BK Technologies Corporation ($BKTI)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to BK Technologies Corporation Conference Call for the Fourth Quarter of 2025. This call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] There is a slide presentation that accompanies today's remarks, which can be accessed via the webcast. At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host for today, Brett Maas of Hayden Investor Relations. Brett, please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to our conference call to discuss BK Technologies results for the fourth quarter and full year 2025. On the call today are John Suzuki, Chief Executive Officer; and Scott Malmanger, Chief Financial Officer. I will take a moment to read the safe harbor statements. Statements made during this conference call and presented in the presentation that are not based on historical facts and are forward-looking statements. Such statements include, but are not limited to, projections or statements of future goals and targets regarding the company's revenue and profits. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and factors that the company's actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, and some of the factors and risks that could cause or contribute to such material differences have been described in this morning's press release and in BK filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on information and understandings that are believed to be accurate as of today, and we do not undertake any duty to update such forward-looking statements. With that out of the way, I'd like to turn the call over to John Suzuki, CEO of BK Technologies. Go ahead, John.

Thank you, Brett. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 conference call. I'll start by reviewing our operational and financial performance and then turn it over to our Chief Financial Officer, Scott Malmanger, for a deeper dive into our financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025. Following the discussion of our financial results, I will provide an outlook for our fiscal year 2026 and introduce the core objectives of Vision 2030. We will conclude by opening the call for a brief Q&A. The fourth quarter capped off an excellent year for the business, marked by substantial achievements and the successful execution of our Vision 2025 objectives. We delivered results ahead of annual guidance by all measures, including revenue growth, margin expansion and increased profitability. Our results underscore the strength of our product portfolio and accelerated customer adoption of our solutions in the public safety communications market. Our business performed strongly in the fourth quarter of 2025 with revenue of $21.5 million, increasing 20% year-over-year, which is the second consecutive quarter of plus 20% top line growth. Revenue growth was driven primarily by robust state and local agency order volumes, including increased purchase volumes of our BKR Series radios by agencies within our core tier 2 and tier 3 target markets. As a reflection of favorable product mix and continued wider scale adoption of our BKR 9000, gross margin increased by over 900 basis points in the fourth quarter of 2025, a material expansion to 50.4% compared to 41.2% in the year ago quarter. This powerful combination of revenue growth, gross margin expansion and diligent cost management resulted in a 78% year-over-year increase in adjusted EBITDA, reaching $4.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. For the third quarter -- for the third consecutive quarter, we delivered adjusted EBITDA margin north of 20%, expanding to 22% in the fourth quarter of 2025 from 14.9% in the year ago period. Profitability continued to advance in the fourth quarter of 2025 with non-GAAP fully diluted adjusted EPS reaching $1.17, up from $0.61 in the fourth quarter of 2024. As a result of the strong performance, we closed 2025 with a record cash position of $22.8 million, a significant increase from the $7.1 million at year-end 2024. Our financial strength gives us the flexibility to invest strategically in innovation and commercial expansion, supporting opportunities to capture market share and unlock long-term value creation. Currently, our disciplined capital allocation strategy and inherent operating leverage are driving improving returns with return on invested capital of over 20% for the second consecutive year. We delivered sustained gross margin improvements during the '22-'25 period and successfully navigated substantially industry-wide headwinds, starting with the supply chain disruptions in 2022. At that point, we implemented meticulous cost management initiatives, followed by securing a strategic partnership with East West for outsourced manufacturing, which significantly improved supply chain resilience while reducing manufacturing complexity. Stepping into 2025, gross margin steadily expanded throughout the year, supported by the firm customer adoption of our high-margin BKR 9000 multiband radio and resulting favorable product mix. For the full year 2025, gross margin expanded by over 1,000 basis points to 48.8%, comfortably above our 47% target. Gross margins improved from 19.3% in 2022 to 48.8% in 4 years, a trajectory that is the result of growing customer adoption, disciplined cost management, optimized supply chain and the successful repositioning of our manufacturing and sourcing footprint. These structural advantages provide us with the ability to invest in long-term growth. To expand on the positive impact from the BKR 9000, our multiband radios continue to attract agencies for their unmatched combination of performance, interoperability, affordability and ergonomics. BKR Series radios fueled solid revenue growth into the fourth quarter of 2025, leading to full year revenue growth of 12.5%, exceeding our guidance range of high single digits. While fourth quarter revenue declined sequentially from the third quarter due to normal ordering patterns among public safety agencies, it still represented our strongest fourth quarter on record. As I discussed in our third quarter conference call, we shipped 2.5x the number of BKR 9000 multiband radios in 2025 than we did in 2024. This continued sales ramp was driven by expanded agencies deployments and reoccurring replacement cycles. This higher margin mix in tandem with operating leverage resulted in a 91% year-over-year increase in operating income for the fourth quarter of 2025, which outpaced revenue growth. This momentum, coupled with the upcoming launch of the BKR 9500 radio, positions us with a strong growth lever as we commence our Vision 2030 road map. As we close Vision 2025 and enter Vision 2030, our competitive positioning has never been stronger. Our results validate the strength of our product portfolio, the accelerating adoption of our solutions across public safety communications and the team's successful execution of our strategic priorities. With that, I'll turn it over to Scott Malmanger, our CFO, to give a more detailed overview of our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial performance. Go ahead, Scott.

Thank you, John. Sales for the fourth quarter totaled $21.5 million, an increase of 20% compared with $17.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. For the full year of 2025, sales expanded by 12.5% to $86.1 million, growing ahead of the high single-digit guidance. Gross margin in the fourth quarter was 50.4% compared with 41.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024, reflecting favorable product mix and continued robust adoption of the higher-margin BKR 9000. For the year, gross margin expanded by 1,086 basis points from 37.9% to 48.8%, exceeding our guidance of more than 47%. Selling, general and administrative expenses for the fourth quarter increased to $6.6 million compared to $5.2 million in the same quarter last year. SG&A expense for the quarter includes noncash stock-based compensation expense of approximately $0.5 million. For the full year of 2025, SG&A increased 23% to $26 million. primarily driven by marketing and promotion costs for the BKR 9000 and noncash RSU compensation expenses within our software engineering team, both of which align with our previously communicated investment strategy to drive sustainable growth. Operating income was $4.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, with operating margin expansion from 12.3% in the year ago quarter to 19.7%. For the full year, operating income more than doubled to $16 million from $7.8 million, with operating margin expanding by over 830 basis points from 10.2% in 2024 to 18.6% for the full year 2025. For the fourth quarter of 2025, the company delivered GAAP net income of $4.2 million or GAAP EPS of $1.12 per basic and $1.05 per diluted share compared with net income of $3.7 million or $1.03 per basic and $0.93 per diluted share in the prior year period. For the full year of 2025, GAAP net income reached $13.5 million or $3.69 per basic and $3.44 per diluted share, comfortably above the $3.15 per diluted share guidance. This compares to $8.4 million or $2.35 per basic and $2.25 per diluted share in 2024. Net income of $13.5 million for the full year of 2025 includes the impact of tax credits for the remediation of the uncertain tax position recorded in the 2024 financial results. The company's effective tax rate for 2025 was 16% compared to an estimated rate of 25% as we look forward to 2026. The higher tax rate reflects the normalization of our tax profile and profitability increases. The impact of our higher tax rate on 2026 fully diluted EPS is estimated to be approximately $0.55 per share. Non-GAAP adjusted earnings, which adds back net realized and unrealized loss on investments, noncash stock-based compensation expenses, noncash income tax provision expense and severance expenses was $4.7 million or $1.24 per basic share and $1.17 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2025. This compares to adjusted earnings of $2.4 million or $0.67 per basic and $0.61 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2024. For the full year, non-GAAP adjusted earnings reached $17 million or $4.63 per basic and $4.32 per diluted share, exceeding our guidance of $3.80. This compares to a full year 2024 non-GAAP adjusted earnings of $6.8 million or $1.92 per basic and $1.84 per diluted share in 2024. We reported non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of $4.7 million with adjusted EBITDA margin of 22% in the fourth quarter of 2025, representing a material increase compared to $2.7 million and 14.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024. This marks our third consecutive quarter of adjusted EBITDA margin of above 20%. For the full year 2025, adjusted EBITDA reached $17.6 million with adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.5%, a significant expansion from $9.6 million and 12.5% in 2024. Turning to Slide 7. We have delivered noticeable improvement in our profit trajectory dating back to the first quarter of 2024. Although we have achieved continuous profitability increases overall, we did recognize a slight decrease in non-GAAP adjusted earnings on a sequential basis from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of '25 which was related to a noncash provision for income taxes of approximately $932,000 in the third quarter of 2025. This is associated with a year-to-date R&D tax credit adjustment stemming from The Big Beautiful Bill signed in July. Our profitability trend has been strong, and we anticipate this trajectory will continue as product mix shifts and we increased BKR 9000 sales. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended 2025 with a record cash balance and debt-free balance sheet, underscoring the strong cash-generating capability of the business. At December 31, 2025, we had $22.8 million in cash on the balance sheet, a significant improvement over the $7.1 million as of the end of 2024 as well as no debt. The company as a part of its capital allocation plan established a Rule 10b5-1 nondiscretionary stock repurchase program in September. During the quarter, the company repurchased approximately 19,000 shares of its common stock as per the conditions of the plan. Working capital improved to $37.3 million at December 31, 2025, compared with $23 million at the December 31, 2024. Shareholders' equity increased to $44.7 million compared to -- with $29.8 million at December 31, 2024. To conclude, the strength of our business model and disciplined execution by our team enabled us to deliver on our Vision 2025 objectives and successfully navigate industry-wide challenges. We remain confident that our positioning will enable us to accomplish our Vision 2030 objectives with our guiding principles being to surpass customer expectations and create an advanced value for our shareholders. I will now turn the call back over to John, who will provide our 2026 outlook and Vision 2030 goals.

Thanks, Scott. We closed Vision 2025 in a strong financial position and are poised to carry forward the momentum into 2026 and beyond. Accordingly, we are introducing the following full year 2026 guidance: revenue of at least $90 million, full year gross margin of 50% or greater, full year GAAP EPS of $3.15 and full year non-GAAP adjusted EPS of $3.55. These targets reflect our current expectations for continued revenue growth, further margin expansion and operating leverage, particularly on the SG&A line. However, the above guidance also includes the impact of the estimated income taxes described earlier that we believe we will encounter in 2026. We believe there is an upside, and we'll adjust guidance as we execute our growth plan. In addition, we continue to make meaningful progress on the development of our soon-to-be launched BKR 9500 multiband mobile radio, a companion radio to the BKR 9000, which is on track now for shipping in the first half of 2027. Initial customer validation has been strong with agencies preferring to buy both handheld and in-vehicle devices from the same manufacturer for seamless interoperability. The 9500 represents a significant opportunity to deepen existing agency relationships and expand our customer base. As we reviewed the remaining development work for the BKR 9500 multiband radio, we made the decision to expense future development costs rather than capitalize them. While this reduces reported EPS by approximately $0.50 in 2026, we believe this is more conservative accounting treatment, better reflects the economics of our R&D investments and strengthens the transparency of our financial reporting. Turning to Vision 2025 and Vision 2030. Vision 2025 was drafted shortly after I arrived in July 2021. Our base year was 2020, and we set a goal to more than double our revenues, increase our gross margins and dramatically improve our EBITDA to 20% from 3.5%. We did not know within 6 months, we would be at the start of a global supply chain crisis that dropped our gross margins down to 14%. What was perhaps worse, our new flagship BKR 9000 multiband handheld radio would take another 18 months to be released. Despite these challenges, the team battled back and ended 2025 with results just shy of doubling our revenue while achieving the 50% gross margin target in the fourth quarter. This resulted in a full year adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.5%, exceeding our 2025 vision target of 20%. As we look forward to 2030, we have set new targets. Our goals for Vision 2030 include the following: increase our market share and double our revenue to $170 million, deliver continued gross margin expansion to 60%, achieve adjusted EBITDA margin of 35%. This will triple our earnings per share to $13 and flow through to free cash flow generation of over $55 million. Year 1 of Vision 2030 is 2026. We have reiterated our strategic focus on extending our reach beyond wildland fire into structured fire, law enforcement and everyday mission-critical communications as we expand our addressable market meaningfully. Our Vision 2030 targets are driven by 3 primary levers: expanding our installed base of BKR 9000 radios, the introduction of the BKR 9500 mobile platform and continued margin leverage as our manufacturing model scales. Next month, at our Investor Day, we will provide a comprehensive deep dive into our Vision 2030 initiatives, including a road map for product innovation, channel expansion and capital allocation, among other playbook objectives. The event will be held virtually on April 2. Registration details will become available shortly, and we hope you can attend. Before we begin the Q&A, I would like to -- I would also like to mention that Scott and I will be attending the 38th Annual ROTH Conference on March 23 and 24 at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, California. We encourage you to contact your ROTH representative to register. With that, we can now open the call for questions. Jenny?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is coming from Jaeson Schmidt of Lake Street Capital.

John, I know you don't want to give specific details on the 9,000 for competitive reasons, which is understandable. But just curious if you could provide some color on what you're seeing from sort of sales cycle length, if you're seeing any sort of significant pushback from customers? And I guess, relatedly, with the traction you saw in 2025, was most of that coming from initial orders or expanding orders at existing customers?

Yes. The second -- well, first, Jaeson, thanks for joining us this morning, and thank you for the question. So the expansion on the 9,000 is definitely coming from new orders. A lot of our customers are coming from the fire side with some in the law enforcement side. The anecdotal feedback that we received from our customers who test the radios and have made purchases is that there's a quality radio that performs well. They really like the ergonomics. And the ones that have received their radios, the feedback has been very positive. So no pushback to date.

Okay. No, that's great to hear. And I mean, the 2030 vision, I want to dig in a little bit to some of those metrics. Obviously, a significant ramp is expected on the top line. Not looking for a specific breakout, but at a high level, how much should we think about sort of that 9,500 being a driver? Or can you get there with just continued penetration of the 9,000?

Yes. So I think in general, the expectation is that for every 2 handheld radios that are sold in the marketplace, one in-vehicle mobile radio would be sold. That is kind of a general rule of thumb in our industry. So we expect that the same will happen, same ratio between the BKR 9000 and the BKR 9500. So we do believe that come 2030, a substantial amount of that revenue will come from the 9500, but even more again from the 9000.

Okay. That makes sense. And then just the last one for me, and I'll jump back into queue. Sticking with some of these 2030 Vision metrics, free cash flow generation expected to be significant. How should investors or us think about sort of capital allocation plans going forward?

Yes. I think the first and foremost priority is investing in ourselves in our portfolio. We do believe that we are just starting to penetrate this market on a wider scale and that there is a huge runway for our solutions. So the funding will always be prioritized towards our core portfolio and building on that portfolio, especially as we look towards the solution side, which should drive further adoption of our BKR Series radios. After that, we would -- we are looking at different acquisitions. Those acquisitions would be tailored around, again, our core solution offering. So anything that could drive further adoption of our radios would be top of mind for an acquisition. And then lastly, in terms of priorities, it would be returning the money to the shareholders if we, at that time, could not find better alternatives or in the case we did in the fourth quarter, where we felt that our share price was undervalued, we purchased shares back. So that would be the priorities. We'll talk about that more on our 2030 vision call coming up, and I'll expand on our capital allocation priorities at that time.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is coming from Robert Voorhis of Vanatoc Capital Management.

Great quarter and good execution from the team. I just have a couple of quick questions. And my first is just on the R&D development expense for the 9,500. And I understand it's like somewhere around $2 million. Does that expense essentially go away once the 9500 is released? Or is it sort of run rated at a higher rate to sustain the 9,500?

Yes. So our expectation is that we're going to continue to invest in our core products. So we don't anticipate our engineering expense to go down over time. Now that being said, less of that investment is going to be in the sustainment of the 9500 versus the development. But we are planning to continue the road map and continue our investment in engineering.

Okay. That makes sense. And then my second question, and maybe this is more suited for the call you guys have coming up. But John, just long term, in terms of pricing strategy, I mean, I understand this industry has quite a lot of pricing power. There's a lot of brand loyalty. What kind of is the pricing strategy long term here? Is it -- I don't know, I'm not going to put any numbers in your mouth, but like low single-digit increases over time? Or how do you guys think about that?

That's an excellent question, Robert. So I think in the context of where we are today, we have a 3%, 3.5% market share. So I would say very modest at best. But we also think that we can at least get to a 10% market share with our current plan and our marketing strategy. And so my goal right now is to garner as much market share as I can. And at the point at which we feel that the incremental increase in market share is less than what we could achieve through a price increase. At that point, we would start raising prices. Now that being said, I mean, we did have some price increases last year and that were related to the activities in the administration's tariffs. I mean if we have a disruption in our cost structure, then of course, we're going to pass that on to our customers just like all our competitors did in our industry. But if I look at the trade-off between the opportunity for us to gain market share, and as you said, once you gain these customers, the stickiness is there. I think the priority really is let's get as much market share as we can. And then at some point, we will be shifting to continued improved profitability through sustained price increases over time.

Okay. No, that makes total sense. Very rational. My last quick question, if I could just get one more. It's maybe more suited for Scott. But just on Slide 10, the target 26 diluted GAAP EPS number is $3.50 versus I think the diluted GAAP EPS number that you guys gave in the outlook was $3.15 for this year. I guess, how should we look at those -- the difference between those 2? What really is the difference?

It should be -- Scott, I believe it should be $3.15.

GAAP diluted, yes, is $3.15. The non-GAAP diluted is $3.55.

Apologies, Robert. We did catch that, but obviously, version control caught us on that. We didn't get that update.

Well, we appear to have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. John and Scott, would you like to make any closing remarks?

Thank you, Jenny. Thank you all for participating in today's call. We are confident the foundation we have built, anchored by continuous revenue and profit growth, a strong debt-free balance sheet and increasing free cash flow trajectory positions us to deliver long-term value creation for both our customers and shareholders. We look forward to speaking to you again at our upcoming Investor Day next month. All the best to all of you, and have a great day.

This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.