Ducommun Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 6, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Record second-quarter performance: Revenue rose 12% year over year to $224.5 million, while adjusted EBITDA increased to $38.4 million, or 17.1% of sales. Adjusted EPS was $1.18 versus $0.90 a year ago.
  • Positive Sentiment: Defense and missile momentum accelerated. Missile revenue grew 68% in the quarter, supported by programs including PAC-3, SM-6, AMRAAM, Tomahawk and Naval Strike Missile; management expects significantly higher production on several programs over the next few years.
  • Positive Sentiment: Backlog and commercial aerospace trends were strong. Remaining performance obligations reached a record $1.16 billion, with a 1.4x quarterly book-to-bill, while commercial aerospace revenue grew 16% on higher Boeing and Airbus production plus a multiyear 737 MAX retrofit opportunity.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Management reiterated full-year 2026 revenue guidance of mid- to high-single-digit growth, but expects low- to mid-single-digit growth in the third and fourth quarters because some production was pulled forward into the first half. Commercial aerospace destocking is expected to persist through year-end, although it is gradually easing.
  • Positive Sentiment: Margin expansion and strategic options remain key catalysts. Gross margin improved to 28%, facility-consolidation savings are largely realized, liquidity stood at $410 million, and management signaled continued M&A activity and additional strategic details at its September Investor Day.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Ducommun Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

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Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Ducommun second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Mr. Suman Mookerji, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

Thank you, and welcome to Ducommun's 2026 second quarter conference call. With me today is Steve Oswald, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer. I'm going to discuss certain limitations to any forward-looking statements regarding future events, projections, or performance that we may make during the prepared remarks or the Q&A session that follows. Certain statements today that are not historical facts, including any statements as to the company's progress and value creation opportunity for shareholders under our Vision 2027 game plan for investors, beliefs about the company's Vision 2032 strategic plan, potential destocking headwinds and their impact on the company's business for the remainder of 2026, expectations related to the U.S.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

Department of War's long-term framework agreements for key missile programs with defense primes, our share of potential orders from those primes, the increase in production on many of those missile programs and their impact on the growth of our defense business, estimated synergies to be realized under the company's facility consolidation projects, and the outlook for the company's revenue and commercial aerospace and defense businesses for the full year 2026 are forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are therefore prospective. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

In addition, estimates of future operating results are based on the company's current business, which is subject to change. Particular risks facing Ducommun include, amongst others, the cyclicality of our end-use markets, the level of U.S. government defense spending. Our customers may experience changes in production rates or delays in the launch and certification of new products. Timing of orders from our customers, which are subject to cancellation, modification or rescheduling. Our ability to obtain additional financing and service existing debt to fund capital expenditures and meet our working capital needs. Legal and regulatory risks, including pending litigation matters generally, and as well as any potential losses arising from third-party subrogation claims related to the government's performance under fire that may become material. The cost of expansion, consolidation, and acquisitions. Competition, economic, and geopolitical developments, including supply chain issues.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

Our ability to successfully implement restructuring, realignment, and cost reduction activities that could adversely affect our ability to achieve our strategic objectives. International trade restrictions and our ability to obtain necessary U.S. government approvals for proposed sales to certain foreign customers. The impact of tariffs and elevated interest rates. Risks associated with a prolonged, partial, or total U.S. federal government shutdown. The ability to attract and retain key personnel and avoid labor disruptions. The ability to adequately protect and enforce intellectual property rights. Pandemics, disasters, natural or otherwise, and risk of cybersecurity attacks. Please refer to our annual report on Form 10-K/A, quarterly report on Form 10-Q, and other reports filed from time to time with the SEC, as well as the press release issued today for a detailed discussion of the risks. Our forward-looking statements are subject to those risks.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

Statements made during this call are only as of the time made, and we do not intend to update any statements made in this presentation, except if and as required by regulatory authorities. This call also includes non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our filings with the SEC for a reconciliation of the GAAP to non-GAAP measures referenced on this call. We filed our Q2 2026 quarterly report on Form 10-Q with the SEC today. I would now like to turn the call over to Steve Oswald for a review of the operating results. Steve?

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Okay. Thank you, Suman. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today for our second quarter conference call. Today, as usual, I'll give an update of the current situation at the company, after which Suman will review our financials in detail. Let me start off again on this quarterly call with Ducommun's Vision 2027 game plan for our investors, as we continue to make great progress in our fourth year of the plan, heading into the final year of the Vision starting this January. The strategy and Vision were developed out of the COVID pandemic over the summer and fall of 2022, unanimously approved by the Ducommun board in November 2022, and then presented the following month in New York to investors, where we had excellent feedback.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Since that time, Ducommun's management has been executing the strategy by increasing the revenue percentage of engineered product content, which is at 23% over the past year and up from 15% in 2022. Consolidating our rooftop footprint in contract manufacturing. Continuing our focused acquisition program. Executing the offloading strategy with defense primes in high growth segments. Driving value-added pricing, and expanding content on key commercial aerospace platforms. All of us here, as well as my fellow board members, continue to have a high level of conviction in the Vision 2027 strategy and financial goals and believe the market catalysts ahead present a unique value creation opportunity for our shareholders. The Q2 2026 results show again that the strategy initiatives are working.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

With gross and adjusted EBITDA margins continuing to stay on track to meet and exceed our Vision 2027 goals, along with revenues and the level of engineered products and aftermarket at the company. For Q2, I'm very happy to report that revenues reached the new quarterly record of $224 million, 12% growth over last year, our fifth consecutive quarter of over $200 million in revenue, and our 21st consecutive quarter with year-over-year revenue growth. We had strong growth across all our end markets, with commercial aerospace in particular showing continued strength this year with 16% year-over-year growth, a very positive sign. We saw production and deliveries continue to ramp, driven by higher OEM production rates and a gradual easing of the destocking impact. In addition, we benefited from new aftermarket content that drove incremental retrofit revenues on the 737 MAX.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

We still expect some destocking to remain as a headwind through the end of this year. The situation is improving. Military and space revenues grew 7% with continued strength in our missile portfolio and fixed-wing aircraft, partially offset by temporary weakness in our radar, space and naval revenues. During the quarter, we also pulled ahead some production activity and associated revenues from the second half to level load production at our plants ahead of higher delivery commitments in the second half of this year. Another major highlight in Q2 was the company's remaining performance obligations continued growth, reaching a record $1.16 billion, which is over $250 million higher than prior year, and $85 million higher than just last quarter. This represents a book-to-bill ratio of 1.4x in the quarter and 1.3x over the last 12 months.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

We added more than a quarter's worth of revenue to our backlog in the last year, which is fantastic. Our defense business RPO grew $197 million year-over-year, and commercial aerospace grew $54 million. We closed on $310 million of bookings in Q2, and have closed on $1.1 billion in the past 12 months. It still does not include our share of potential orders from defense primes under the seven-year missile framework agreements, which are still being negotiated by RTX and the government. Also happy to see it is now completed as of last month for the PAC-3 and THAAD at Lockheed and L3Harris.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

We continue to have discussions with the defense primes to support them on these major agreements. Are well positioned as the incumbent supplier of many of the programs, which is great news for DCO and shareholders. Production on many of these missile programs, such as the Tomahawk, PAC-3, and Standard Missile 3 and 6 are expected to grow several fold. This will be a big driver of growth for the DCO defense business over the next few years. Our performance centers are prepared for this increase in production, with most capacity already in place, and we will hit the ground running once the orders begin to flow. Gross margin grew by $9.9 million in the second quarter to 28%, a 160-basis point improvement from 26.4% last year in Q2.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

We continue to see the benefits of our Vision 2027 strategy in gross margin expansion due to DCO's engineered product portfolio with aftermarket, strategic value pricing initiatives, restructuring actions, and productivity improvements reading through to the P&L. Our cost-saving expectations of $13 million annually from our facility consolidation program has mostly realized at this time. For adjusted operating income margin in Q2, the team delivered 11.9%, well above the prior year of 10.2%. This was supported by growth in adjusted operating income margins in both our operating segments. Adjusted EBITDA continues to improve towards our Vision 2027 goal of 18% in 2027 from 13% in 2022. DCO achieved 17.1% in the quarter or $38.4 million, up $6.7 million from Q2 2025. We're also in great shape for 18% in 2027. GAAP EPS was $1.31 per diluted share in Q2 2026 versus $0.84 for Q2 2025.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

With the adjustments, diluted EPS was $1.18 a share in Q2 versus $0.90 in the prior year quarter. A higher GAAP and adjusted diluted EPS during the quarter was driven by higher operating income. GAAP net income and EPS also benefit from a one-time callback of executive compensation as a result of a restatement published earlier this year. As I mentioned earlier, we closed on over $1.1 billion in bookings over the past 12 months, a trailing 12-month book-to-bill of 1.3x. With increased defense spending and positive momentum in commercial aerospace, we have strong tailwinds in both our primary end markets. At more muted levels versus the first half, on the outlook for the second half of 2026, we expect to see continued growth from both our defense and commercial aerospace businesses.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

We reiterate our previous guidance of mid to high single revenue growth for the full year. That holds. As I mentioned earlier, we pulled some forward production-related revenue recognition into the first half to level load our facilities and to support higher levels of delivery commitments in the second half. This is expected to unwind in the second half, resulting in low to mid-single digit growth in Q3 and Q4, keeping our full-year expectations unchanged. Now let me provide some additional color on our markets, products, and programs. Beginning with our military and space sector, we saw revenues of $124 million compared to $116 million in Q2 2025. This represents 7% growth and was driven by another quarter of strong performance in our missile franchise that was up significantly.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

We also had nice growth in fixed-wing aircraft, which was offset by year-over-year temporary declines in radar, naval, and space platforms. This was due to timing of orders. I want to briefly expand on our missile business. DCO's missile business grew 68% in Q2 and is now up 29% over the past 12 months. I mentioned before that RTX, our largest customer, and Lockheed are expected to significantly increase production on many programs, including the PAC-3, SM-3, SM-6, Tomahawk, THAAD, AMRAAM. We are in discussions on multiple opportunities. DCO is well-positioned on all these programs and in great shape with capacity at our operations to fully support the required ramp-up.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

DCO is a key supplier on these programs, as the orders from missile replenishment will begin to work their way from announce of the firm orders to Congress, laser-focused on capturing as much of this content as we can. This is an exceptional time to be operating in this segment. We're not only fortunate but also excited for the opportunity to drive much higher levels of shareholder value from this growth. Within our commercial aerospace operations, second quarter revenue increased 16% year-over-year to $89 million, with strong growth in production and deliveries on single-aisle platforms from both Boeing and Airbus. Our 737 MAX platform also benefited from an aftermarket retrofit order.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

This is an incremental content of engineered products for us on the 737 MAX, the retrofit demand is expected to sustain for the next few years with an opportunity for line-fit revenues as well in the future. This growth in our large commercial aerospace business help offset declines in our business jet and commercial rotorcraft business during the quarter. We continue to be optimistic on the commercial aerospace outlook. Boeing just last week announced they're continuing to make progress on increasing the 737 MAX builds from 42 to 47, the new production line in Everett is now up and running. It was also great to see the MAX 7 recently certified after more than a six-year delay. The MAX 10 is next. It'll be another big lift for our second-largest customer, BA.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

We see the impact of internal and external destocking coming to an end in the next couple of quarters with a glide path for growth going into 2027. We continue to monitor closely the supply chain challenges at Airbus with engines, note they're expecting rate increases in 2027 as well. In summary, the outlook for the next few years is the best I've seen since joining Ducommun, the future is very exciting for the company and its shareholders. We like the balance of defense and commercial aerospace businesses that we have as well, are strongly positioned to take advantage of the overall industry tailwinds. With that, I'll have Suman review our financials in detail. Suman?

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

Thank you, Steve. As a reminder, please see the company's 10-Q and Q2 earnings release for a further description of information mentioned on today's call. As Steve discussed, our second quarter results reflect another strong quarter of revenue with continued recovery in commercial aerospace along with growth in our military end market. Gross margins and EBITDA margins both continued to show improvement on a year-over-year basis, the synergies from our facility consolidation projects completed last year are now at the expected run rate. These actions, along with our strategic pricing initiatives, drove continued margin expansion in Q2, keeps us on pace to achieve our Vision 2027 goal of 18% adjusted EBITDA percentage of sales. Now turning to our second quarter results. Revenue for the second quarter of 2026 was $224.5 million, versus $200.8 million for the second quarter of 2025.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

The year-over-year increase of 12% reflects strong growth in commercial aerospace of 16%, driven by growth on single-aisle platforms, including the 737 MAX and A320, as well as growth on wide-body platforms. The strength in the commercial aerospace business was supported by higher production and deliveries for OEM customers and aftermarket retrofit work on the MAX. We continue to see destocking in our commercial aerospace business and expect it to be largely caught up by the end of 2026. Our defense business grew 7% year-over-year with continued strength in missiles and fixed-wing platforms, partially offset by temporary declines in radar, naval, and space platforms. The growth in our missile franchise was broad-based with strength on several different programs, including PAC-3, SM-6, AMRAAM, Tomahawk, and the Naval Strike Missile. As Steve mentioned earlier, our missile business grew by 68% during the quarter and 29% over the past 12 months.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

With that, our missiles, radar, and electronic warfare programs combined now represent approximately 35% of our LTM defense revenues and more than 20% of total DCO revenue. It's a strong franchise with great platforms to drive significant upside for Ducommun in 2027 and beyond, as we see an uptick in OEM production activity on the various missile platforms. Overall, Q2 was a very strong revenue quarter for us, but did also benefit from some pull forward of production and related revenue from the second half as we look to level load activity in anticipation of higher deliveries in Q3 and Q4. We posted total gross profit of $62.9 million, or 28% of revenue for the quarter, versus $53 million or 26.4% of revenue in the prior year period.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

The record gross margin was driven by realization of our planned synergies from the facility consolidation program, which are now at their full run rate, along with the benefit of higher manufacturing volume. Operating income for the second quarter was $28.3 million, or 12.6% of revenue, compared to operating income of $17.7 million, or 8.8% of revenue in the prior year period. The year-over-year increase of $10.6 million was primarily due to higher gross profit and flat SG&A, with the latter benefiting from the one-time compensation clawback. Adjusted operating income was $26.7 million, or 11.9% of revenue this quarter, compared to $20.6 million or 10.2% of revenue in the comparable period last year. The adjusted operating income excluded the one-time benefit of compensation clawback and was up 170 basis points versus prior year.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

The company reported net income for the second quarter of $20.4 million, or $1.31 per diluted share, compared to $12.8 million or $0.84 per diluted share a year ago. On an adjusted basis, the company reported net income of $18.4 million, or $1.18 per diluted share, compared to adjusted net income of $13.6 million or $0.90 in Q2 2025. The higher net income and adjusted net income during the quarter were driven by the higher adjusted operating income. Let me turn to our segment results. Our Structural Systems segment posted revenue of $93 million in the second quarter of 2026 versus $91 million last year. The year-over-year change reflected $4 million higher revenue in our commercial aerospace business, driven by single-aisle platforms including the MAX and the A320, as well as wide-body platforms.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

The military and space business within this segment was down $2 million on a year-over-year basis, with temporary weakness in military rotorcraft partially offset by growth in missiles. Structural Systems operating income for the quarter was $12.8 million, or 13.7% of revenue, compared to $9.3 million, or 10.2% of revenue for the prior year quarter. Excluding restructuring charges and other adjustments in both years, the segment operating margin was 15.7% in Q2 2026 versus 12.8% in Q2 2025. The increase in year-over-year margin was driven by savings from the facility consolidation program and higher manufacturing volume. Our Electronic Systems segment posted revenue of $131 million in the second quarter of 2026 versus $110 million in the prior year period, an increase of 20%.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

The year-over-year change reflected $10 million in higher revenues in military and space applications, driven by strong growth in missiles and military fixed-wing aircraft, partially offset by temporary weakness in our radar and space business. Commercial aerospace in the quarter grew $8 million, driven by growth in Boeing platforms. Our industrial business also grew $3.8 million during Q2 due to timing of production orders. Electronic Systems operating income for the second quarter was $25.5 million, or 19.4% of revenue, versus $20.5 million, or 18.6% of revenue in the prior year period. Excluding restructuring charges and other adjustments in both years, the segment operating margin was 19.7% in Q2 2026 versus 19.1% in Q2 2025. The year-over-year increase was driven by higher manufacturing volume. Turning to liquidity and capital resources.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

In Q2 2026, we generated $33.5 million in cash flow from operating activities compared to $22.4 million in Q2 of last year. Our strong cash generation was driven by higher net income, partially offset by higher working capital during the quarter. Year-to-date cash flow from operating activities was $44.8 million, and year-to-date free cash flow was $38.3 million, representing free cash flow conversion against adjusted net income of 127%. In Q4 of last year, the company amended its credit agreement, which now included a $200 million term loan and a $450 million revolver. This new $650 million facility lowers our cost of capital and gives us incremental capacity to execute on our acquisition strategy. As of the end of the second quarter, we had available liquidity of $410 million, comprising of the unutilized portion of our revolver and cash on hand.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

Interest expense in Q2 was $3.5 million compared to $3 million in Q2 of 2025. The year-over-year increase in interest cost was primarily due to higher debt balances, offset by lower interest rates on our debt due to more favorable terms in our new credit agreement. Also, as a reminder, in November 2021, we had put in place an interest rate hedge that went into effect for a seven-year period starting January 2024 and pegs the one-month term SOFR at 170 basis points for $150 million of our debt. The hedge is still in place and will continue to drive significant interest cost savings in 2026 and beyond. To conclude the financial overview, I would like to say that the second quarter results continue to affirm that our Vision 2027 strategy is working and that we are well-positioned to achieve our Vision 2027 goals.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

I'll now turn it back to Steve for his closing remarks. Steve?

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Okay. Thanks, Suman. In closing, Q2 was another record quarter for DCO. I could not be happier. We ended the first half as well with record revenue and EBITDA margins. We're seeing strong tailwinds across our primary end markets. It was also our fifth consecutive quarter of revenue over $200 million. Gross margin and adjusted EBITDA margins were at 28% and 17.1%, respectively. Wonderful news, on track to meet our Vision 2027 goals. In addition, the company's engineered product revenues over the past 12 months was 23%, in excellent shape as we drive higher OEM and aftermarket products through the P&L. As everyone knows, driving this percentage as high as possible is our number one strategic focus, with 100% commitment.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Finally, I look forward to sharing the next chapter of Ducommun, California's oldest company still operating today, when we unveil our Vision 2032 on September 17th at our Investor Day in New York. We could not be more positive about the future of DCO over the next six years and are excited to share the strategy and game plan with all of you next month. With that, now let's go to questions. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, press star one one again. One moment while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question will come from the line of John Godyn with Citi. Your line is open.

John Godyn
John Godyn
Analyst at Citi

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to just hone in on a couple things from the prepared remarks and then maybe ask a bigger picture one. In the prepared remarks, the missile growth number, I think I heard 68%. That was a very large acceleration from last quarter. Obviously, there's a theme there, but I would love a little bit more color on whatever you're willing to share on the large inflection there. Separately, you mentioned a large retrofit order, which I thought was very interesting, and perhaps offering a little bit more color there would be useful as well.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Sure. Great to be with you. Thank you for the question or the questions. I'll handle the first one. We're thrilled with the 68%. A lot of it is PAC-3. Great job by our team, our whole group that supports the PAC-3. Lockheed, in general, is on this replenishment. Even though this order was not for the seven years, obviously seven years was just done last month in July. They are very focused on PAC-3. We are a major supplier for cards for the PAC-3, that was a big part of the 68%. Suman, you want to handle the other one?

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

Yeah. John, just to make sure, the second part outside of the missile growth-

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

It's the Carson-

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

Yeah, the Carson

John Godyn
John Godyn
Analyst at Citi

The retrofit

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

Yeah. That really is a great win for us with engineered products. Carson is an engineered product business. We own the design IP in the revenues that come out of that performance center, and they were able to design a switch which is going to be retrofitted on the Max, that was a big win. Eventually, we expect that will also be part of the line fit and will drive recurring revenue for us. Even prior to that, the retrofit order is a large fleet out there and is going to drive revenue for us for the next few years, just the retrofit alone. It's a big win, and that helped with the Max this step.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Absolutely. John, that's a home run for us, that retrofit.

John Godyn
John Godyn
Analyst at Citi

Excellent. Maybe if we just take a step back, I'm sure we're going to hear more at the Investor Day. Just taking a step back on the margin outlook, I think sometimes the pushback that we hear from investors is on contract manufacturing exposure and the margins that kind of generates. I think you've demonstrated that you're able to generate higher than normal margins on contract manufacturing. Steve, maybe there's something to kind of dig in there a little bit and just shed some light on how your contract manufacturing is a little bit different, maybe a little bit more specialized, and how it's generating that margin profile.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Yeah. It's a great question, I think I'm happy to have this answer, is that contract manufacturing is a challenging business. If you find the right niches, you can make good money and have some pricing power, that's a good example as our titanium business. We do superplastic forming and hot forming of titanium in the structures, which is a contract manufacturing build-to-print business. There's only a few folks that do that in the entire world. Outside of Toulouse, which Airbus has, even though they're a customer, they also have their own internal titanium operation. We're the largest, and there's very few that can do the work we do. That's one example. The other example I'll give you is our Joplin facility, which makes harnesses.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

All types of ruggedized harnesses, all types of applications for high heat, for pressure, for all types of environments, very few people can do that, too. When you're looking at Ducommun and contract manufacturing, you can't look at us as we're just doing machining with five and six axis machines, there's 100 companies that can do that worldwide. You really got to think about our CM business as just really things that are really hard to make, there's few people doing it in the world.

John Godyn
John Godyn
Analyst at Citi

Excellent. Thanks for the color, guys.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Bye, John. Thanks.

Operator

One moment for our next question. That will come from the line of Mike Crawford with B. Riley Securities. Your line is open.

Mike Crawford
Mike Crawford
Analyst at B. Riley Securities

Thank you. We know you're embedded on these large traditional prime missile and munitions programs, what are you doing to address all the opportunities coming with affordable mass and emerging new primes such as Anduril?

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Well, first of all, great question again. We are engaged. We're engaged with AeroVironment. We're engaged with Anduril. Obviously, somewhat as well with Kratos. We are absolutely on top of this as far as trying to find areas where we can drive value. Do I see us on a $5,000 drone? I'm not sure, okay? I do see us being able to provide value in different areas, such as composites, possibly RF, antennas, those type of things. We are actively quoting, actively engaged. We have high levels of relationship now with their management. Yeah, we continue to move forward. We're right on top of it, Mike.

Mike Crawford
Mike Crawford
Analyst at B. Riley Securities

All right. Thanks, Steve. Just for one follow-up question. We know you've been super patient on M&A, super successful as well, and patient in recent years to not do anything that's not good for shareholders. Do you ever get tempted to look at larger, more transformational deals? Related, is any other updates on the existing pipeline?

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Mike, you're a great straight man, okay? Look forward to talking to you in September. We'll have some good news for you. I do mean that, but that's Suman. You want to jump in real quick?

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

Yeah, no, we continue to remain active in the market in terms of looking at opportunities. We've beefed up the team. We are absolutely looking at a number of things, and we're going to pull the trigger when we think the opportunity is right and we have the ability to create value for our shareholders. Stay tuned, and I think you asked another good question, which, as Steve said, we'll be better positioned to answer.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Yeah, more to come next month, Mike.

Mike Crawford
Mike Crawford
Analyst at B. Riley Securities

I'll be there. All right. Thank you.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Great. We look forward to seeing you. Thank you. Thanks for coming all that way.

Operator

One moment for our next question. That will come from the line of Ken Herbert with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Hey, Steve and Suman. I just wanted to follow up on the margin question, again, without getting too far ahead of potential September news. You've done a lot from a restructuring standpoint, facility, your manufacturing footprint. As we think about gross margins moving forward, obviously volume would be an important tailwind. Sounds like you're getting better price. Is there anything else we should think about from just an organizational structure standpoint? Anything else that could be a tailwind to margins beyond volume and price as we think about sort of the potential over the next few years?

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

Ken, great question. We certainly believe there is a lot of margin runway ahead of the company. Again, more color to be provided on Investor Day. You noted a couple of key drivers. I would say the other big driver for us is going to be the continued shift to engineered products. That's been an important part of our story over the last four or five years, well, ever since Steve Oswald leadership of the company, and it's going to continue to be part of our story going forward, and that will help improve our margin. Moving to higher IP products, which are more engineered, where we're able to make better margins.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Ken, the other answer, just the next level down is that our engineering, Ken, on the engineered product side is just so much better. Great example is this retrofit with the Max. You know what I mean?

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Yeah.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

We're building. Go ahead, please.

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Sorry, Steve.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

That's okay.

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

I was just gonna ask, is most of the missile exposure engineered products? Because it just seems like you've got phenomenal opportunity there, but a significant mix benefit is just gonna face headwinds from growth in a lot of the non-engineered products parts of the portfolio.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Go ahead.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

That's a good point as well, and that's where acceleration in M&A is going to play a factor as well. Again, more to come at Investor Day. We are growing our engineered products organically, too. If you look at the performance over the last four years under Vision 2027, with the one acquisition, which contributed maybe 300 basis points to the mix shift, we have gone from 15%-23% of revenue from engineered products. That's reflective of the strong organic growth in the business, and there is an expectation with the investments made in that business that we will continue to see strong organic growth. That supplemented with M&A will help keep moving the shift.

Suman Mookerji
Suman Mookerji
VP and CFO at Ducommun

I think the other question you had around missiles, a lot of the missile work is these ruggedized interconnects or cables, which are not, in our definition, engineered product, but they are highly proprietary in terms of the process capability that we have. They aren't technically part of engineered.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Yeah. It leans more to CM on the missile, Ken. Again, we're working. It's obviously built out more engineered products, and we're really happy where we are, and I think we're gonna have a really nice story for you guys next month on that.

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

No, it sounds great. If I could, just one final question. Where are you from a capacity standpoint? As you're seeing the growth in the rugged interconnects in these areas, do you have sufficient capacity in Joplin and these other centers of excellence to drive that, or are you looking at maybe more CapEx or hiring to really support that?

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Yeah, hiring for sure, Ken, okay? Thankfully, on the capital side and footprint side, we're in really good shape. Obviously, we're gonna have to make some investments over the next few years, but Joplin, for instance, the guys are doing a great job. We just Open up another part of the building that was really not being used for another 25,000 sq ft, 30,000 sq ft. The Tomahawk is going to go in there, and that's being lined out. It's going to be a world-class facility. We're hiring quite a bit in Joplin, for instance. I think we probably hired over 80 or 90 people since January. That's a lot for us. We're moving forward, and I think we'll be in good shape.

Ken Herbert
Ken Herbert
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Perfect. Thanks, Steve. Thanks, Suman.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

All right, Ken. Good to be with you. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one one. Our next question will come from Alexandra Mandery with Truist Securities. Your line is open.

Alexandra Mandery
Alexandra Mandery
Analyst at Truist Securities

Hey, nice results, and thanks for taking my question. In relation to missiles, have you started taking a look at your supply chain there to secure components to align with the demand? What might those pinch points be?

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

It's a good question. Look, that's always a concern. I think we have a really effective supply chain group. We've been doing this game for a long time, as you know. It's a big part of our business. We know how to look at the market. We certainly do some buffer stock when needed. We feel overall that with the capacity and the footprint, which is still underutilized, right? We just got to start going way up. The hiring, which is obviously ongoing right now. We obviously have to monitor it, but we feel good about supply chain. We're not uptight about really any kind of components other than just we need to manage it, and we do that right now. I think it's all green light.

Alexandra Mandery
Alexandra Mandery
Analyst at Truist Securities

Great. Thank you.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Thank you for the question.

Operator

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Steve Oswald for any closing remarks.

Steve Oswald
Steve Oswald
Chairman, President, and CEO at Ducommun

Okay, great. Well, let me just wrap it up. First, thank you again for joining us for the Q2 call. As I said in my press release which I did over the past few days, the first sentence is, I could not be happier, and that's true. The first six months and this quarter's been wonderful for DCO, wonderful for our employees and our customers, and obviously our shareholders as equally important. We're looking forward to another great second half in 2026. We're also very excited about our investor day next month. We hope you can join us. Again, thank you for being with us today, and have a safe day.

Operator

This concludes today's program. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Suman Mookerji
      Suman Mookerji
      VP and CFO
    • Steve Oswald
      Steve Oswald
      Chairman, President, and CEO
Analysts
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