Drilling Tools International Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
August 7, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Management reaffirmed 2026 guidance of $155 million–$170 million in revenue, $35 million–$45 million in adjusted EBITDA, and $17 million–$22 million in adjusted free cash flow, implying a substantially stronger second half.
  • Positive Sentiment: Although global rig activity declined, DTI reported $38.1 million of second-quarter revenue, $8.4 million of adjusted EBITDA, and $4.1 million of adjusted free cash flow. Tool-rental gross margin remained above 70%, while U.S. and Canadian activity improved late in the quarter and into July.
  • Positive Sentiment: ClearPath stabilizer technology is gaining traction in high-value offshore and complex-well markets, particularly Europe and Norway, with new awards expected to materially increase international revenue in the second half and support growth into 2027.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Geopolitical disruption continued to affect Middle East operations, causing intermittent starts, stops, and rig movements; however, management said demand for its specialized tools remained steady and cited momentum in Oman, Kuwait, the UAE, and other markets.
  • Negative Sentiment: DTI plans to maintain elevated capital expenditures for ClearPath equipment rather than follow its typical second-half reduction, which could push full-year free cash flow toward the low end of guidance. Net debt rose modestly to $51.7 million, though management expects future cash flow to focus primarily on debt reduction.
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Earnings Conference Call
Drilling Tools International Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Greetings. Welcome to Drilling Tools International's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Ken Dennard, Investor Relations. Please proceed. Thank you.

Ken Dennard
Ken Dennard
Investor Relations at Drilling Tools International

Thank you operator. Good morning everyone. We appreciate your joining us for Drilling Tools International's 2026 second quarter conference call and webcast. With me today are Wayne Prejean, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer. Following my remarks, management will provide a review of second quarter results and 2026 outlook before opening the call for your questions. There'll be a replay of today's call that'll be available by webcast on the company's website, and that's drillingtools.com. There'll also be a telephonic recorded replay available until August 14th. Please note that any information reported on this call speaks only as of today, August 7th, 2026, and therefore, you're advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay listening or transcript reading.

Ken Dennard
Ken Dennard
Investor Relations at Drilling Tools International

Also, comments on this call will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements reflect the current views of DTI's management. However, various risks and uncertainties and contingencies could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in the statements made by management. The listener or reader is encouraged to read the annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K to understand certain of those risks, uncertainties, and contingencies. The comments today will also include certain non-GAAP financial measures, including but not limited to Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted free cash flow. They should not be considered in isolation from the most directly comparable GAAP measures.

Ken Dennard
Ken Dennard
Investor Relations at Drilling Tools International

A discussion of why we believe the non-GAAP measures are useful to investors, certain limitations of using these measures, and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measure can be found in the earnings release or in our filings with the SEC. Now with that behind me, I'd like to turn the call over to Wayne Prejean. Wayne.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

Thanks, Ken, and good morning everyone. I will provide some opening remarks before handing the call over to David to review the financials and outlook. I will then come back and provide a few additional thoughts before we open it up for questions. I am pleased with our performance in the second quarter. Our team continues to deliver resilient results, and we are building solid momentum across the business. Despite a global rig count that declined nearly 4% sequentially, remains down year-over-year, and with considerable disruption in the Middle East, where the rig count fell almost 7% in the quarter and accounted for roughly half the global decline impacting activity levels for much of Q2. We generated $38.1 million of revenue, $8.4 million of Adjusted EBITDA, and strong adjusted free cash flow of $4.1 million.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

This marks a notable step-up in cash flow from both the first quarter of 2026 and the second quarter a year ago. It is evident that the strength of our business model, disciplined execution, and geographic diversification is creating earnings power that will only grow as activity improves. In North America, there were a few dynamics that shaped the second quarter, some of which will continue to evolve and are expected to support stronger results later in the year. The quarter opened up with the seasonal Canadian breakup trough, which took roughly 50 rigs out of the North American rig count in April, while U.S. operators held activity broadly flat as they gauged the impact and duration of the initial Iran conflict. We, and the rest of the market, expected the pause to be short-lived.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

As oil prices spiked and the world began to feel the supply shock of the Strait of Hormuz blockade, we were proven right. The North American rig count built steadily through the quarter and stands at 777 rigs in July, more than 70 rigs or 10% above the second quarter average, which is encouraging as we contemplate the remainder of 2026. On U.S. land and based on our own fleet activity, we are seeing additions of bottom-hole assembly rigs outpace the broader rig count increase. This is a positive indication for the largest part of our business, and we anticipate improved utilization domestically in the coming months. In Canada, activity ran ahead of prior year levels throughout the quarter, though the recovery from breakup has been flatter than we anticipated, given its earlier start. July activations at 193 rigs, the highest since February, signaled that softness has largely abated.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

Turning to the Eastern Hemisphere, the story is one of stability today, but our operations are gaining momentum, and we are building for the future. In the Middle East, the ongoing regional conflict continued to create operational disruption in the second quarter with intermittent starts and stops and rig moves that tempered what would otherwise have been a stronger contribution. However, as we noted last quarter, our experience in the region differs from that of larger, diversified service companies. Our lean operations and specialized product focus have kept demand for our tools steady through the recent volatility, with limited headcount and little to no additional resources needed. To reemphasize, our Eastern Hemisphere is the most transformative, where activity is building, utilization is improving, and industry outlook is strengthening. Our ClearPath stabilizer technology is gaining real traction in offshore markets, where the highest-spec operators are placing a premium on its performance.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

We anticipate new awards to drive a material step up in our European contribution in the second half of the year. We are investing ahead of that work today by harvesting capital from our more mature markets and redeploying it into these higher return international opportunities. This will make the back half of 2026 look meaningfully different from the first half, with a runway that extends well into 2027. More broadly, we are encouraged by our recent conversations with customers. We have seen market share gains in recent months, even as we hold firm on price. Their return reflects our reliability, the quality of our tools, and the specialized equipment that today's high-performance wells demand, a combination that very few competitors can match.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

We pride ourselves on customer service and delivering a significant value proposition. Operators are increasingly recognizing that dependable service and reliable performance lower the total cost of the well. In this improving environment, we are winning business on stronger commercial terms and seeing higher tool utilization. After several quarters of pricing compression, we believe that pressure has stabilized. Much of this momentum arrived late in the quarter, its benefit was muted in our Q2 results, but it positions us well for the remainder of 2026. Looking forward, we anticipate results to improve materially in the second half of the year, driven by a step change in activity in Europe and North Africa and an early-stage recovery in the U.S. We expect these benefits to continue building over the next 12 to 18 months.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

Further, we are seeing steady traction in various offshore markets around the world. Our differentiated technology portfolio positions us well to capture that work. Taken together, this gives us real confidence in our full-year outlook. As a result, we reaffirmed our 2026 guidance ranges in yesterday's earnings release. I'll pass it over to David to take you through the results in greater detail and provide an update on our 2026 outlook. David?

David Johnson
David Johnson
CFO at Drilling Tools International

Thank you, Wayne. In yesterday's earnings release, we provided detailed second quarter financial tables. I'll use this time to offer further insight into specific financial metrics. We generated total consolidated revenue of $38.1 million during the second quarter, with tool rental revenue of $29.6 million and product sales revenue totaling $8.5 million. Net loss attributable to stockholders for the second quarter was approximately $1.8 million, or a loss of $0.05 per share. Adjusted net loss was $575,000, or an adjusted loss per share of $0.02. Second quarter Adjusted EBITDA was $8.4 million, and adjusted free cash flow was approximately $4.1 million. I'll offer a bit more color on the movement in tool rental revenue and margins. The year-over-year decline reflects the combination of softer North American land activity.

David Johnson
David Johnson
CFO at Drilling Tools International

The U.S. land rig count averaged approximately 541 rigs in the second quarter, down roughly 3% from the same period last year, a lengthy spring breakup in Canada, and some continued pricing pressure in certain areas of our rental business. Even with that compression, our tool rental gross margin remained above 70%, which we view as a strong baseline that validates the underlying quality of the business. As Wayne mentioned, the activity began to improve and commercial terms firmed up toward the end of the second quarter. The U.S. land rig count added more than 20 rigs in June alone and finished the quarter above the prior year June level. That momentum has carried into the third quarter with the U.S. count up nearly 19 rigs again in July.

David Johnson
David Johnson
CFO at Drilling Tools International

As our value-added product lines continue to gain traction with operators, we expect to benefit from leverage on improved margins alongside higher revenue. Capital expenditures in the second quarter were approximately $4.2 million compared to $7.7 million in the first quarter of this year. As Wayne mentioned earlier, we plan to make further strategic investments in our ClearPath technology to support our clients in the Norwegian market, as well as other offshore opportunities. This means CapEx will not taper in the same significant fashion it usually does in the back half of the year. Maintenance CapEx for the second quarter was approximately 12% of total revenue. As we always like to remind everyone on this topic, our maintenance CapEx is primarily funded by tool recovery revenue, which keeps our rental tool fleet relevant and sustainable regardless of market trends.

David Johnson
David Johnson
CFO at Drilling Tools International

Turning to the balance sheet, as of June 30th, 2026, we had $2.5 million of cash and cash equivalents and net debt of $51.7 million. Net debt increased modestly during the second quarter, primarily reflecting the Norway investment we flagged last quarter. That opportunity carries an attractive return profile and will deliver a strong return as the work ramps up through the second half of 2026 and into 2027. Beyond our continued capital deployment in Norway in the third quarter, improved cash flow over the remainder of the year will be geared primarily toward debt reduction, consistent with how we have managed the business historically. We expect to return to an improved leverage ratio year-over-year. Turning to our geographic segment mix, our Eastern Hemisphere segment remained an important contributor in the second quarter at approximately 18% of DTI's total revenue.

David Johnson
David Johnson
CFO at Drilling Tools International

As activity and utilization improve, the conflict in the Middle East stabilizes, we realize the anticipated inflection in our Eastern Hemisphere operations, we expect this segment to play an increasingly meaningful role in our overall results in the coming quarters. Our Western Hemisphere segment continues to represent the bulk of our business. We are encouraged by recent rig additions and the opportunity that presents DTI after a prolonged period of activity decline. As Wayne mentioned, we are reaffirming our 2026 full-year guidance ranges. 2026 revenue is expected to be in the range of $155 million-$170 million. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be within the range of $35 million-$45 million. Finally, we continue to expect 2026 adjusted free cash flow in the range of $17 million-$22 million.

David Johnson
David Johnson
CFO at Drilling Tools International

Given our results year to date, these ranges imply a stronger second half of the year, including substantial free cash flow generation. Importantly, these ranges also account for our elevated CapEx plan, consisting of targeted spending on our ClearPath stabilizer technology to support the Norwegian growth opportunities, which are tied to long-term rental agreements. While this investment may bring our full-year adjusted free cash flow toward the lower end of our range, we view it as an attractive, high return use of capital that will support durable revenue growth in the second half of 2026 and beyond. We remain confident in our full-year trajectory. Finally, before turning the call back to Wayne, I wanted to briefly revisit an important milestone for DTI that occurred during the second quarter. Our former sponsor, HHEP, completed its share distribution to its limited partners during the second quarter.

David Johnson
David Johnson
CFO at Drilling Tools International

We discussed this at length on our last call, it bears repeating. Following the HHEP distribution, approximately 90% of outstanding shares are held in the public float. This positions DTI as a fully independent public company with broad ownership profile and significantly improving trade liquidity. That concludes my financial review and outlook section. I will now turn the call back over to Wayne for closing comments.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

Thank you, David. We entered the second half of 2026 in a unique and exciting position. Much of the first half was marred by macro uncertainty, geopolitical turbulence, volatile commodity prices, and the customer prudence that followed. While some of that persists, we are seeing encouraging momentum across several regions. These point to the elevated activity and improved utilization that translate directly to our results. DTI is winning new business, improving commercial terms, gaining market share, and is well-positioned as the Middle East rebounds. Collectively, this enables us to finish the year strong. We are committed to improving our market presence through consistent execution, technological innovation and differentiation, and operational excellence, we will continue to prioritize profitable growth and shareholder value above all else. Before we open the call for questions, I would like to highlight a few key takeaways.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

We have seen early signs of recovery in the U.S. Both activity levels and commercial terms improved as the second quarter progressed. As I mentioned, much of that momentum arrived late in the quarter, and its benefit was muted for our Q2 results. This gives us a real tailwind heading into the second half of 2026. Our recent wins in offshore markets are expected to drive a meaningful step up in our European and U.S. Gulf of Mexico business in the back half of the year, led by the traction of our ClearPath technology is gaining in high-value offshore and complex well markets. We believe these will represent the first of many wins to come as we continue to demonstrate the advantages of this exciting technology.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

In the Middle East, we are holding serve through a disruptive period with steady demand for our tools and substantial opportunities still ahead of us. We continue to win new work, and our Deep Casing Tools and Drill-N-Ream product lines are contributing to our growing Eastern Hemisphere story. Finally, we are reaffirming our full 2026 guidance ranges, which would indicate a strong second half, one that builds steadily throughout the third and fourth quarters rather than arriving all at once. Activity increases in major operating areas and rising international utilization give us confidence in our ability to deliver on previously disclosed outlook despite a softer start to the year. In closing, DTI remains a disciplined consolidator in a fragmented industry with a platform that positions us to be an effective acquirer as the right opportunities present themselves.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

As always, we will remain prudent and disciplined when pursuing only the opportunities that strengthen our already strong platform and create lasting value for our shareholders. I want to thank every member of the DTI organization for their continued commitment to working in a safe, inspired, and productive manner, with special thanks to our personnel in the Middle East who continue to operate in a challenging environment. Our employees' commitment and dedication have been essential in navigating a constantly evolving energy landscape and are central to the success and future growth we are building together. With that, we will now take your questions. Operator?

Operator

Thank you. We will now conduct a question and answer session. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in a question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Once again, that's star one at this time. One moment while we pull with the first question. First question comes from Steve Ferazani with Sidoti & Company. Please proceed.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

Morning, Wayne. Morning, Dave. Appreciate the detail on the call this morning.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

Yeah.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

Wayne, you're maintaining guidance. Good quarter. You're maintaining guidance. The guidance at the midpoint implies pretty solid year-over-year and sequential growth in the second half. What I'm curious about is how much you're breaking that apart for North America versus international, and if you can give us a sense of what you're thinking on U.S. drilling or North American drilling activity into the second half and what's built into that guidance. Trending well, but there's still certainly a fair amount of uncertainty out there.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

Well, we're kind of relying on Canada rebounding, which has been really helpful, and it's such a bright spot for a strong component of our business. The U.S. is rebounding nicely with a few little ripples in the water every now and then. There's a couple of folks drop rigs, but other people pick them right back up. There seems to be a shifting plus additions going on. It hasn't been just a direct upward trend, which we see the rig count rising, of course, but there's been some shuffling around from one operator to another. I think the higher commodity prices and the confidence in the market going forward lends itself to a greater degree of more and more activity throughout the second half of the year.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

Internationally, we're making big strides with some of our new technology launches in different markets, particularly offshore market, high-spec, high-value markets. That's gaining traction. Despite this Middle East volatility, which has been very challenging, we seem to be gaining momentum in countries like Oman, Kuwait, and other places. Then a little bit of traction in ADNOC and UAE. Saudi's still been kind of an opportunity, but still not as much traction as we'd like. There's been some disruptions in their offshore operations where they picked up rigs, but with the ongoing conflict, they've had to suspend operations and continue operations and suspend them again. Those disruptions have just caused delays in some of the activity expectations we had.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

You note Canada is a particularly strong market for you. We're getting a sense of a lot of positive momentum there, given the government seems to be more pro oil and gas than the previous one. They're fast-tracking a lot of infrastructure projects, trying to increase egress. Are you getting that sense from your customers that there's this momentum, and it could drive well into 2027?

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

Yeah. I think the Alberta government, and particularly some of the provincial governments are high on takeaway capacity and midstream, and that lends itself well to the operators' ability to increase their production and continue their momentum forward. Yes, we are seeing a higher rig count activity in Canada year-over-year from last year's counts, and we'll see if that plays out in the peak winter drilling season coming up here

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

Right

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

The next few months.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

Helpful. Can you talk about how you've generated such success with the ClearPath stabilizer that was part of one of your acquisitions, how that has ramped so quickly?

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

It started out as just mostly a geometric design, and it's evolved into systems approach to high-value applications, and it's just taken a while to develop the confidence and the repeatable data results to enable the value proposition to flow through to the client. One of the greatest opportunities with this technology, it increases operators' ability to use managed pressure drilling, lower their equivalent circulating density so they can have an overall improved hydraulic profile when they drill these wells.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

I don't want to go into the weeds on drilling techniques, but that's a very important component of deep water drilling operations around the world and many other drilling operations around the world, where MPD, managed pressure drilling, is becoming more and more prevalent and important in managing those different profiles in how the well is drilled and how they plan their casing and so on, is critical in the success and economic value of how they drill these wells. We are able to contribute to that, and anytime you can contribute to those type of solutions, you usually get rewarded.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

Fair enough. David, you mentioned the higher CapEx expected for some of this newer value add equipment in the Eastern Hemisphere. Did you provide a range or a guidance to CapEx, and how should we be thinking about that? Obviously, if the demand is there, we'd want to see you build out as much as you can.

David Johnson
David Johnson
CFO at Drilling Tools International

Yeah, Steve. Thanks for the question. Good question. I think, yeah, the way we kind of framed it was, we just don't expect the ramp down that we kind of typically have in CapEx spending in the second half of the year in support of this technology. Obviously, yeah, that's going to kind of lend us to be on the higher end of our CapEx and lower end of our free cash flow guide. Obviously doing all that with all the other improvements that you kind of heard, both Western Hem, Eastern Hem combined, kind of moving us, you would have to imply more toward the midpoint of our revenue and EBITDA numbers to kind of come in that range.

David Johnson
David Johnson
CFO at Drilling Tools International

Obviously the compelling part is a lot of those benefits in that late kind of half of the year investment flow into 2027 as well.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

Right. Wayne, when we think about the success of some of these acquisitions, does it give you confidence to be out there finding new potential targets? Does it change the way you'll judge them when you see the success of something like ClearPath stabilizer? Does it get you focused on, hey, this equipment isn't well-known, but on our platform, we can really aggressively market this and show the performance better? Is it product-driven M&A more than necessarily what you're about the business?

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

Well, we have a backlog of opportunities we're always working on and evaluating in different categories, whether it's a technological advantage or some sort of clever product line that's operating disguised as a company. We're also looking at more significant things. There are companies out there that we have our eyes on, but we're always working on something. We always have things working in the background. Yeah, so.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

How are valuations looking out there?

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

Yeah. We continue to incubate opportunities because we've made it clear that our growth opportunity is through M&A, layered in with technology to continue our organic initiatives, which you always have to have those in motion with your clients, so.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti & Company

Got it. Thanks, Wayne. Thanks, David.

David Johnson
David Johnson
CFO at Drilling Tools International

Thanks, Steve.

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude our question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments.

Wayne Prejean
Wayne Prejean
Chairman and CEO at Drilling Tools International

Well, thank you. Thanks everyone for listening. We have a lot of momentum going into the second half of this year and going into 2027. We feel like with the activity support and our momentum from technology acquisitions and other acquisitions is giving us all the support we need to deliver solid results going forward. Thank you for your interest and look forward to the next call.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.

Executives
    • Ken Dennard
      Ken Dennard
      Investor Relations
    • Wayne Prejean
      Wayne Prejean
      Chairman and CEO
    • David Johnson
      David Johnson
      CFO
Analysts
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