Gladstone Investment Q1 2027 Earnings Report

Gladstone Investment EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.26
• Consensus EPS: $0.22
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.04
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Gladstone Investment Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $28.36 million
• Expected Revenue: $25.76 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$2.60 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Gladstone Investment Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2027
• Date: 8/6/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Friday, August 7, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 8:30AM ET

Gladstone Investment (NASDAQ:GAIN) (NASDAQ: GAIN) is a publicly traded business development company (BDC) that focuses on providing debt and equity financing to U.S. middle-market companies. As an externally managed closed-end fund, Gladstone Investment seeks to generate current income and capital appreciation for its shareholders by originating senior secured debt, subordinated debt and equity investments. The firm typically targets established businesses with revenues between $10 million and $150 million, across a range of industry sectors including business services, health care, industrials and specialty manufacturing.

The company’s investment strategy centers on deploying capital through first-lien and second-lien term loans, mezzanine debt and equity co-investments, often including warrants or other equity kickers. By structuring transactions with an emphasis on downside protection and yield enhancement, Gladstone Investment aims to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns while maintaining a diversified portfolio. The fund may also participate in follow-on financings and recapitalizations designed to support growth initiatives, acquisitions or management buyouts.

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Gladstone Investment operates under the management of Gladstone Management Corporation, an affiliate of Gladstone Capital Corporation and the GladstoneFunds. The external management structure aligns the interests of the adviser and its affiliates with those of the BDC’s shareholders, as management fees and incentive fees are tied to the company’s investment performance and asset growth.

Gladstone Investment serves companies across the United States, with a particular emphasis on regions that host a high concentration of established middle-market businesses. The firm’s leadership team is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Robert A. Gladstone, who brings decades of experience in private credit, equity investing and corporate finance. Together with its board of directors and investment professionals, Gladstone Investment continues to leverage its sourcing capabilities and underwriting expertise to support private companies and deliver consistent returns to its investors.

Gladstone Investment Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Adjusted net investment income rose to $0.26 per share, covering the $0.08 monthly dividend, while spillover income increased to $0.56 per share—supporting continued regular and potential supplemental distributions.
• Positive Sentiment: GAIN agreed to sell SFEG Holdings and expects full repayment of its investment plus a significant realized capital gain, although closing remains subject to regulatory approvals and final proceeds may be affected by escrow arrangements.
• Positive Sentiment: Investment activity remains strong, with two new portfolio-company acquisitions closed or under agreement, an add-on acquisition at Global GRAB Technologies, and at least $116 million of investments expected during the first six months of the fiscal year.
• Positive Sentiment: Capital management improved as GAIN amended its credit facility to increase commitments to $405 million, reduce the spread over SOFR by 40 basis points, and extend maturity to 2031; quarter-end debt-to-equity was 0.88 times with a 209% asset coverage ratio.
• Negative Sentiment: Three portfolio companies remained on non-accrual status, representing 3.9% of the portfolio at cost, while NAV fell to $16.24 per share; management also cited risks from elevated energy prices, supply-chain disruptions, tariffs, and uneven contract timing.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good evening. Welcome to Gladstone Investment Corporation first quarter earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A 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 Mr. Gladstone, Chairman. Thank you. You may begin.

[David Gladstone, Chairman at Gladstone Investment]

Well, thank you for that nice introduction. This is David Gladstone, Chairman. This is the earnings conference call for the first quarter ending June 30, 2026. This is for our shareholders and for any of the analysts that are on the line for Gladstone Investment. It's listed on Nasdaq trading symbol GAIN. Easy to remember because we're always triggering capital gains. You can keep up with us by listening to this and following us online. As for the common stock, we do have some registered notes, three of them. You can buy our notes as well. This is a multifaceted company, and I want to thank you all for calling in. We're happy to provide updates to our shareholders and analysts and provide our view of the current business environment.

[David Gladstone, Chairman at Gladstone Investment]

The two goals really are to help you understand what just happened to us and what's happened to us over the last so many months, and also give you a current view of the future. Now we'll hear from Catherine Gerkis. She's Director of Investor Relations as well as any ESG, and provides a brief disclosure regarding the certain regulatory matters that she keeps us from violating. Catherine, jump online.

[Catherine Gerkis, Director of Investor Relations and ESG at Gladstone Investment]

Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. Today's call may include forward-looking statements, which are based on management's estimates, assumptions, and projections. There are no guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements due to various uncertainties, including the risk factors set forth in our SEC filings, which you can find on the investors page of our website, gladstoneinvestment.com. We assume no obligation to update any of these statements unless required by law. Please visit our website for a copy of our Form 10-Q and earnings press release for more detailed information. You can also sign up for our email notification service and find information on how to contact our investor relations department. We are also on X @GladstoneComps, as well as Facebook and LinkedIn. Keyword for both is the Gladstone Companies.

[Catherine Gerkis, Director of Investor Relations and ESG at Gladstone Investment]

I will turn the call over to David Dullum, Chief Executive Officer and President of Gladstone Investment.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

Thanks, Catherine, and welcome to everyone on the phone call. I am happy to report that GAIN again produced solid quarter results, this time for this first quarter ended June 30, 2026. We generated adjusted NII of $0.26 per share, which is sufficient to cover the monthly dividend distributions for the quarter, and we also ended with a total portfolio fair value of $1.3 billion. This was a pretty busy quarter. Very much so with deal-related activity. During the quarter, we actually entered into an agreement to acquire one new portfolio company called Extrude Hone. We aim to close this in the coming weeks, and it's subject really to obtaining some required regulatory approvals, which should not be an issue. It's just a timing thing. Subsequent to the quarter end, of course, a lot of this activity began during the quarter.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

We entered into an agreement to sell the operating entity in our investment of SFEG Holdings. This sale, again, subject to various regulatory approvals. This is a multinational company, and there are various approvals necessary in certain countries. We hope that and expect that this will close in the coming months. When we do, we expect to receive a full repayment of our investment, along with a very significant capital gain. In July, we also finalized the acquisition of another new portfolio company, DHE Computer Systems. We also made an accretive add-on acquisition to one of our existing investments called Global GRAB Technologies. With all this activity and with the pending new deals that we've mentioned here, we will have invested an aggregate of at least $116 million within the first six months of this fiscal year.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

That's relevant because it compares very nicely to the approximate $183 million that we have averaged over the last three fiscal years. These new investments and certainly the exit activity are consistent, as I always like to say, with our buyout strategy, which is growing the portfolio through the acquisition of operating companies at attractive valuations. This, again, where we are generally the majority economic owner. We make these acquisitions through a combination of equity and debt investments. Of course, main reason, given our thesis for GAIN, the equity provides a potential upside of additional dividend payouts through capital gains, as we would anticipate clearly in this SFEG exit. The debt securities generate operating income to support our monthly distributions to shareholders. This is definitely one factor that differentiates us from most of the other traditional credit BDCs.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

In this regard, from our operating income, we maintain our monthly distribution to shareholders of $0.08 per share or $0.96 per share on an annual basis. At this point, I'd like to turn it over to Erika Highland, who as mentioned before, will take over as President on October 1st. Erika, would you like to discuss the outlook and the current pipeline of the new investments?

[Erika Highland, EVP at Gladstone Investment]

Absolutely. Thank you, Dave. There continues to be ample liquidity in the M&A market, creating a competitive environment for new acquisitions at reasonable valuations. While challenging, we have been able to compete effectively for acquisitions that fit our model.

[Erika Highland, EVP at Gladstone Investment]

Our model is where we provide both debt and equity to complete the transaction with a meaningful fixed charge coverage and an interest income yield on our total investment in excess of our cost of capital. As mentioned earlier, we have closed or have an agreement in place to acquire two new portfolio companies. We continue to be in varying stages of diligence on additional possible new opportunities, including both accretive add-on acquisitions to existing portfolio companies, and we are in review and negotiation with a number of other new opportunities. As to our existing portfolio, most of the companies have experienced positive results to date, though we continue to be cautious due to macroeconomic factors such as elevated energy prices, potential supply chain disruption, and tariff costs, and therefore the impact on demand and margins.

[Erika Highland, EVP at Gladstone Investment]

We are working with all of our companies in evaluating cost efficiencies and growth initiatives as we continue to navigate the current environment. In this regard, a couple companies to highlight here. Galaxy Technologies, they've experienced very positive growth in the aerospace and industrial sectors. Diligent Delivery Systems' new management team has stabilized the business and is generating very positive EBITDA, which gives us some encouragement that we will get it back to accrual status. Finally, Pyrotek has been acquisitive and experiencing growth with existing and new artists and their entertainment schedules. I'll turn it back to you, Dave.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

Thanks, Erika. Again, in summing up the year, the current portfolio is in solid shape. Just to touch on this, Erika said that we're working with all of our companies, and that's something that we do. We're very proactive with our operating companies. When we say that, it's not just in passing. We actually do work at it. We feel very good about where we are. We have a strong liquid balance sheet, a very good level of potential portfolio activity with the prospect of continued strong earnings and the distributions over the next year. While we continue to navigate the challenge of an uncertain economic landscape. With that, let's turn it over to our CFO, Taylor Ritchie, and he'll give you a lot more of the detail of where we are and what to look forward to. Taylor?

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

Thank you, Dave and Erika, good morning, everyone. Our results this quarter reflected solid earnings generation, continued strength within our investment portfolio, and proactive capital management that supported the disciplined execution of our long-term strategy. We generated net investment income of $15.9 million or $0.40 per share during the quarter, compared with a net investment loss of $10.6 million in the prior quarter. Adjusted net investment income, which excludes the impact of capital gains-based incentive fees, increased to $10.4 million or $0.26 per share, compared to $7.9 million or $0.20 per share in the prior quarter. Importantly, both net investment income and adjusted net investment income exceeded our regular monthly distributions during the quarter.

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

The increase in net investment income was driven by higher investment income together with lower expenses, primarily reflecting the reversal of accrued capital gains-based incentive fees resulting from the changes in portfolio valuations. The weighted average principal balance of our interest-bearing investment portfolio remained relatively stable during the quarter at approximately $706 million, providing a consistent base for recurring interest income. The portfolio's weighted average yield was 12.9% during the quarter. This is supported by the interest rate floors included in each of our debt investments. Given our recent investment activity, we expect the portfolio's weighted average yield to increase modestly as the investments originated subsequent to quarter end include interest rate floors above the weighted average of our existing portfolio. We believe our debt investment portfolio is well positioned across a range of interest rate environments.

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

As disclosed in our Form 10-Q, based on the current portfolio composition, a 50 basis ponts-150 basis point increase in SOFR would be expected to increase annual net investment income by approximately $0.02-$0.09 per share. While equivalent decline in SOFR would reduce annual net investment income by approximately $0.01-$0.03 per share. This favorable interest rate profile continues to provide meaningful downside protection while preserving attractive upsides should short-term interest rates increase. Total investment income increased to $28.4 million, compared to $25.2 million in the prior quarter. Interest income increased modestly, while stronger success fee income more than offset lower dividend income from our equity investments. As a reminder, both dividend income from our equity investments and success fee income from our debt investments are dependent upon events at our portfolio companies and are therefore inherently variable.

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

As a result, these income streams should be evaluated over longer periods rather than any individual quarter. Net expenses declined to $12.4 million, compared to $35.8 million in the prior quarter. This decrease primarily reflected the reversal of $5.6 million of accrued capital gains-based incentive fees during the current quarter, compared with an $18.5 million accrual in the prior quarter. These lower incentive fee accruals more than offset higher interest expense associated with our financing activities, as well as a modest increase in other operating expenses. Portfolio valuations declined by $18.8 million during the quarter. The decline was primarily due to the adjustment in SFEG's valuation following agreement on the final sale price.

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

Excluding this adjustment, the remainder of the portfolio generated net unrealized appreciation, reflecting positive operating performance trends at several portfolio companies, together with higher market valuation multiples. As of June 30th, three portfolio companies are on non-accrual status, and we remain actively engaged with each borrower, continuing to work alongside management teams to either return these investments to accrual status or pursue orderly exits where appropriate. Our non-accrual investments represent 3.9% of our total portfolio at cost and only 1% at fair value as of quarter end. The increase in fair value from the prior quarter was driven primarily by the continued operational improvement at Diligent Delivery Systems, which experienced a $3.8 million increase in fair value during the quarter. Based on current operating trends, we continue to believe management is making meaningful progress and remain optimistic regarding the collection of previously unpaid interest over the coming quarters.

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

NAV decreased to $16.24 per share compared to $16.78 per share at the end of the prior quarter. The decrease primarily reflected $0.47 per share of net unrealized depreciation, $0.23 per share of net realized losses, and $0.24 per share of distributions to common shareholders. These items were partially offset by $0.40 per share of net investment income. During the quarter, we completed two significant financing transactions that further strengthened our capital structure. First, using the proceeds from our February issuance of five-year notes, we repaid our 5% notes at maturity during May. Second, we successfully amended our credit facility, reducing our bond spread over SOFR by 40 basis points, increasing the facility commitment size from $300 million to $405 million while extending the facility's maturity to 2031.

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

We have ample liquidity to find new investment opportunities from the unused borrowing capacity under our credit facility, with approximately $158 million outstanding as of quarter end. These actions position us to execute our investment strategy with enhanced financial flexibility through extending the duration of our debt capital and by expanding availability and lowering borrowing costs on our credit facility. While we were not active under our common stock ATM program during the quarter or subsequent to quarter end, we intend to access the equity market selectively when market conditions are favorable and doing so supports attractive shareholder returns over time. Our balance sheet remains in a strong position, ending the quarter with an asset coverage ratio of 209% and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88 times. We believe this provides meaningful leverage capacity to support our current investment pipeline.

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

On distributions, we ended the fiscal year with $21.3 million or $0.53 per share of spillover income. Primarily due to adjusted net investment income exceeding our regular monthly distributions, spillover increased to $22.5 million or $0.56 per share at quarter end. This balance is sufficient to support approximately seven months of our current monthly distribution rate and enhances our flexibility in determining both the timing and amount of future monthly and supplemental distributions. We ended the quarter with total distributable income of $160.4 million or $4.03 per share. As this balance primarily represents unrealized appreciation across our investment portfolio, it reflects the potential for meaningful future shareholder distributions that we expect to monetize over time through successful portfolio company exits. Looking ahead, we anticipate continuing our practice of making supplemental distributions to shareholders as we realize capital gains from the successful exit of appreciated equity investments.

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

The timing and amount of these supplemental distributions will depend on the pace of portfolio realizations, taxable income considerations, and our broader capital allocation priorities. We believe the portfolio remains well positioned, supported by our strong liquidity profile, conservative leverage, growing spillover income, favorable interest rate positioning, and healthy acquisition pipeline. We're confident in our ability to continue generating attractive long-term returns for our shareholders. That covers most of today's call. I'll now hand it back over to you, David, to wrap us up.

[David Gladstone, Chairman at Gladstone Investment]

Thank you very much, Taylor. That was very nice. Dave and Erika and Catherine, good information for our shareholders this call. The Form 10-Q should be bringing everybody up to date in our company. The team has reported solid results for the quarter ending June 30, 2026, has already shown positive performance for the upcoming quarter with new investment activity and some pending exits that we're pretty sure we'll get this quarter. We believe Gladstone Investment is an attractive investment for investors seeking continuous monthly distributions, then some supplemental distributions from potential capital gains and other income that we have. Team hopes to continue to show you a strong return for the investments for this next quarter as well as the rest of the year.

[David Gladstone, Chairman at Gladstone Investment]

Now let's stop and turn to some questions from our analysts as well as hopefully some shareholders will call in. Operator, can you come on, please?

[Operator]

Thank you. 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 the 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. Our first question is from Christopher Nolan with Ladenburg Thalmann. Please proceed.

[Christopher Nolan, Analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann]

Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. I guess for Taylor, there is an other income of $5.6 million income line. Is that related to the incentive fee reversal at all?

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

No, it is not. That is the collection of exit fee income, prepayment of exit fee income, success fee income rather, that we will collect from time to time from our portfolio companies, and this one was paid by SFEG in advance of their pending exit.

[Christopher Nolan, Analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann]

Okay, on the topic of SFEG and the other exits indicated, should we anticipate any sort of net gain from that at all?

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

Apologies, did you say debt gain or net gain?

[Christopher Nolan, Analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann]

Net. Realized, less the true up on the unrealized.

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

Yes. I would expect where our valuation is with SFEG, that's our approximate value that we would expect to collect as part of an exit. It is discounted for potential transaction costs and other activities, but that is what I would expect for us to be able to collect and generate in potential realized gains.

[Christopher Nolan, Analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann]

Okay. Finally, on the cash flow statement, I notice that there appears to be no repayments in the quarter. Is that correct?

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

Yes, that's correct.

[Christopher Nolan, Analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann]

Okay. Thank you for taking my questions.

[David Gladstone, Chairman at Gladstone Investment]

Next question.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Erik Zwick with Lucid Capital Markets. Please proceed.

[Erik Zwick, Analyst at Lucid Capital Markets]

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for the detailed commentary. You covered a number of the companies I wanted to ask about Galaxy Technologies and Diligent Delivery Systems, appreciate the positive updates there. Wanted to ask just a follow-up question first on SFEG. Understand that the 630 mark reflected the negotiations and then that sales price in one. Congrats on the sale there, another nice exit for you. Just kind of curious regarding the negotiations, how did the buyer's view valuation differ from the mark that you had on your statements as of 330?

[Erika Highland, EVP at Gladstone Investment]

Sure. This is Erika Highland. As you can appreciate with these transactions, when we enter into an LOI with a prospective buyer, there are certain assumptions made around the company's financial performance. As a buyer goes through diligence occasionally, not only may there be disagreements on certain assumptions, but also there may be certain findings during diligence where accommodations may need to be made in the value. Also, our valuation here reflects certain aspects of a purchase agreement that have funds reserved in escrow pending future activity. There is the potential that some of those proceeds may flow back in. For purposes of our valuation here, this is based on the final negotiated contract with the buyer.

[Erik Zwick, Analyst at Lucid Capital Markets]

That's helpful, Erika. Thank you.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

Erik, the basic headline number that we had agreed to with them didn't really change, so to speak. As Erika said, it's a very complicated transaction. A very complex company, frankly. Facilities and operations literally all over the world. Just when things, as you well know, gets finalized and going through some of the keying up in some of the countries, Erika correctly said, some of the escrows that we have to apply to the extent that they will get utilized, we won't know for sure till the dust settles, affected somewhat in being sure we took that into account that we're fairly conservative, frankly, in that valuation. We feel pretty good about where it's kind of settled. It's really as a result of those impacts.

[Erik Zwick, Analyst at Lucid Capital Markets]

That makes sense. Thank you. Even with the change from 3/30 to 6/30, you still stand to get a very nice gain. Nicely done there. Then Taylor pointed out one thing I noticed as well, just if you remove that valuation change, there is actually net appreciation in the unrealized portion for the quarter. Just nice trends generally across the book. One I did notice that did have some net depreciation was Detroit Defense, and just curious maybe if you had any commentary of what transpired there during the quarter to change your valuation.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

Yeah, I think Detroit Defense is interesting company. Fundamentally, by the way, it's doing very well. Part of some of their contracts that they were, I'll call it, anticipating or working on that they had, monies didn't get released with everything going on, as you know, in Washington on the defense sector side. Some of those have now been released indeed. That really got caught up in just the timing around some of the work that they were doing on some of those contracts. Unfortunately, we had a slight down tick in EBITDA, so that had an impact on that. Other than that, fundamentally the business is doing well.

[Erik Zwick, Analyst at Lucid Capital Markets]

Okay. If those contracts sounds like maybe post quarter did come through, that would impact the 9/30 valuation mark?

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Erik Zwick, Analyst at Lucid Capital Markets]

Got you. Okay. Thank you for taking my questions this morning.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

Great. Thank you.

[David Gladstone, Chairman at Gladstone Investment]

Okay, next question.

[Operator]

As a reminder to star one on your telephone keypad if you would like to ask a question. Our next question is from Henry Coffey with Wedbush Securities. Please proceed.

[Henry Coffey, Analyst at Wedbush Securities]

Yes, good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking my question. Most of what I'm going to ask is going to make me look stupid, but that's good. Could you go through the whole true up of the unrealized depreciation and the realized loss and how that plays out? I know there are a lot of moving parts there.

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

Well, this is Taylor. Let me start with breaking them into different pieces. The realized gain and loss, that was a $9 million realized loss as a result of a restructuring that we did at Home Concepts. We wrote off $9 million of their existing term loan, that was really a proactive approach to allow the company further flexibility to execute on their operational initiatives and allow them to potentially grow and build out further. Regarding the unrealized and the net unrealized appreciation, or depreciation rather for this quarter, we had market valuations and market multiples that increased quarter-over-quarter. For most of the portfolio, that was the case where we saw those multiple increases. We had many of our portfolio companies that had improving EBITDA metrics, so that would further enhance the appreciation.

[Taylor Ritchie, CFO at Gladstone Investment]

We did have some that saw a little bit of a downturn that we frankly anticipate that it will turn around in coming quarters. We feel confident in these companies. As Dave mentioned with Detroit Defense, that's one we do feel confident that it's a strong company, it's operating well, and as these contracts for Detroit come back online, we'll see that reversal of the unrealized depreciation.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

Well, I think, Henry, you might be also referring to our net unrealized was roughly about $22 million negative. Of that, roughly $36.6 million was this, what we call reversal of value, for SFEG Holdings. I think the comment earlier was made that if you took that out of the mix, which again, it was a valuation adjustment, doesn't change the significant realized gain we're going to get there. If you took that out of the mix, actually, the unrealized is a net positive. I think is that probably what you're trying to get to?

[Henry Coffey, Analyst at Wedbush Securities]

Yeah, that's what I was trying to sort out, and I'll be honest, I haven't gone through the Form 10-Q yet.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

Yeah.

[Henry Coffey, Analyst at Wedbush Securities]

The other question is, you have some great insight into the real economy because you're not involved in a lot of tech. We get overwhelmed with all the news about AI, et cetera. When you look past the tech economy to the rest of the economy, what are you seeing? In particular, my colleagues and I were talking about this, obviously post Iran, whatever your political views are, post Iran, we're likely to see a big infusion in defense spending as the U.S. rebuilds, et cetera. Can you give us some sense of what, when you look past the tech economy, what you're seeing going on, quote, "in the rest of the world"? Particularly into likely defense spending.

[Erika Highland, EVP at Gladstone Investment]

Yeah. This is Erika. It's hard to overgeneralize. At the risk of sharing anecdotes here, just kind of looking down the list of our portfolio companies, we're seeing that most of them are trending up quarter-over-quarter in terms of earnings performance. That would suggest there's no major disruptions in a broad macroeconomic way. Particularly on defense spending, again, we have a very small subset of those type of companies in our portfolio. Dave spoke earlier about Detroit Defense and how it was caught up in some of the administrative and spending hurdles. I do think there is money flowing into more defense-oriented businesses. Certainly on the opportunity side, we are seeing more businesses in the aerospace and defense sector coming to us for potential transactions, which suggests that those owners see potential growth in that sector.

[Erika Highland, EVP at Gladstone Investment]

I do think, as you've pointed out, I think the trends that you're seeing are accurate. Again, while we do have a broad set here through 30-some-odd portfolio companies, it's still a relatively small sample size.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

Henry, we touch, as you point out, when you think about a consumer, industrial, and manufacturing. As Erika said, the manufacturing groups that we have, because they're kind of spread across, again, like some aerospace oriented stuff, they're all really doing well. We got stuff in the energy sector, we're seeing good solid results there. Consumer side, we're seeing most of our consumer products companies are all, some are doing hugely well, all doing fairly well. Again, we do touch on a few companies in the defense sector, they're all, as I mentioned earlier, starting to see definitely solid opportunities and backlog building in all of those companies. Generally, yeah, you're right, we don't do much on the tech side of things, and that's probably a good thing.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

Fundamentally, we're guardedly optimistic about where we see these companies going the next six, nine months.

[Henry Coffey, Analyst at Wedbush Securities]

Thank you. That's very helpful. On the SFEG situation, you sold 100% of the company. I've read the street account summary like four times, and I still couldn't get it. You sold 100% of the company. It's going to be a substantial gain. What is your sort of philosophy on distributing that gain? Are you

[Henry Coffey, Analyst at Wedbush Securities]

Going to hold some back for future periods or just pay it out as a one-time transaction sometime over the next three quarters? What is the thought process there?

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

That's a great question. We're going back to business school corporate finance. First course in corporate finance, right? How to think about that. Seriously, it's a great question. It's a real question. It's because it is a real, for us, significant number, and we have to do it carefully, both from the standpoint of trying to certainly reward our shareholders with clearly some cash at least, and then how we might be able to maintain capital. Given the cost of capital, it's a smart thing to maybe keep some of it. Clearly, which you understand well with it being a RIC and what have you, the timing will be important. We've got excise taxes that come into play. There are a lot of factors to determine what is the right, not only mix of say, cash and stock, what might be the timing of it.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

Regardless, I think it's going to be clearly a positive, certainly to shareholders and then from our own balance sheet. We're looking at it carefully, taking it seriously, and we have not come to a final conclusion yet.

[Henry Coffey, Analyst at Wedbush Securities]

It's a first-class problem. Congratulations.

[David Dullum, CEO and President at Gladstone Investment]

That's a good problem. Yep.

[David Gladstone, Chairman at Gladstone Investment]

Next question.

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference back over to you for closing remarks.

[David Gladstone, Chairman at Gladstone Investment]

Well, thank you all for asking questions. We need more questions than that. I hope you guys will get ready next quarter and let us have a lot of questions so we can talk about our company. That's the end of this. Thank you very much for calling in.

[Operator]

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect at this time, and thank you for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• David Gladstone, Chairman
• Catherine Gerkis, Director of Investor Relations and ESG
• David Dullum, CEO and President
• Erika Highland, EVP
• Taylor Ritchie, CFO

Analysts

• Christopher Nolan, Analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann
• Erik Zwick, Analyst at Lucid Capital Markets
• Henry Coffey, Analyst at Wedbush Securities