is the focus now. They felt the capabilities Lantronix brings with what we have done in our edge compute and Edge AI solutions, they thought was a good partner for us. I expect design-ins and design wins coming up this calendar year. Brent, go ahead.

[Brent Stringham, CFO at Lantronix]

Yeah. Scott, I think you're asking about the kind of the mix of federal in our IoT systems business. You know, it does fluctuate from quarter-to-quarter, but, you know, right around 15%-20% is kinda where we've traditionally seen that mix of business as a percentage of that segment that we disclose.

[Scott Searle, Analyst at Roth Capital]

Great. Thanks so much. I'll get back in the queue.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Thank you, Scott.

[Operator]

Thank you. We have the next question in the line of Austin Bohlig from Needham. Please go ahead.

[Austin Bohlig, Analyst at Needham]

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on the great unmanned system results. Just wanted to piggyback off the 2027 question. Now that you guys are expanding, it sounds like internationally nicely, what can we assume of this kind of double guide for 2027 of what's U.S. versus international?

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Thanks for the question, Austin. Right now, you know, huge majority of our revenue is domestic. Our first international design win, we shipped to Evolve Dynamics out of U.K. They won a U.K. defense contract, we are involved with that. What I'm uber excited about is what's happening in Ukraine. You're familiar with that. As the Ukrainian supply chains pivot away from China to NDAA and TAA certified, we are now seeing early engagements. I'm gonna be at XPONENTIAL next week, which is a big drone show. Have a bunch of meetings with some of the senior executives who got companies out of Ukraine, the ability and capability they're gonna bring is also gonna be phenomenal. Autonomy is key and edge compute is key, we enable both of that.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

I don't have a specific number for how much international is gonna be for fiscal 2027, but that's definitely a big growth vector for us.

[Austin Bohlig, Analyst at Needham]

Gotcha. And then I guess kind of a follow-up based on that. Like with the wins that you currently have in this double guide, is this just baking in of what you have kind of with your customer wins today, meaning any kind of new wins could be potential upside to this number?

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Yeah. As I said, Austin, in my prepared remarks, the number doubling from where we are at today is based on the visibility that we have with the customers that we are working with. As you are well aware, it's a dynamic market and changing pretty quickly. As we go through the year, we keep on updating you as we see that. Definitely there is an opportunity to go up from here.

[Austin Bohlig, Analyst at Needham]

Okay. I guess just one last one. The counter UAS market, super exciting. How should we be thinking about kind of, like the split between kind of counter and just maybe traditional UAS business?

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

I think counter UAS is becoming a very important piece for the future. I had the great opportunity to meet with a few customers just within the last two weeks, and we've got our first design win there and shipments there, as I mentioned, for spectrum dominance and just in a GPS denied environment. That, Austin, makes the need for edge compute because you need autonomy, and you need to be able to do counter UAS functionality when you're in a very GPS denied environment. Our solution, the ability to run models and AI on it is very important. For us, it's a early start, we've got ways to go from winning customers, but our solution is working out really well. That's another big vector of growth for us.

[Austin Bohlig, Analyst at Needham]

All right. Well, keep up the great work, guys. Thanks for taking my questions.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Thank you, Austin.

[Operator]

Thank you. We have the next question on the line of Austin Moeller from Canaccord. Please go ahead.

[Austin Moeller, Analyst at Canaccord]

Hi, good afternoon. First, could we discuss some of the involvement with the Drone Dominance vendors, and how might the IBAS Defense Industrial Base investments benefit your capacity as some of these programs ramp into production?

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Yeah. You know, 12 vendors got picked in the first tranche of DDP. We know who they are. We are working with some of them. I believe it's in the May, sorry, in the September timeframe, Austin, if I'm not mistaken, the second tranche. We are engaged with a bunch of customers in that space, all requiring the need of edge compute and autonomy. Our device and our module is gonna be well-suited for that. As for the IBAS program, which is gonna, you know, first of all, we are also going to be having our first Blue UAS solution ready this quarter. That's another big plus we've got in the works. We'll be one of the first ones with a Blue UAS compute module for this market.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

We are getting ourselves more and more integrated with the Department of Defense and its suppliers as they move forward.

[Austin Moeller, Analyst at Canaccord]

Great. If we look at the fiscal year 2027 budget request, how does the $54.6 billion funding request for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, how should we think about backlog expansion for Lantronix over the next 12-24 months if that is passed by Congress over the summer?

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Austin, the number is so large, and that's what I'm so excited about. From your perspective, it's a game-changing amounts of dollars that are going into autonomy or autonomous unmanned systems, and we are the leader in the space. We have invested in it, and we are the compute solution, the go-to compute solution for this. All of these solutions are going to need a compute platform, and we are right there. I am ready as this expands. We've got a bunch of inbounds now from customers wanting to qualify us, get our dev kit, do POC. As I said, the team is hustling with a sense of urgency. This is extremely exciting times at Lantronix.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

I don't want to put a number out there, but it's game-changing amounts of dollars, so you can assume that. In the past, as we said, our ASPs are between $400-$700, so you can back the math into $12 million. I mean, it's a logarithmic change if it all goes through.

[Austin Moeller, Analyst at Canaccord]

Excellent. Exciting news. I'll pass it back there. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. We have the next question on the line of Christian Schwab from Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please go ahead.

[Christian Schwab, Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group]

Hey, guys. I just have one quick question. Of the recent Drone Dominance that you referred to, you know, how many of the, you know, top 10 people on that list do you think could you tell us are current customers or prospective customers?

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

I don't wanna go into the numbers, Christian, because some of them we've got NDAs with, and I'm not giving you any names. We are well-aligned with a bunch of those folks who are in the first 12, and we also know who are going for the second tranche. I feel good about where we are at with the DDP. By the way, the Drone Dominance Program, the Department of Defense has increased the ASP on it, giving more room for these guys to add additional AI, machine learning, and compute in their product. We are well-situated as I look at it.

[Christian Schwab, Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group]

Great. No other questions. Thank you.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Thank you, Christian.

[Operator]

Yeah. Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Kevin Cassidy from Rosenblatt Securities. Please go ahead.

[Kevin Cassidy, Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities]

Hi. Yeah, thanks for taking my question. Congratulations on the great progress. I was just along the lines of, you know, what are the key factors that you need to expand your gross margins? Is it the increasing the technology stack? Is it the volume? You know, what are the key factors or is there a factor to expand gross margin?

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Let's put it in perspective, Kevin, as I think about it. Literally for, you know, Q4 of 2024, our gross margins were in the high 30%s. We've been in the 43%-45% range for the last couple of quarters, last three quarters. We made good progress towards improving the gross margin. I'd like to start moving at about 45%. How are we gonna do it? One is software and services, which was 5%-6% a few quarters back, is now 8%-9% of the revenue. Going up to 10%-12% pushes the gross margin up. As importantly or more importantly, on our drone business, which we said, you know, we upped the numbers to $12 million for this fiscal year at the midpoint.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Adding more software around it, adding more machine learning and AI models, adding a framework, moving up the tech stack. Running more of beyond just camera integration now to flight control, to other technologies. To your point, moving up the tech stack and providing a platform for our customers.

[Kevin Cassidy, Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities]

Great. Thanks for that detail. That's good. You know, maybe just as a follow-up on the MediaTek, adding MediaTek as another source, and you say it gives you a broader range. Is it geographically or is it a price performance, trade-offs that you'll be able to do?

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Good, good question, Kevin. Geographically, very much so. Allow us to be stronger in Asia Pac and Europe in the future. Qualcomm is a great partner of ours. We've done really well with them. That's number one. Number two, you hit it on the allowing us to play in some of the more price-sensitive markets if we need to be. It kind of covers both of that.

[Kevin Cassidy, Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities]

Okay. Understood. Great. Thank you.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Thank you, Kevin.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Saleel Awsare for closing remarks.

[Saleel Awsare, President and CEO at Lantronix]

Thank you again for your questions and joining us today. We appreciate your continued interest in Lantronix and hope you will continue to join us on this journey. While we are encouraged by the progress we made, we believe we are still ascending rapidly with long flight ahead and plenty of altitude still to gain before reaching cruising altitude. I'll be at XPONENTIAL next week and the Needham Growth Conference, followed by the Craig-Hallum conference later this month, and I look forward to connecting with many of you there. Thank you again, and we look forward to updating you on our progress soon.

[Operator]

Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Brent Stringham, CFO
• Saleel Awsare, President and CEO

Analysts

• Austin Bohlig, Analyst at Needham
• Austin Moeller, Analyst at Canaccord
• Christian Schwab, Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group
• Kevin Cassidy, Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities
• Scott Searle, Analyst at Roth Capital