Eastman Kodak Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 7, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Kodak reported stronger operating performance with consolidated revenue up 7% to $265 million, gross profit rising to $57 million (22% margin), and operational EBITDA improving to $15 million, the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.
  • Negative Sentiment: GAAP net loss widened to $16 million, driven mainly by a $12 million non-cash fair-value charge on a preferred-stock derivative (linked to the company’s stock price) and $5 million of stock-based compensation, which management excludes from its operational EBITDA metric.
  • Positive Sentiment: Balance sheet strengthened — Kodak ended the quarter with $299 million of unrestricted cash, made a $50 million term-loan principal repayment, and reported an improved net debt-positive position (net debt positive of $139 million).
  • Positive Sentiment: Operational and product momentum: AM&C and print revenues grew, Kodak highlighted renewed investment and demand in still and motion-picture film (including the new KODAK VERITA 200D), launch of the SONORA UltraXR Plate in Europe, a running cGMP pharmaceutical facility, and a new electrophysiology lab partnership to support future product development.
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Earnings Conference Call
Eastman Kodak Q1 2026
00:00 / 00:00

There are 4 speakers on the call.

Speaker 3

Today, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Eastman Kodak Q1 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like to hand over the conference to our first speaker today, Denisse Goldbarg.

Speaker 1

Thank you, good afternoon, everyone. I am Denisse Goldbarg, Eastman Kodak's Chief Marketing Officer. Welcome to Kodak's first quarter 2026 earnings call. At 4:15 P.M. this afternoon, Kodak filed its Form 10-Q and issued its release on financial results for the first quarter of 2026. You may access the presentation and webcast for today's call on our investor center at investor.kodak.com. During today's conference call, we will be making certain forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We intend for these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Speaker 1

Investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on forward-looking statements, and such statements should not be read or understood as a guarantee of future performance or results. All forward-looking statements are based on Kodak's expectations and various assumptions. Future events or results may differ from those anticipated or expressed in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include, among others, the risks, uncertainties, and other factors described in more detail in Kodak's filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. All forward-looking statements attributable to Kodak or persons acting on its behalf only apply as of the date of this presentation and are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements included or referenced in this presentation.

Speaker 1

Kodak undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements or reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. In addition, the release just issued and the presentation provided contains certain measures that are deemed non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures have been provided with the release on our website in our investor center at investor.kodak.com. Speakers on today's call are Jim Continenza, Kodak's Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and David Bullwinkle, Kodak's Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President. We will not be holding a formal Q&A during today's call. As always, the investor relations team is available for follow-up. I will now turn the call over to Jim. Thank you, and have a great day.

Speaker 2

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining the first quarter 2026 investor call for Eastman Kodak. The story of the first quarter is a story of consistency, stability, and growth. This reflects our transformation over the last 7 years and our focus on execution and our continued investment in the business. I'm pleased to see strong year-over-year performance over the last 3 consecutive quarters. Let me give you some highlights from the first quarter. Consolidated revenues up 7% to $265 million, compared with $247 million for first quarter 2025. Revenue increase in both our key businesses, Print and AM&C. We had gross profit percentage of 22%. That's 3 percentage points or 16% higher than first quarter 2025. Operational EBITDA was $15 million, compared with $2 million for the first quarter 2025, up $13 million.

Speaker 2

Moving on to Advanced Materials and Chemicals. We saw AM&C revenue grew by $2 million or 3%, which was driven by a $3 million increase in film and chemicals, which was partially offset by $1 million for lower inks and consumables. Let's talk about our still films. We've invested heavily back into film. We're starting to see great results from that. An example, in still film, recently launched a professional film sold directly to distributors. Our objective is to stabilize the market and continue to meet demand. I am really proud to see motion picture continue to increase. We launched a new film called KODAK VERITA 200D, which was used in Euphoria Season 3. A lot is going on. Many Oscar-winning movies, including One Battle After Another and Sinners, were shot on Kodak film.

Speaker 2

The long-anticipated Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is also shot on Kodak film. We remain committed to film and maintaining supply for our customers. A quick update on our pharma business. Our new cGMP pharmaceutical manufacturing facility is up and running. I am really proud to say we recently opened the Kodak Advanced Electrophysiology Lab in partnership with SUNY Geneseo. The lab will enhance our research capabilities and support future product development. We continue to work towards obtaining Class II certification to manufacture more complex, high-margin products in the United States. Moving on some highlights from our commercial print business. We continue to provide a full range of print solutions to our customers. Our revenues increased by 9% even in the difficult times we're going through. There are some supply issues on aluminum, there is issues on delivery, logistics. A lot is going on.

Speaker 2

Prices have increased greatly on raw materials such as aluminum, but yet we're still able to maintain our revenue and supply our customers. As our commitment to print continues, and we continue to invest in innovation, I'm pleased to announce we recently launched the SONORA UltraXR Plate in Europe, which will expand our SONORA Ultra portfolio. As I stated last quarter, and I'll state it again, as we continue to fix the balance sheet, invest in the infrastructure of the business, and focus on key products, our next steps are growth. We must continue to grow our business. We have built a stable, growing Kodak by consistently executing our long-term plan. We stay on track regardless of all the events happening around us. We're leveraging our core strengths. We're strengthening our balance sheet. We're investing in growth products.

Speaker 2

As we continue to invest in operational excellence and execution, right? We continue to diversify our portfolio by using the different technologies and skill sets we have in the business. As we stated before, right, our goal is to continue to work on the balance sheet. I'm proud to say today we are net debt positive. One of the most important aspects is, right, meeting our customers' needs, and the only way we can do that is by continue to focus on operational excellence. We have to be better than everyone else, and we're gonna continue to keep investing and getting better every single year. I'm gonna turn it over to Dave Bullwinkle to discuss our first quarter financial results. Dave?

Operator

Thanks, Jim. Welcome to the call, everybody. Thanks for joining us today. This afternoon, the company filed its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026 with the SEC. As I do on each and every call, I encourage you to read the filing in its entirety as there is a plethora of information contained in the materials we have provided publicly. As a reminder, references made during my remarks are included in the company's earnings press release and Form 10-Q filed today. Let's begin with the key financial highlights for the first quarter of 2026. We delivered strong financial performance despite sharp commodity swings and persistent inflationary pressure. The results reflect substantial year-over-year improvement in revenue, gross profit, and operational EBITDA, underscoring our disciplined execution and progress against our long-term goals.

Operator

In fact, this is the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth for these measures. Key metrics. Revenue was $265 million, an increase of $18 million or 7% year-over-year, with increases in print, advanced materials, and chemicals. On a constant currency basis, revenue grew $11 million or 4%. Gross profit was $57 million, which is up $11 million or 24% year-over-year. Our gross profit percentage increased to 22% compared to 19% in the prior-year quarter, reflecting our operational execution. Operational EBITDA for the quarter was $15 million, and that's an increase of $13 million compared to the prior-year quarter, primarily driven by improved pricing, partially offset by higher manufacturing costs and higher silver and aluminum prices.

Operator

For the quarter, we reported a GAAP net loss of $16 million compared with a GAAP net loss of $7 million in the prior year quarter, an increase of $9 million. Let me walk you through the main factors behind this result and share with you some additional helpful information. $12 million of the loss was driven by a change in the fair value of an embedded derivative related to our Series B preferred stock. This accounting impact resulted from a previously announced amendment to the Series B agreement, and the change in fair value was primarily caused by the increase in our stock price during the quarter. This is fully disclosed in our Form 10-Q. $5 million of the loss relates to stock-based compensation expense, which is a non-cash expense and does not impact our liquidity.

Operator

We also recognized $4 million in non-cash pension income this quarter. This reflects an $18 million decrease compared to the prior year quarter. This is driven by the termination of the KRIP pension plan, which we completed in the fourth quarter of 2025. As a result of the plan termination, we expect pension income to be lower year-over-year in each quarter of 2026. We will see this reoccur every quarter this year. Partially offsetting these items, GAAP net loss benefited from an $8 million year-over-year reduction in interest expense, mainly due to term loan repayments resulting from the pension plan termination and reversion. While these items affect comparability, they reflect deliberate actions we took to strengthen our balance sheet, reduce debt, and build long-term value.

Operator

Now that I've explained some of the key drivers of the year-over-year change in our net loss, I've also included a simple reconciliation in today's materials to explain how the GAAP net loss translates to operational EBITDA. We've received feedback from investors and questions about this, so we're covering it here. EBITDA measures the profitability of our business by excluding its components of interest, taxes, and non-cash charges like depreciation and amortization. As you know, EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. To arrive at operational EBITDA from net loss, we start by adding back those standard items of interest expense, tax expense, and depreciation and amortization expense. In addition, to arrive at operational EBITDA for Kodak, we remove those non-operational items shown on the waterfall slide. Number 1. Non-recurring and other items.

Operator

This category primarily contains the $12 million expense we booked in the quarter for the fair value change in the preferred stock derivative. This derivative is the value of the conversion option for our stock. We expect to fair value this every quarter, and the changes will be recognized in our income statement. Second category are non-cash items of expense or income. In this case, it is a net expense item. This represents an adjustment to remove stock-based compensation expense, which we talked about earlier, and it's almost fully offset by the corporate component of pension income, which we also discussed earlier in my remarks. As I have said, these adjustments remove the impact of items that can cause GAAP volatility, but do not reflect day-to-day operations. Therefore, we consider them non-operational. The resulting operational EBITDA provides a clear view of how our underlying business is performing.

Operator

We've consistently used this metric as our segment measure as well, which is disclosed in all of our earnings releases and fully reconciled in that material. I hope this provides helpful context of the company's performance and financial statements. If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. Moving on to our cash performance for the first quarter. We ended the quarter with $299 million of unrestricted cash, a decrease of $38 million from December 31, 2025. Let me briefly walk through the key drivers of our quarter-end cash position. First, as expected, we received $46 million in cash proceeds from the redemption of hedge fund investments related to the KRIP pension reversion during the quarter. Second, working capital was impacted by a $38 million increase in inventory, with $35 million of this increase occurring within our AM&C segment.

Operator

This was largely driven by average commodity cost of silver more than doubling from year-end and increases in the volume of silver we carry on the balance sheet due to supply terms. Inventory in AM&C also increased as we built ahead of a planned second quarter plant shutdown for maintenance. Partially offsetting these impacts within working capital, accounts payable increased by $9 million and accounts receivable decreased by $9 million, both helping to partially counter the inventory increases. As required under the term loan amendment, we made a $50 million principal payment on our higher rate term loans in March. This was funded primarily by KRIP investment asset redemptions. These actions strengthen our liquidity profile and reduce future interest expense.

Operator

As of March 31, 2026, the company's net debt positive position increased from $128 million at December 31, 2025, to $139 million at March 31, 2026. This is an $11 million improvement in the quarter. This reflects a further strengthening of our financial position. As I conclude, I want to leave you with a few clear takeaways from our first quarter results. Number one, the financial results were strong. We delivered solid year-over-year growth in revenue, gross profit, and operational EBITDA. This is for the third consecutive quarter. We did this despite economic headwinds in commodity pricing and inflationary impacts as well. Most notably, our operational EBITDA increased sharply even as the business managed through those impacts.

Operator

Again, as I talked about earlier, and we've fully reconciled for you, operational EBITDA is our key internal measure of profitability. It's how we measure and disclose the results of our segments in our public filings as well. Finally, I am proud to say that our balance sheet is stronger than it's been in many, many years as we continue to see the benefit of the decisions we've made to reinforce our foundation. With $299 million of unrestricted cash, we are in a net debt positive position relative to our short and long-term debt, and this is for the second consecutive quarter. We have also continued to de-lever the balance sheet, paying down $50 million of higher rate interest debt in the quarter. Thank you for your time and attention. I'll now return it back to Jim.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Dave. In summary, we've built a strong, stable Kodak over the last several years by consistent execution of our long-term plan and making the appropriate changes in the environment as it changes around us. We have delivered three consecutive strong quarters year-over-year. We continue to invest in AM & C and print and grow those products. We focus on operations, but more importantly, three key areas that we always focus on: manufacturing, selling, and service. Every one of the company is geared around focusing on those three areas. The goal is to deliver long-term value to our shareholders, our customers, and our employees. With that, I wanna thank everyone for their time and listening to the Eastman Kodak first quarter 2026 investor call.

Speaker 3

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

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