Smith-Midland Targets $100M Backlog as Barrier Rentals, Data Centers Drive Growth

Key Points

• Smith-Midland’s backlog rose 19% to $57.4 million in the second quarter of 2026, and management is targeting approximately $100 million through expanded sales and marketing efforts. A recently awarded $10 million Interstate 81 project was not yet included in the reported backlog.
• The company is expanding its recurring-revenue barrier rental business, growing its fleet from roughly 10 miles to 150 miles of barriers plus about 500 crash cushions. Demand is supported by states’ transition to MASH-compliant safety barriers, including California’s 2027 deadline.
• Growth opportunities include infrastructure spending, data-center-driven utility-vault demand in Northern Virginia, and increased interest in prefabricated products such as SoftSound and SlenderWall. Management is also prioritizing margin improvements through lean manufacturing and cost controls.

Smith-Midland NASDAQ: SMID outlined growth opportunities in highway safety barriers, infrastructure construction, utility projects and prefabricated building systems during a company presentation led by Chief Executive Officer Ashley Smith and Chief Financial Officer Dominic Hunter.

Smith said the company, founded on his grandfather’s family farm in 1960, produces proprietary and generic precast concrete products through facilities in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Its proprietary offerings include J-J Hooks highway barriers, Easi-Set and Easi-Span utility products, SoftSound noise walls and SlenderWall lightweight precast panel systems.

“We have proprietary products. We have intellectual property,” Smith said, citing patents, trademarks, crash testing, federal approvals and state approvals associated with several of the company’s product lines.

Barrier replacement and rental fleet expansion

Smith identified the replacement of older roadside barriers as a significant tailwind. Federal Highway Administration crash-test standards are updated periodically, he said, and states are increasingly setting deadlines to transition to newer barriers meeting MASH safety standards.

The company’s J-J Hooks barrier is sold, rented and licensed to other precast producers. Smith said California has set a Jan. 1, 2027, deadline for use of MASH-tested barriers, and Smith-Midland’s licensee in the state has been increasing production at facilities in Northern and Southern California as well as Reno, Nevada.

Smith-Midland has also expanded its barrier rental business, Concrete Safety Systems. Smith said the fleet has grown from roughly 10 miles of rental barrier several years ago to approximately 150 miles currently, including barrier repurchased from a customer following a large Northern Virginia project. The company also has about 500 crash cushions, or attenuators, in its rental fleet.

Rental operations provide installation, relocation and removal services, Smith said. He described the model as a source of recurring revenue and upfront project cash flow that can be reinvested in inventory and other operations. During a question-and-answer session, he said the company was operating at about 80% utilization of its barrier capacity and estimated a blended return period of approximately three and a half years on barrier investments.

The company is developing a limited-deflection barrier design that Smith said could be less expensive to install than competing products. He said the product still requires additional crash testing, federal approval and state approvals before commercialization.

Backlog, contract activity and 2025 comparison

Hunter said Smith-Midland reported backlog of $57.4 million in its second-quarter 2026 filing, up 19% from the first quarter. The company’s goal is to increase backlog to about $100 million by adding sales and marketing resources, he said.

Hunter noted that backlog does not capture all of the company’s activity because it represents signed contracts being executed at a particular point in time. Short-duration barrier rentals, special security-related barrier projects and rapid product orders can be completed before they are reflected in a reported backlog figure. He estimated that approximately $5 million to $7 million of activity may flow through without being captured in backlog.

The company also disclosed a $10 million Interstate 81 project in Roanoke involving SoftSound and retaining-wall components. Hunter said the award was Smith-Midland’s third-largest single contract and was received after the latest backlog measurement.

Smith-Midland recorded $93.4 million in revenue during 2025, its best year on record, according to the presentation. Hunter said the company’s trailing 12-month revenue was $89.5 million, while trailing 12-month EBITDA was $14.3 million and earnings per share were $1.46.

Hunter cautioned that comparisons with 2025 are affected by large “special barrier projects” during the first and second quarters of that year. He described those assignments as security-oriented barrier rentals requiring rapid deployment and additional services, including around-the-clock support. The projects can be sizable but are irregular, he said, and should not be assumed to recur at the same level.

Infrastructure, data centers and prefabricated construction

Management said it expects infrastructure spending to support demand across several product lines. Smith said roughly 40% of funding from a previous federal infrastructure bill remained to be spent as of the presentation, while a new infrastructure bill was being developed. He said the company expects continued spending on highways, roads, bridges, water quality and other infrastructure categories.

Hunter said demand for SoftSound products has increased, while SlenderWall activity in the first six months of 2026 represented the highest level of activity the company has seen for that product line. Smith attributed interest in panelized construction to developers, architects and contractors considering prefabricated systems earlier in the design process, as well as construction labor shortages.

The company also expects utility vault demand to benefit from data-center development in Northern Virginia. Hunter said utility-vault revenue declined in 2025 from 2024 levels but had already exceeded the company’s midyear annual projections for 2026.

Looking ahead, Hunter said management plans to focus on margin improvement through lean manufacturing and cost controls. He also said the company expects to be fully staffed by September to address internal-control deficiencies that have persisted over the prior year.

Smith said the company’s strategy is supported by multiple revenue sources, including manufacturing, rentals, royalties and installation services. “We don’t need every opportunity to succeed,” he said. “We only need several of them to succeed at the same time.”

About Smith-Midland (NASDAQ:SMID)

Smith-Midland Corporation NASDAQ: SMID is a Virginia‐based manufacturer specializing in precast and cast‐in‐place concrete products for use in residential, commercial and infrastructure applications. Headquartered in Midland, Virginia, the company operates a primary production facility where it designs, engineers and produces a wide array of concrete components under stringent quality controls. Smith‐Midland's products are widely used by builders, contractors and government agencies across the United States.

The company's Construction Products Group offers an extensive portfolio of engineered solutions for transportation and site development projects.

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