NASDAQ:CEPL Capstone Energy+ Q1 2027 Earnings Report $6.18 -0.42 (-6.29%) As of 02:22 PM Eastern This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast Capstone Energy+ EPS ResultsActual EPS-$0.03Consensus EPS -$0.01Beat/MissMissed by -$0.02One Year Ago EPSN/ACapstone Energy+ Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$24.92 millionExpected Revenue$23.10 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$1.82 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/ACapstone Energy+ Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2027Date8/12/2026TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateWednesday, August 12, 2026Conference Call Time4:45PM ETConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Capstone Energy+ Q1 2027 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrAugust 12, 2026ShareShareShare This ReportLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways Positive Sentiment: Profitability and cash generation improved despite lower revenue. First-quarter revenue fell 11% year over year to $24.9 million, but gross profit rose 16% to $8.8 million, gross margin expanded to 35% from 27%, and operating cash flow reached $5.4 million. Positive Sentiment: Product cost-reduction initiatives are strengthening unit economics, including a reported 57% reduction in the cost of an air-bearing cartridge while also reducing sole-source supply-chain risk. Management also said factory investments are improving productivity and that production capacity could be increased through additional shifts as orders become committed. Neutral Sentiment: Capstone reported growing interest in behind-the-meter power for data centers, with discussions advancing toward pilots and larger opportunities, but no customer agreement has yet been signed. Management said the pipeline is growing, though customer capital approvals and power-purchase agreements are taking longer than expected. Negative Sentiment: Rental revenue declined sharply because of lower fleet utilization amid oil-price and geopolitical uncertainty, while parts and service margins fell due to higher warranty-related claims and costs. Negative Sentiment: The company has $25.3 million of exit notes maturing in December 2026 and is pursuing refinancing or repayment options. Management said it does not plan to extend the Goldman note, leaving execution of the refinancing as an important near-term financial consideration. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallCapstone Energy+ Q1 202700:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsPresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Capstone Energy+ fiscal first quarter 2027 earnings conference call and webcast. Today's call will cover the company's financial results for the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, 2026. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following management's prepared remarks, we will take questions from covering analysts and invited institutional investors. As time permits, management will also address a limited number of questions submitted by investors through the webcast. If you are joining via webcast and would like to submit a question, please click the Q&A button located on your screen and enter your question. Questions may be submitted at any time during today's presentation. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Alfredo Gomez, General Counsel of Capstone Energy+. Alfredo, please go ahead. Alfredo GomezGeneral Counsel at Capstone Energy+00:01:10Thank you very much. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining Capstone Energy+'s Fiscal First Quarter 2027 Earnings Conference Call. On the call with me today are Vince Canino, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, and John Miller, the company's board member and interim Chief Financial Officer. Today, August 12, Capstone Energy+ issued its financial results for its fiscal first quarter 2027, which ended June 30, 2026. During today's call, we will be referring to slides that can be found on the company's website under the Investor Relations section. This conference call contains forward-looking statements representing the company's views as of today, August 12, 2026. Other than as required by federal securities laws, the company disclaims any obligation to update or revise these statements to reflect future events or circumstances. Alfredo GomezGeneral Counsel at Capstone Energy+00:02:03You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond our control. Please refer to the safe harbor provisions set forth on slide two of the accompanying presentation in today's earnings release and in Capstone's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Please note that as Mr. Canino and Mr. Miller go through the discussion today, when they mention EBITDA, they are referring to adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure, and the reconciliation to net income can be found in the earnings release and the appendix to the presentation slides. I would like to now turn the call over to Vince Canino, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:02:59Thank you, Alfredo, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join us today as we share our progress and outlook during what I believe is an exciting energy renaissance. Let's move to slide four. The first quarter of fiscal 2027 marked another important step in Capstone's evolution. During the quarter, we achieved several significant milestones that are worth highlighting. First, we officially launched our broader market identity as Capstone Energy+. Second, following our successful uplisting to NASDAQ, we began trading under the ticker symbol CEPL. Third, we continue to make meaningful progress in the data center market. While we have not yet signed a customer agreement, we are seeing a growing awareness and interest in how Capstone Energy+ can help address community concerns while enabling additional power generation capacity with lower emissions. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:03:59Customers increasingly understand the role our solutions can play in supporting this rapidly growing market. Before John Miller walks you through the financial results, let me frame what I believe is the most important takeaway from the quarter. What these results demonstrate is that we have built a business capable of navigating turbulence while continuing to generate profits. Despite these dynamics, our underlying earnings profile continued to improve. We expanded gross margin a full percentage point in products and accessories, mainly driven by our ongoing DFMA cost reduction initiatives. We generated positive net income and meaningfully stronger operating cash flow. That combination, despite a lower revenue base, achieved higher quality earnings. That is the real story of the quarter. It demonstrates that the cost discipline and operational rigor we have spent the past two years building are paying off. Our strategy has never depended on a single market opportunity. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:05:08Instead, it is built around providing resilient, on-site energy solutions wherever reliable power is needed. Our three-pillar framework continues to guide every decision we make. The question we ask ourselves each day is not how successful are we becoming? Instead, we ask, are we creating value for our customers and shareholders? Are we helping customers solve meaningful problems? Are we making those around us better? When we do these well, we build trust. When we build trust, we create impact. When we create impact, success becomes a byproduct rather than an objective. Now, let's move to slide five. This slide represents who Capstone is and why we exist. We are leaders in a technology that many attempted, many failed to perfect, and many ultimately walked away from. Yet Capstone persevered. At the heart of Capstone is an elegant technology, a single moving assembly riding on a cushion of air. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:06:22No friction, no oil, no coolant, no lubricants. No friction means lower noise. No oil means no oil carryover that can contaminate the combustion process. No coolant and no lubricants mean fewer auxiliary systems that can fail and take a unit offline. For more than three decades, we have proven this technology in the field, competing in an industry dominated by some of the world's largest power generation companies. It is true that we entered the behind the meter data center opportunity later than some others. However, we have created growing awareness and interest in Capstone Energy+ and the unique role our solutions can play. Through our technology and our decades of operating experience, we are helping customers think beyond how they generate, manage, and optimize energy. That is why we remain excited about the opportunities ahead. Now, let's move to slide 6. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:07:28As I mentioned earlier, we have been engaged in discussions with a wide range of companies across the data center ecosystem. As we developed our reference design and explored different energy strategies and deployment approaches, something interesting happened. During a visit by a major data center infrastructure company at our manufacturing facility, they asked the simple question: Can you whiteboard your value proposition? So we did. We began listing the reasons we believed Capstone Energy+ could be a compelling behind the meter power solution. As the conversation evolved, we worked together to categorize each benefit according to the value attributes that matter most to the data center operators. What emerged is something more authentic, more practical, and more closely aligned with the needs of the people who will ultimately deploy and operate the solution. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:08:27I'm not going to walk through every value attribute on this slide, particularly because we've discussed many of them on previous calls. However, there is one that deserves more attention, and that is speed to token. At its core, the economics are fairly simple. The sooner a data center becomes operational, the sooner compute capacity comes online. The sooner compute capacity comes online, the sooner tokens can be generated, monetized, and delivered to customers. Today, there are many factors that can delay that timeline. But in conversation after conversation, we continue to hear the same concern. How quickly can power be delivered to the chips? That is where Capstone simplicity becomes a meaningful advantage. As illustrated on this slide, there are essentially three primary requirements to bring our system online: a concrete pad, a natural gas connection, and an electrical connection. That's it. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:09:31There are no extensive auxiliary systems requiring additional foundations, piping networks, or complex support infrastructure. Because of our ultra-low emissions profile, customers can often avoid emissions abatement equipment and its ongoing costs. The result is a solution that is remarkably simple, clean, and fast to deploy. In a market where time to power increasingly translates to time to revenue, we believe that simplicity matters. Let's move on to our cost out case study on slide seven. I remember the first time I held an air bearing cartridge in my hands. The intricate EDM machining combined with a complex volute geometry produced on a five-axis milling machine was impressive. But when I asked our engineering team what it cost, the answer blew me away. More than $970 per cartridge. My immediate reaction was simple. There has to be a better way. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:10:34I challenged the team to run the component through our should-cost software. The team renegotiated with the incumbent supplier while simultaneously identifying, testing, and qualifying a second source. The result was a 57% cost reduction while eliminating a significant sole source supply chain risk. Simultaneously, we were able to lower product cost, reduce supply chain risk, and add capacity to support future growth. This is exactly what we mean when we talk about leaving no stone unturned in optimizing the business. With that, I'll turn the call over to John to review our financial results in more detail. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:11:20Thank you, Vince, and good afternoon, everyone. Before reviewing the individual outline items on slide eight, I'd like to provide some context around our first quarter performance. Q1 was another step forward in the ongoing improvement of our earnings profile. Although revenue decreased year-over-year due to lower product shipment volume and reduced rental utilization, we grew gross profit dollars, expanded gross margin by eight points, delivered positive operating income, and recorded our fourth consecutive quarter of positive net income and ninth consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA. The margin improvement was driven by the sale of previously rented microturbine systems, which more than offset the higher service costs this quarter relative to last year. Our product cost reduction programs continue to strengthen unit economics, and our continued disciplined management of SG&A allowed nearly all the additional gross profit to flow straight to the bottom line. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:12:17Looking ahead, we're focused on sustaining the cost improvements, strengthening performance and service on rentals, and converting our robust commercial pipeline into revenue, earnings, and cash flow. Let's move to slide nine. Total revenue for the first quarter was $24.9 million compared to $27.9 million in the prior year period. Product and accessories revenue is $13 million compared to $15.7 million in Q1 fiscal 2026. The decrease primarily reflected lower product shipment volume. As a reminder, product revenue in any given quarter is influenced by the size and delivery schedules of individual customer orders. Rental revenue is $2.2 million compared to $4.2 million in the prior year period, primarily reflecting lower fleet utilization amid uncertainty surrounding oil prices. These decreases were partially offset by parts and service revenue, which increased 14% to $9.7 million from $7.9 million. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:13:19Despite the lower top line, gross profit increased 16% to $8.8 million from $7.6 million, while gross margin expanded approximately 8 points to 35% from 27%. The improvement reflected a favorable product mix, including the sale of previously rented microturbine systems, the continued benefit of our cost reduction initiatives, and the contribution from distribution services. Product and accessories gross margin increased to 31% from 8% in the prior year period. While the sale of previously rented systems provided a favorable mix benefit, the year-over-year improvement also reflected the impact of the product cost reductions we have implemented. Parts and service gross margin was 41% compared to 53% in the prior year period. The decrease reflected higher claims under our Factory Protection Plan contracts and increased shipments of our higher cost parts associated with warranty claims, partially offset by the positive contribution from distribution services. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:14:23Rental gross margin was 36% compared to 52% in the prior year period, reflecting the impact of lower fleet utilization. Research and development expenses were $1.2 million, or approximately 5% of revenue, compared to $800,000, or approximately 3% of revenue in the prior year. The increase reflected continued investment in product enhancements, cost reduction initiatives, and technology development, including the company's 800-volt DC microturbine solution for AI data center applications, five PPM combustion liner, and other development programs. Selling general administrative expenses were $6.6 million compared to $6.9 million in the prior year period. The decrease reflected lower legal, consulting, rent, and bad debt expenses, partially offset by our investment in our sales capabilities. The combination of higher gross profit and disciplined operating expenses resulted in operating income approximately $1 million, compared to an operating loss of $200,000 in the prior year period. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:15:29Net income was approximately $37,000 compared to a net loss of $700,000 in Q1 fiscal 2026. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, was $2.7 million in each of Q1 fiscal 2027 and Q1 fiscal 2026. A reconciliation to net income is included in today's earnings release and in the appendix to this presentation. Reported net loss per share was $0.03 compared to a reported net loss per share of $0.04 in the prior year period. Although we generated positive consolidated net income, the calculation of earnings available to common stockholders included a $1 million non-cash reduction for cumulative paid-in-kind dividends accrued on the Series A convertible preferred. This resulted in a net loss per share. Now let us turn to slide 10 for a review of select balance sheet and cash flow items. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:16:20Cash and restricted cash totaled $32.3 million at June 30, 2026, compared to $28.9 million at year-end. Accounts receivable was $12.8 million on June 30, 2026, essentially unchanged from year-end. Total inventories, including current and non-current inventories, were $29.9 million on June 30, 2026, compared to $24.8 million at year-end. The increase reflected purchases of materials, accessories, and parts to support sales during the quarter, including long lead time materials to support future sales. This is an area we are managing carefully with the objective of maintaining sufficient inventory to support customer deliveries while improving inventory turns and avoiding any unnecessary use of working capital. Accounts payable and accrued expenses were $26.4 million on June 30 compared to $24.6 at year-end, primarily reflecting the level of purchasing activity and timing of vendor payments. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:17:21Overall, net cash provided by operating activities was $5.4 million compared to net cash used in operating activities of $1.6 million in the prior year. Q1 operating cash flow included a $3.7 million customer deposit associated with an order scheduled for delivery at the end of this year. Excluding that deposit, the quarter still demonstrated a significant year-over-year improvement in operating cash flow. Net cash used in investing activities was $1.4 million compared to $100,000 in the prior year period. The increase reflected deferred acquisition costs and expenditures for property, plant, and equipment, including rental assets. Net cash used in financing activities was $600,000 compared to $300,000 in the prior year period, primarily due to finance lease repayments and treasury stock activity. Finally, I want to address our exit notes, which have an outstanding balance of $25.3 million and mature in December 2026. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:18:22Given the progress we've made in our business, we believe we have a range of options available to us. We are evaluating these alternatives to refinance or repay the exit notes ahead of their maturity. We look forward to updating you all once we have something definitive to report. In summary, our financial priorities continue to be product cost reductions, margin improvement, converting inventory into revenue, and strengthening our cash generation. With that, I'll turn the presentation back to Vince. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:18:50Thanks, John. Moving to slide 11, we continue to make meaningful progress on our top four technology investments, and I'd like to briefly highlight where we stand today. We continue to run our 800-volt DC unit, and we have had a number of prospective customers witness the demonstration unit operating in real world conditions. This work is allowing us to think beyond the original application of 800-volt DC in data centers. We believe distributed generation could realize tremendous benefits from direct current generation at the local source. As more technologies migrate to DC operation, including LED lighting, electronics, battery systems, and other modern loads, the vision Thomas Edison originally had for widespread DC power may finally come full circle. And frankly, that's a pretty exciting thought. Turning to our five PPM combustion liner, we are now preparing the test protocols for cold weather testing. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:19:55Moving to the C250 engine program, development continues to progress and we have begun constructing our third test unit. Along the way, we are learning valuable lessons regarding the stator design and what we believe can improve both capacity and reliability for both the C250 and C200 platforms. On the heat recovery module, we are building our second prototype. This version incorporates cost reduction measures as well as new design features that we believe could further improve performance. Beyond these four programs, learnings from the liner and the C250 work have launched a broader efficiency initiative targeting incremental gains across the system. Individually, each of these improvements may be modest, but collectively, they add up. The common thread across all these initiatives is simple, challenge long-held assumptions, relentlessly pursue efficiency, and continue extracting more value from every component in the system. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:21:01I know that for several quarters we've talked about the work we're doing to improve scalability in the factory. Sometimes a picture is worth 1,000 words, so here it is in slide 12. This slide shows three examples of investments we made in our manufacturing operation, our vertical lift machine, our tube bending capability, and our in-house decal system. Each addresses a different part of the operation, but the objective is the same. Reduce wasted motion, lower cost, improve productivity, and increase our ability to scale. Importantly, several of these investments are now delivering returns well above our original expectations. No single project transforms a manufacturing operation. Extraordinary results come from getting hundreds of small things right day after day. That continuous improvement mindset is helping us build a more efficient, more scalable, and more profitable Capstone. Moving to slide 13. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:22:08Operationally, we continue to make considerable progress across the organization. We're improving factory flow, enhancing product quality, reducing product costs, and strengthening supplier readiness. In fact, as soon as we wrap up today's call, I'll be getting on a plane to meet one of our largest suppliers to discuss production ramp-up strategies. We have now increased the number of megawatts on our factory floor by nearly 4x while maintaining a disciplined approach to capacity expansion. Importantly, we have the ability to further increase production by adding shifts. The plans, resources, and infrastructure required to do that are already in place. However, we will only activate those plans as customer demand becomes committed. That discipline allows us to align supplier capacity, labor, quality systems, and working capital with confirmed customer orders rather than building fixed costs ahead of demand. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:23:13We believe that provides a more efficient path to growth while protecting profitability. As we look through the balance of fiscal 2027, our priorities remain clear. First, continue delivering profitable growth across diversified end markets. Second, further improve gross margins through product cost reductions and operational rigor. Third, strengthen operating cash conversion through disciplined working capital management. Finally, continue advancing our mission critical technology initiatives. We have built the foundation, we have strengthened the business, and now our focus is execution. We know where we're going, we're committed to the work it takes to get there, and we're ready for what comes next. With that, let's move to the Q&A session. Operator00:24:10We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. If you are joining via webcast and would like to submit a question, please click the Q&A button located on your screen and enter your question. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Eric Stine from Craig-Hallum. Your line is now open. Eric StineAnalyst at Craig-Hallum00:25:03Hey, John. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:25:06Hey, Eric, how are you? John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:25:07How's it going? Eric StineAnalyst at Craig-Hallum00:25:08Hey. Doing well, thanks. Maybe if we could just talk about some of the commercial momentum. I know not giving specifics in terms of orders and backlog, but would love to kind of get a sense of how things are trending, maybe by end market and what type of visibility that gives you over the remainder of the fiscal year. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:25:29Yeah, sure. It's something we've been talking about. In terms of the different end markets, obviously oil and gas has had a little bit of a slowdown. We saw that in the rental revenue. We had a number of megawatts that came off rent. We expected those to come back a lot faster, but some geopolitical things happened and it certainly has created some question marks around that. That's one area that certainly I think has had an impact, but the interest in behind the meter for the commercial and industrial space, I think still remains strong. It's just odd that the CapEx dollars are not being released as fast as we expected. The pipeline's not shrinking, it's growing, but it is taking longer than we expected for some of these deals to come over the line. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:26:29We do continue to see projects that are growing in megawatts, which that also could be the reason why these are taking a little bit longer. The other thing that we're seeing is there's more interest in the Energy as a Service offering, whether it's a lease-to-own model, which we can move rather quickly on. But the power purchase agreement model, that seems to be gaining some significant interest as well. When you get into PPAs, they just take longer to get done. Eric StineAnalyst at Craig-Hallum00:27:05Got it. I guess remainder of the year, fair to say you expect things to be solid, whether it's similar to this quarter or not. But, clearly positive given that you are expecting margin improvements throughout the year as well. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:27:24Yeah, I think that's true. The first quarter tends to be a softer quarter, although when we normalize out what happened last year with the big 6-megawatt order, then the big order we had this year on the rental buyout, we actually saw some growth in the first quarter on product side. The rental revenue hurt us a bit. We expect that the remaining quarters to track along and hopefully deliver what our expectations would be based on the pipeline that we're seeing. Eric StineAnalyst at Craig-Hallum00:28:01Okay. Maybe just for my second one. I know that you're committed to not necessarily talking about things unless it's something firm that you can discuss in data centers, but anything in terms of whether it's size of pipeline, quality of conversations, number of counterparties, anything along those lines would be great. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:28:29Sure. Look, a lot of the questions that are coming in online, I think every other question is around data centers, and we were even bashed to stop talking about decal printers and talk about data centers. But the reality is this, we need to get this business positioned and pointed north. We think we've done that, and that's why things like decal printers and other initiatives we've done that get our costs in line so that we can handle that kind of growth is really important. But I would say that I personally spend at least 30% or more of my time every week on data center calls and data center opportunities. We've got the team working really hard. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:29:21The types of deals now that we're seeing, they're moving into those phases that are more meaningful and like you said, we can't give guidance, and we're not going to produce a pipeline or a backlog like that, but we're very excited. We feel like when we look at pricing in the marketplace, it does seem to be that everybody's catching up to us, and when the customers start to do the real TCO models, we're winning, and so it's just a matter of time for us to march down the field and get some of these over the goal line. Eric StineAnalyst at Craig-Hallum00:30:02Okay, I appreciate it. Thanks. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:30:05Thank you. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:30:06Thank you. Operator00:30:08Capstone will now answer a few of the questions that have been submitted from the webcast audience. Please go ahead. Company Representative at Capstone Energy+00:30:16Thank you. John, will the $25 million Goldman note be extended? John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:30:21Our plan is not to extend that note. We are working on a refinancing option on a commercial banking side. Company Representative at Capstone Energy+00:30:31Vince, has there been any evidence of price increases leading to lower volumes or softer volume being attributed to seasonality exclusivity? Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:30:40Good question. We did have a price increase last year, and surprisingly, I do not think that that softened any of these orders. We did not lose any deals because our prices went up. As a matter of fact, as I mentioned in response to Eric's question, we are starting to see the market come towards us. I do not think we are seeing anything that is softening volumes as a result of price increases. Company Representative at Capstone Energy+00:31:12How have pilot programs and other R&D initiatives trended since Q4? Has there been any substantial steps forward in any of them? Are there any customers the firm views as potential anchor customers? Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:31:27Yeah. We've made some good progress. As a matter of fact, just two weeks ago, we were on the phone with the CTO of a major infrastructure player in the data center space, and they are developing these 1.5 to 3 megawatt BDC Labs. We see great alignment there, so it was a very good conversation. We're moving the ball forward when it comes to doing some of these pilots. Quite frankly, some folks are just saying, "I don't need a pilot, I just need megawatts." Overall, I don't know if I would see that as an anchor customer as much as I would see it as an anchor partner. We're pretty excited with some of those pilots that we're working on right now. Company Representative at Capstone Energy+00:32:17Is Capstone expecting to buy out any more distributorships? Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:32:22Well, like we've said in the past, our goal is to not get rid of distribution. I like to look at it just like any other employee. If you're performing well, there's a retainage strategy. If you're not performing well, we put you on a PIP. That's been our approach. Yes, there's going to be opportunities for distributors, mainly where they're looking to either retire or sell the business. If it does make sense to bring it into the Capstone fold, we're going to take a good look at that. So it is possible that we will pick up some more territory. We've learned a lot from the California West territory, and I think the transition's gone really well, and it's given us a really good insight and a closer pulse to the customer base and what's happening in the market. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:33:18Our goal is not to get rid of distribution. We're not going to fix anything that's broken, but those that are broken, yes, we will fix that. Company Representative at Capstone Energy+00:33:27Can you discuss the 6.6 megawatt North Carolina swine waste to energy project, specifically the level of odor reduction being achieved in addition to the power generated? Given the broader challenges livestock facilities face around odor waste, and environmental impacts, do you see this type of application representing a larger addressable market for Capstone Energy+? Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:33:51Well, Kim, I love that question because as probably many of you have seen in some of our press releases, we're big fans of the circular economy. To me, that's the best way you can be a renewable source, is taking waste streams and converting them into something useful. At the end of the day, the animal waste is a big deal. Groundwater contamination, odor, all of those things. There's a lot of great technology that converts that waste into a useful syngas, and that's the really neat thing about the microturbine, is it has the ability to operate on a wide load range that many other pieces of equipment can't. That's what makes it useful and allows the asset to be fully utilized. So, we think it's a great opportunity, we think it's a great market to be in, and we'll continue to pursue those. Company Representative at Capstone Energy+00:34:51Thank you. That concludes the questions we've received from our webcast audience. Thank you to everyone who submitted a question and for your continued interest in Capstone Energy+. We have no further questions at this time, so I'll now turn the call back over to Vince Canino for his closing remarks. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:35:06Thanks, Kim. As I reflect on who Capstone was, who Capstone is today, and who we will continue to become, I would like to share a simple thought. Without value, discipline becomes rigidity. Without value, urgency becomes pressure. Without value, focus becomes selfishness, and we cannot have any of that. Without value, consistency can become routine. That is kind of boring. When we are anchored in value creation, real value creation, those same qualities become leadership multipliers. They give us the courage to dare greatly. They understand that extraordinary results are rarely achieved without getting the hundreds of little things right, day in and day out. When we create value, we build trust. When trust exists, we are comfortable taking calculated risks, learning from our mistakes, and they do happen, trust me. We iterate our way to success rather than expecting perfection on the first attempt. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:36:18It is this very culture of delivering value that is helping us make the strides necessary to become the very best version of Capstone that we can be. When we step back and we look at where the company stands today, it is remarkable to see how far we have come. Two years ago, our primary focus was stabilizing the business. Today, we are entering the next phase from a position of strength. We have built a stronger financial foundation. We now have a scalable manufacturing model capable of supporting future growth. The opportunities ahead of us are simply amazing, and we believe we are better positioned than ever to capitalize on them. I will say here and now, we will not do deals for the sake of doing a deal. We will not buy projects for the sake of an order or backlog. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:37:17We have seen that movie before, and it does not end well. Patience is what is required so that we may profitably grow, which in turn allows us to reinvest in the business and deliver stronger shareholder value. We wish to not have investors that are betting on us. We wish to have investors that believe in us. Our team remains focused, working with a sense of urgency, consistency, and discipline. We are competing on a stage of industry giants with hundreds of years of experience, but we are mighty. Our simplicity and technology elegance allows us to play on the very same stage and win. Thank you for your time, your patience, and your belief in Capstone Energy+. May you all have a great rest of your day. Operator00:38:10This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnectRead moreParticipantsExecutivesAlfredo GomezGeneral CounselVince CaninoPresident and CEOJohn MillerBoard Member and Interim CFOCompany RepresentativeAnalystsEric StineAnalyst at Craig-HallumPowered by Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Capstone Energy+ Earnings HeadlinesBest Green Energy Stocks To Keep An Eye On - August 21stAugust 24 at 3:02 AM | americanbankingnews.comCapstone Energy+ earnings call: margins up, risks loomAugust 21 at 8:31 PM | tipranks.comSilicon Valley Insider: "Forget AI Stocks"A 25-year Silicon Valley veteran who recommended Nvidia before its 32,000 percent run says the next wave of AI gains wont come from Nvidia, Tesla, or SpaceX. He points to a detail buried on page 37 of the SpaceX IPO filing, tied to Elon Musks plans for 1 million AI satellites, 1 billion humanoid robots, and 200 billion AI chips a year. He says one overlooked sector could benefit most from this spending, and has identified a company trading under $1 that may factor into Musks supply chain.August 24 at 1:00 AM | Brownstone Research (Ad)Capstone Energy+ Shareholders Approve Board and Governance ItemsAugust 21 at 6:10 PM | tipranks.comPromising Green Energy Stocks To Consider - August 16thAugust 19, 2026 | americanbankingnews.comBWS Financial Reiterates Buy Rating for Capstone Energy+ (NASDAQ:CEPL)August 19, 2026 | americanbankingnews.comSee More Capstone Energy+ Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Capstone Energy+? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Capstone Energy+ and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Capstone Energy+Capstone Green Energy Corporation provides carbon reduction and on-site resilient green energy solutions. 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Capstone Energy+ fiscal first quarter 2027 earnings conference call and webcast. Today's call will cover the company's financial results for the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, 2026. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following management's prepared remarks, we will take questions from covering analysts and invited institutional investors. As time permits, management will also address a limited number of questions submitted by investors through the webcast. If you are joining via webcast and would like to submit a question, please click the Q&A button located on your screen and enter your question. Questions may be submitted at any time during today's presentation. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Alfredo Gomez, General Counsel of Capstone Energy+. Alfredo, please go ahead. Alfredo GomezGeneral Counsel at Capstone Energy+00:01:10Thank you very much. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining Capstone Energy+'s Fiscal First Quarter 2027 Earnings Conference Call. On the call with me today are Vince Canino, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, and John Miller, the company's board member and interim Chief Financial Officer. Today, August 12, Capstone Energy+ issued its financial results for its fiscal first quarter 2027, which ended June 30, 2026. During today's call, we will be referring to slides that can be found on the company's website under the Investor Relations section. This conference call contains forward-looking statements representing the company's views as of today, August 12, 2026. Other than as required by federal securities laws, the company disclaims any obligation to update or revise these statements to reflect future events or circumstances. Alfredo GomezGeneral Counsel at Capstone Energy+00:02:03You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond our control. Please refer to the safe harbor provisions set forth on slide two of the accompanying presentation in today's earnings release and in Capstone's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Please note that as Mr. Canino and Mr. Miller go through the discussion today, when they mention EBITDA, they are referring to adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure, and the reconciliation to net income can be found in the earnings release and the appendix to the presentation slides. I would like to now turn the call over to Vince Canino, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:02:59Thank you, Alfredo, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join us today as we share our progress and outlook during what I believe is an exciting energy renaissance. Let's move to slide four. The first quarter of fiscal 2027 marked another important step in Capstone's evolution. During the quarter, we achieved several significant milestones that are worth highlighting. First, we officially launched our broader market identity as Capstone Energy+. Second, following our successful uplisting to NASDAQ, we began trading under the ticker symbol CEPL. Third, we continue to make meaningful progress in the data center market. While we have not yet signed a customer agreement, we are seeing a growing awareness and interest in how Capstone Energy+ can help address community concerns while enabling additional power generation capacity with lower emissions. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:03:59Customers increasingly understand the role our solutions can play in supporting this rapidly growing market. Before John Miller walks you through the financial results, let me frame what I believe is the most important takeaway from the quarter. What these results demonstrate is that we have built a business capable of navigating turbulence while continuing to generate profits. Despite these dynamics, our underlying earnings profile continued to improve. We expanded gross margin a full percentage point in products and accessories, mainly driven by our ongoing DFMA cost reduction initiatives. We generated positive net income and meaningfully stronger operating cash flow. That combination, despite a lower revenue base, achieved higher quality earnings. That is the real story of the quarter. It demonstrates that the cost discipline and operational rigor we have spent the past two years building are paying off. Our strategy has never depended on a single market opportunity. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:05:08Instead, it is built around providing resilient, on-site energy solutions wherever reliable power is needed. Our three-pillar framework continues to guide every decision we make. The question we ask ourselves each day is not how successful are we becoming? Instead, we ask, are we creating value for our customers and shareholders? Are we helping customers solve meaningful problems? Are we making those around us better? When we do these well, we build trust. When we build trust, we create impact. When we create impact, success becomes a byproduct rather than an objective. Now, let's move to slide five. This slide represents who Capstone is and why we exist. We are leaders in a technology that many attempted, many failed to perfect, and many ultimately walked away from. Yet Capstone persevered. At the heart of Capstone is an elegant technology, a single moving assembly riding on a cushion of air. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:06:22No friction, no oil, no coolant, no lubricants. No friction means lower noise. No oil means no oil carryover that can contaminate the combustion process. No coolant and no lubricants mean fewer auxiliary systems that can fail and take a unit offline. For more than three decades, we have proven this technology in the field, competing in an industry dominated by some of the world's largest power generation companies. It is true that we entered the behind the meter data center opportunity later than some others. However, we have created growing awareness and interest in Capstone Energy+ and the unique role our solutions can play. Through our technology and our decades of operating experience, we are helping customers think beyond how they generate, manage, and optimize energy. That is why we remain excited about the opportunities ahead. Now, let's move to slide 6. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:07:28As I mentioned earlier, we have been engaged in discussions with a wide range of companies across the data center ecosystem. As we developed our reference design and explored different energy strategies and deployment approaches, something interesting happened. During a visit by a major data center infrastructure company at our manufacturing facility, they asked the simple question: Can you whiteboard your value proposition? So we did. We began listing the reasons we believed Capstone Energy+ could be a compelling behind the meter power solution. As the conversation evolved, we worked together to categorize each benefit according to the value attributes that matter most to the data center operators. What emerged is something more authentic, more practical, and more closely aligned with the needs of the people who will ultimately deploy and operate the solution. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:08:27I'm not going to walk through every value attribute on this slide, particularly because we've discussed many of them on previous calls. However, there is one that deserves more attention, and that is speed to token. At its core, the economics are fairly simple. The sooner a data center becomes operational, the sooner compute capacity comes online. The sooner compute capacity comes online, the sooner tokens can be generated, monetized, and delivered to customers. Today, there are many factors that can delay that timeline. But in conversation after conversation, we continue to hear the same concern. How quickly can power be delivered to the chips? That is where Capstone simplicity becomes a meaningful advantage. As illustrated on this slide, there are essentially three primary requirements to bring our system online: a concrete pad, a natural gas connection, and an electrical connection. That's it. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:09:31There are no extensive auxiliary systems requiring additional foundations, piping networks, or complex support infrastructure. Because of our ultra-low emissions profile, customers can often avoid emissions abatement equipment and its ongoing costs. The result is a solution that is remarkably simple, clean, and fast to deploy. In a market where time to power increasingly translates to time to revenue, we believe that simplicity matters. Let's move on to our cost out case study on slide seven. I remember the first time I held an air bearing cartridge in my hands. The intricate EDM machining combined with a complex volute geometry produced on a five-axis milling machine was impressive. But when I asked our engineering team what it cost, the answer blew me away. More than $970 per cartridge. My immediate reaction was simple. There has to be a better way. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:10:34I challenged the team to run the component through our should-cost software. The team renegotiated with the incumbent supplier while simultaneously identifying, testing, and qualifying a second source. The result was a 57% cost reduction while eliminating a significant sole source supply chain risk. Simultaneously, we were able to lower product cost, reduce supply chain risk, and add capacity to support future growth. This is exactly what we mean when we talk about leaving no stone unturned in optimizing the business. With that, I'll turn the call over to John to review our financial results in more detail. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:11:20Thank you, Vince, and good afternoon, everyone. Before reviewing the individual outline items on slide eight, I'd like to provide some context around our first quarter performance. Q1 was another step forward in the ongoing improvement of our earnings profile. Although revenue decreased year-over-year due to lower product shipment volume and reduced rental utilization, we grew gross profit dollars, expanded gross margin by eight points, delivered positive operating income, and recorded our fourth consecutive quarter of positive net income and ninth consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA. The margin improvement was driven by the sale of previously rented microturbine systems, which more than offset the higher service costs this quarter relative to last year. Our product cost reduction programs continue to strengthen unit economics, and our continued disciplined management of SG&A allowed nearly all the additional gross profit to flow straight to the bottom line. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:12:17Looking ahead, we're focused on sustaining the cost improvements, strengthening performance and service on rentals, and converting our robust commercial pipeline into revenue, earnings, and cash flow. Let's move to slide nine. Total revenue for the first quarter was $24.9 million compared to $27.9 million in the prior year period. Product and accessories revenue is $13 million compared to $15.7 million in Q1 fiscal 2026. The decrease primarily reflected lower product shipment volume. As a reminder, product revenue in any given quarter is influenced by the size and delivery schedules of individual customer orders. Rental revenue is $2.2 million compared to $4.2 million in the prior year period, primarily reflecting lower fleet utilization amid uncertainty surrounding oil prices. These decreases were partially offset by parts and service revenue, which increased 14% to $9.7 million from $7.9 million. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:13:19Despite the lower top line, gross profit increased 16% to $8.8 million from $7.6 million, while gross margin expanded approximately 8 points to 35% from 27%. The improvement reflected a favorable product mix, including the sale of previously rented microturbine systems, the continued benefit of our cost reduction initiatives, and the contribution from distribution services. Product and accessories gross margin increased to 31% from 8% in the prior year period. While the sale of previously rented systems provided a favorable mix benefit, the year-over-year improvement also reflected the impact of the product cost reductions we have implemented. Parts and service gross margin was 41% compared to 53% in the prior year period. The decrease reflected higher claims under our Factory Protection Plan contracts and increased shipments of our higher cost parts associated with warranty claims, partially offset by the positive contribution from distribution services. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:14:23Rental gross margin was 36% compared to 52% in the prior year period, reflecting the impact of lower fleet utilization. Research and development expenses were $1.2 million, or approximately 5% of revenue, compared to $800,000, or approximately 3% of revenue in the prior year. The increase reflected continued investment in product enhancements, cost reduction initiatives, and technology development, including the company's 800-volt DC microturbine solution for AI data center applications, five PPM combustion liner, and other development programs. Selling general administrative expenses were $6.6 million compared to $6.9 million in the prior year period. The decrease reflected lower legal, consulting, rent, and bad debt expenses, partially offset by our investment in our sales capabilities. The combination of higher gross profit and disciplined operating expenses resulted in operating income approximately $1 million, compared to an operating loss of $200,000 in the prior year period. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:15:29Net income was approximately $37,000 compared to a net loss of $700,000 in Q1 fiscal 2026. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, was $2.7 million in each of Q1 fiscal 2027 and Q1 fiscal 2026. A reconciliation to net income is included in today's earnings release and in the appendix to this presentation. Reported net loss per share was $0.03 compared to a reported net loss per share of $0.04 in the prior year period. Although we generated positive consolidated net income, the calculation of earnings available to common stockholders included a $1 million non-cash reduction for cumulative paid-in-kind dividends accrued on the Series A convertible preferred. This resulted in a net loss per share. Now let us turn to slide 10 for a review of select balance sheet and cash flow items. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:16:20Cash and restricted cash totaled $32.3 million at June 30, 2026, compared to $28.9 million at year-end. Accounts receivable was $12.8 million on June 30, 2026, essentially unchanged from year-end. Total inventories, including current and non-current inventories, were $29.9 million on June 30, 2026, compared to $24.8 million at year-end. The increase reflected purchases of materials, accessories, and parts to support sales during the quarter, including long lead time materials to support future sales. This is an area we are managing carefully with the objective of maintaining sufficient inventory to support customer deliveries while improving inventory turns and avoiding any unnecessary use of working capital. Accounts payable and accrued expenses were $26.4 million on June 30 compared to $24.6 at year-end, primarily reflecting the level of purchasing activity and timing of vendor payments. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:17:21Overall, net cash provided by operating activities was $5.4 million compared to net cash used in operating activities of $1.6 million in the prior year. Q1 operating cash flow included a $3.7 million customer deposit associated with an order scheduled for delivery at the end of this year. Excluding that deposit, the quarter still demonstrated a significant year-over-year improvement in operating cash flow. Net cash used in investing activities was $1.4 million compared to $100,000 in the prior year period. The increase reflected deferred acquisition costs and expenditures for property, plant, and equipment, including rental assets. Net cash used in financing activities was $600,000 compared to $300,000 in the prior year period, primarily due to finance lease repayments and treasury stock activity. Finally, I want to address our exit notes, which have an outstanding balance of $25.3 million and mature in December 2026. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:18:22Given the progress we've made in our business, we believe we have a range of options available to us. We are evaluating these alternatives to refinance or repay the exit notes ahead of their maturity. We look forward to updating you all once we have something definitive to report. In summary, our financial priorities continue to be product cost reductions, margin improvement, converting inventory into revenue, and strengthening our cash generation. With that, I'll turn the presentation back to Vince. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:18:50Thanks, John. Moving to slide 11, we continue to make meaningful progress on our top four technology investments, and I'd like to briefly highlight where we stand today. We continue to run our 800-volt DC unit, and we have had a number of prospective customers witness the demonstration unit operating in real world conditions. This work is allowing us to think beyond the original application of 800-volt DC in data centers. We believe distributed generation could realize tremendous benefits from direct current generation at the local source. As more technologies migrate to DC operation, including LED lighting, electronics, battery systems, and other modern loads, the vision Thomas Edison originally had for widespread DC power may finally come full circle. And frankly, that's a pretty exciting thought. Turning to our five PPM combustion liner, we are now preparing the test protocols for cold weather testing. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:19:55Moving to the C250 engine program, development continues to progress and we have begun constructing our third test unit. Along the way, we are learning valuable lessons regarding the stator design and what we believe can improve both capacity and reliability for both the C250 and C200 platforms. On the heat recovery module, we are building our second prototype. This version incorporates cost reduction measures as well as new design features that we believe could further improve performance. Beyond these four programs, learnings from the liner and the C250 work have launched a broader efficiency initiative targeting incremental gains across the system. Individually, each of these improvements may be modest, but collectively, they add up. The common thread across all these initiatives is simple, challenge long-held assumptions, relentlessly pursue efficiency, and continue extracting more value from every component in the system. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:21:01I know that for several quarters we've talked about the work we're doing to improve scalability in the factory. Sometimes a picture is worth 1,000 words, so here it is in slide 12. This slide shows three examples of investments we made in our manufacturing operation, our vertical lift machine, our tube bending capability, and our in-house decal system. Each addresses a different part of the operation, but the objective is the same. Reduce wasted motion, lower cost, improve productivity, and increase our ability to scale. Importantly, several of these investments are now delivering returns well above our original expectations. No single project transforms a manufacturing operation. Extraordinary results come from getting hundreds of small things right day after day. That continuous improvement mindset is helping us build a more efficient, more scalable, and more profitable Capstone. Moving to slide 13. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:22:08Operationally, we continue to make considerable progress across the organization. We're improving factory flow, enhancing product quality, reducing product costs, and strengthening supplier readiness. In fact, as soon as we wrap up today's call, I'll be getting on a plane to meet one of our largest suppliers to discuss production ramp-up strategies. We have now increased the number of megawatts on our factory floor by nearly 4x while maintaining a disciplined approach to capacity expansion. Importantly, we have the ability to further increase production by adding shifts. The plans, resources, and infrastructure required to do that are already in place. However, we will only activate those plans as customer demand becomes committed. That discipline allows us to align supplier capacity, labor, quality systems, and working capital with confirmed customer orders rather than building fixed costs ahead of demand. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:23:13We believe that provides a more efficient path to growth while protecting profitability. As we look through the balance of fiscal 2027, our priorities remain clear. First, continue delivering profitable growth across diversified end markets. Second, further improve gross margins through product cost reductions and operational rigor. Third, strengthen operating cash conversion through disciplined working capital management. Finally, continue advancing our mission critical technology initiatives. We have built the foundation, we have strengthened the business, and now our focus is execution. We know where we're going, we're committed to the work it takes to get there, and we're ready for what comes next. With that, let's move to the Q&A session. Operator00:24:10We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. If you are joining via webcast and would like to submit a question, please click the Q&A button located on your screen and enter your question. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Eric Stine from Craig-Hallum. Your line is now open. Eric StineAnalyst at Craig-Hallum00:25:03Hey, John. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:25:06Hey, Eric, how are you? John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:25:07How's it going? Eric StineAnalyst at Craig-Hallum00:25:08Hey. Doing well, thanks. Maybe if we could just talk about some of the commercial momentum. I know not giving specifics in terms of orders and backlog, but would love to kind of get a sense of how things are trending, maybe by end market and what type of visibility that gives you over the remainder of the fiscal year. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:25:29Yeah, sure. It's something we've been talking about. In terms of the different end markets, obviously oil and gas has had a little bit of a slowdown. We saw that in the rental revenue. We had a number of megawatts that came off rent. We expected those to come back a lot faster, but some geopolitical things happened and it certainly has created some question marks around that. That's one area that certainly I think has had an impact, but the interest in behind the meter for the commercial and industrial space, I think still remains strong. It's just odd that the CapEx dollars are not being released as fast as we expected. The pipeline's not shrinking, it's growing, but it is taking longer than we expected for some of these deals to come over the line. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:26:29We do continue to see projects that are growing in megawatts, which that also could be the reason why these are taking a little bit longer. The other thing that we're seeing is there's more interest in the Energy as a Service offering, whether it's a lease-to-own model, which we can move rather quickly on. But the power purchase agreement model, that seems to be gaining some significant interest as well. When you get into PPAs, they just take longer to get done. Eric StineAnalyst at Craig-Hallum00:27:05Got it. I guess remainder of the year, fair to say you expect things to be solid, whether it's similar to this quarter or not. But, clearly positive given that you are expecting margin improvements throughout the year as well. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:27:24Yeah, I think that's true. The first quarter tends to be a softer quarter, although when we normalize out what happened last year with the big 6-megawatt order, then the big order we had this year on the rental buyout, we actually saw some growth in the first quarter on product side. The rental revenue hurt us a bit. We expect that the remaining quarters to track along and hopefully deliver what our expectations would be based on the pipeline that we're seeing. Eric StineAnalyst at Craig-Hallum00:28:01Okay. Maybe just for my second one. I know that you're committed to not necessarily talking about things unless it's something firm that you can discuss in data centers, but anything in terms of whether it's size of pipeline, quality of conversations, number of counterparties, anything along those lines would be great. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:28:29Sure. Look, a lot of the questions that are coming in online, I think every other question is around data centers, and we were even bashed to stop talking about decal printers and talk about data centers. But the reality is this, we need to get this business positioned and pointed north. We think we've done that, and that's why things like decal printers and other initiatives we've done that get our costs in line so that we can handle that kind of growth is really important. But I would say that I personally spend at least 30% or more of my time every week on data center calls and data center opportunities. We've got the team working really hard. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:29:21The types of deals now that we're seeing, they're moving into those phases that are more meaningful and like you said, we can't give guidance, and we're not going to produce a pipeline or a backlog like that, but we're very excited. We feel like when we look at pricing in the marketplace, it does seem to be that everybody's catching up to us, and when the customers start to do the real TCO models, we're winning, and so it's just a matter of time for us to march down the field and get some of these over the goal line. Eric StineAnalyst at Craig-Hallum00:30:02Okay, I appreciate it. Thanks. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:30:05Thank you. John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:30:06Thank you. Operator00:30:08Capstone will now answer a few of the questions that have been submitted from the webcast audience. Please go ahead. Company Representative at Capstone Energy+00:30:16Thank you. John, will the $25 million Goldman note be extended? John MillerBoard Member and Interim CFO at Capstone Energy+00:30:21Our plan is not to extend that note. We are working on a refinancing option on a commercial banking side. Company Representative at Capstone Energy+00:30:31Vince, has there been any evidence of price increases leading to lower volumes or softer volume being attributed to seasonality exclusivity? Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:30:40Good question. We did have a price increase last year, and surprisingly, I do not think that that softened any of these orders. We did not lose any deals because our prices went up. As a matter of fact, as I mentioned in response to Eric's question, we are starting to see the market come towards us. I do not think we are seeing anything that is softening volumes as a result of price increases. Company Representative at Capstone Energy+00:31:12How have pilot programs and other R&D initiatives trended since Q4? Has there been any substantial steps forward in any of them? Are there any customers the firm views as potential anchor customers? Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:31:27Yeah. We've made some good progress. As a matter of fact, just two weeks ago, we were on the phone with the CTO of a major infrastructure player in the data center space, and they are developing these 1.5 to 3 megawatt BDC Labs. We see great alignment there, so it was a very good conversation. We're moving the ball forward when it comes to doing some of these pilots. Quite frankly, some folks are just saying, "I don't need a pilot, I just need megawatts." Overall, I don't know if I would see that as an anchor customer as much as I would see it as an anchor partner. We're pretty excited with some of those pilots that we're working on right now. Company Representative at Capstone Energy+00:32:17Is Capstone expecting to buy out any more distributorships? Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:32:22Well, like we've said in the past, our goal is to not get rid of distribution. I like to look at it just like any other employee. If you're performing well, there's a retainage strategy. If you're not performing well, we put you on a PIP. That's been our approach. Yes, there's going to be opportunities for distributors, mainly where they're looking to either retire or sell the business. If it does make sense to bring it into the Capstone fold, we're going to take a good look at that. So it is possible that we will pick up some more territory. We've learned a lot from the California West territory, and I think the transition's gone really well, and it's given us a really good insight and a closer pulse to the customer base and what's happening in the market. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:33:18Our goal is not to get rid of distribution. We're not going to fix anything that's broken, but those that are broken, yes, we will fix that. Company Representative at Capstone Energy+00:33:27Can you discuss the 6.6 megawatt North Carolina swine waste to energy project, specifically the level of odor reduction being achieved in addition to the power generated? Given the broader challenges livestock facilities face around odor waste, and environmental impacts, do you see this type of application representing a larger addressable market for Capstone Energy+? Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:33:51Well, Kim, I love that question because as probably many of you have seen in some of our press releases, we're big fans of the circular economy. To me, that's the best way you can be a renewable source, is taking waste streams and converting them into something useful. At the end of the day, the animal waste is a big deal. Groundwater contamination, odor, all of those things. There's a lot of great technology that converts that waste into a useful syngas, and that's the really neat thing about the microturbine, is it has the ability to operate on a wide load range that many other pieces of equipment can't. That's what makes it useful and allows the asset to be fully utilized. So, we think it's a great opportunity, we think it's a great market to be in, and we'll continue to pursue those. Company Representative at Capstone Energy+00:34:51Thank you. That concludes the questions we've received from our webcast audience. Thank you to everyone who submitted a question and for your continued interest in Capstone Energy+. We have no further questions at this time, so I'll now turn the call back over to Vince Canino for his closing remarks. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:35:06Thanks, Kim. As I reflect on who Capstone was, who Capstone is today, and who we will continue to become, I would like to share a simple thought. Without value, discipline becomes rigidity. Without value, urgency becomes pressure. Without value, focus becomes selfishness, and we cannot have any of that. Without value, consistency can become routine. That is kind of boring. When we are anchored in value creation, real value creation, those same qualities become leadership multipliers. They give us the courage to dare greatly. They understand that extraordinary results are rarely achieved without getting the hundreds of little things right, day in and day out. When we create value, we build trust. When trust exists, we are comfortable taking calculated risks, learning from our mistakes, and they do happen, trust me. We iterate our way to success rather than expecting perfection on the first attempt. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:36:18It is this very culture of delivering value that is helping us make the strides necessary to become the very best version of Capstone that we can be. When we step back and we look at where the company stands today, it is remarkable to see how far we have come. Two years ago, our primary focus was stabilizing the business. Today, we are entering the next phase from a position of strength. We have built a stronger financial foundation. We now have a scalable manufacturing model capable of supporting future growth. The opportunities ahead of us are simply amazing, and we believe we are better positioned than ever to capitalize on them. I will say here and now, we will not do deals for the sake of doing a deal. We will not buy projects for the sake of an order or backlog. Vince CaninoPresident and CEO at Capstone Energy+00:37:17We have seen that movie before, and it does not end well. Patience is what is required so that we may profitably grow, which in turn allows us to reinvest in the business and deliver stronger shareholder value. We wish to not have investors that are betting on us. We wish to have investors that believe in us. Our team remains focused, working with a sense of urgency, consistency, and discipline. We are competing on a stage of industry giants with hundreds of years of experience, but we are mighty. Our simplicity and technology elegance allows us to play on the very same stage and win. Thank you for your time, your patience, and your belief in Capstone Energy+. May you all have a great rest of your day. Operator00:38:10This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnectRead moreParticipantsExecutivesAlfredo GomezGeneral CounselVince CaninoPresident and CEOJohn MillerBoard Member and Interim CFOCompany RepresentativeAnalystsEric StineAnalyst at Craig-HallumPowered by