GrabAGun Digital Holdings Inc. (PEW) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, and welcome to the GrabAGun Digital Holdings First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. On today's call are Marc Nemati, Chief Executive Officer; and Justin Hilty, Chief Financial Officer. A recording of this conference call will be available on the GrabAGun Investor Relations website shortly after this call has ended. I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you that during the call, we will be making certain forward-looking statements. This includes statements relating to the operating performance of our business, future financial results and guidance, strategy, long-term growth and overall future prospects. We may also make statements regarding regulatory or compliance matters. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied during this call, in particular, those described in our risk factors included in the Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, filed by the company with the SEC on March 12, 2026, as well as the current uncertainty and unpredictability in our business, the markets and the global economy generally. You should not rely on our forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. All forward-looking statements that we make on this call are based on management's assumptions and beliefs as of the date hereof, and GrabAGun disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Our discussion today will include non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from our GAAP results. Information regarding our non-GAAP financial measures, including a reconciliation of our non-GAAP financial measures to our most comparable historical GAAP financial measures may be found in our earnings release, which we filed with the SEC earlier today and is available on the company's Investor Relations site. I will now turn the call over to Marc Nemati. Marc, please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. We started fiscal year 2026 with momentum. Our Q1 results show the business model that's working, and they reflect our commitment to supporting American second amendment rights. Our first quarter results reflect disciplined execution across our operation and our continued commitment to serving a growing customer base that values constitutional freedoms and lawful access to a wide selection of premium firearms and accessories. First, the headline numbers. Q1 revenue increased 11.1% year-over-year to $25.9 million, driven by a 10.5% increase in firearm sales. Our growth continued to outpace the broader industry as adjusted NICS background checks were up by 1.6% during that same period. We're continuing to take share in a challenging environment, and we believe we are just scratching the surface of what this platform can do. Our growth is impressive against that backdrop. The strength of the business model shows up most clearly in our customer metrics. Customer lifetime value continued to grow, up 4.2% year-over-year, reflecting deep relationships with our expanding base of loyal customers. Repeat purchase momentum remains strong with our repeat rate holding steady as customers continue to return to GrabAGun for their firearms and accessory needs. Mobile engagements continue to be a significant driver of our business as well, accounting for approximately 67% of traffic and 64% of revenue in the first quarter. Mobile drives higher conversion rates and our digital model runs at a structurally lower cost per transaction than traditional retail. These conversion rates, this customer lifetime value, this repeat purchase behavior, none of it is accidental. It's a result of over 15 years of compounding investment in technology, supplier relationships and customer trust. As I mentioned on our fourth quarter call, 2025 was an inflection point for GrabAGun. We completed our public listing, expanded our strategic capabilities and laid the foundation for the next phase of growth. We entered 2026 with momentum, and this quarter, we continued to execute against our strategic priorities. We had a significant milestone this quarter, the launch and continued development of PEW Logistics, our white-labeled direct-to-consumer fulfillment solution purpose-built for firearm manufacturers. For those who may be newer to this part of our story, let me provide some context on why this is important. The firearm industry has a friction gap that has persisted for decades. Manufacturers have historically been locked out of direct-to-consumer commerce, not because they lack the products or brand equity, but because of regulatory complexity, FFL processing requirements and a fragmented fulfillment infrastructure that creates barriers most cannot overcome on their own. The result is referral leakage. Manufacturers drive demand through marketing and brand building, only to watch that demand be captured by third-party retailers who own the customer relationship and the data. PEW Logistics solves this problem. We engineered a platform that allows manufacturers to launch branded direct-to-consumer storefronts with full ATF-compliant FFL workflows, end-to-end fulfillment and first-party customer data. All of it is powered by over 15 years of infrastructure investment at GrabAGun. Manufacturers can launch in weeks, not months, with no major capital outlay and no need to build out compliance, IT, customer service or logistics teams. We launched PEW Logistics in January with KelTec Weapons as our first implementation. KelTec is a 35-year American farms manufacturer with a loyal customer base, and their collaboration validated the platform's value proposition from day 1. In March, we added Derya Arms as our second manufacturer client. Derya is a global manufacturer with over 200,000 firearms produced and products trusted by professionals in more than 50 countries. The addition of Derya demonstrates growing industry momentum for the platform and validates its appeal across both domestic and international manufacturer profiles. We are also making progress on our new headquarters and fulfillment facility, which we acquired in the fourth quarter. At approximately 2.5x our current footprint, this purpose-built facility provides operational capacity to support our growth well beyond 2026, including the anticipated needs as we aggressively scale PEW Logistics. We are currently outfitting the space and remain on track to be fully operational in the fourth quarter of 2026. This is a long-term infrastructure investment that reflects our conviction in where the business is headed. Since launch, PEW Logistics has processed $1.3 million in gross merchandise value. Our network of FFL holders that puts a licensed dealer within 15 miles of 97% of the U.S. population ensures fast compliant delivery nationwide, resulting in an average checkout to delivery time of just under 3 business days. PEW Logistics continues to outpace traditional online farms retail benchmarks. The early results are encouraging, and we see significant runway ahead as we onboard additional manufacturers throughout the year. Beyond PEW Logistics, we continue to strengthen our core D2C e-commerce business. Our Shoot & Subscribe ammunition subscription service, which we launched in the fourth quarter, continues to build momentum. The service introduced something the firearms eCommerce category had not historically had, a predictable recurring revenue model built upon a loyal contracted customer relationship instead of relying upon a series of one-time transactions with the same customer. Early adoption has continued to build, now contributing 15% of our annual revenue line, and the model is architected to expand across additional product categories over time. Looking ahead, we remain focused on scaling PEW Logistics with traditional manufacturers, driving continued market share gains in our core D2C business and deploying capital towards accretive opportunities that strengthen our platform. Regarding capital deployment specifically, outside of directly growing PEW Logistics and our D2C channel, we remain focused on finding accretive opportunities and are taking a disciplined approach focused on long-term shareholder value. We continue to evaluate both potential M&A and internal build possibilities. Our M&A pipeline remains active, but our priority remains disciplined, and our approach to M&A is straightforward. We're not in the business of overpaying to arbitrary growth targets. The strength of our balance sheet gives the luxury of patience. We can wait for the right assets at the right price rather than chasing deals that don't make strategic or financial sense. Our framework is built on acquisitions in the tens of millions, where they enhance our platform capabilities and meet our return thresholds, focusing on long-term shareholder value. When we find those targets, we will move quickly. Until then, we are comfortable staying disciplined and letting our organic growth engines, both D2C and PEW Logistics compound. Overall, our first quarter results demonstrate that the strategy is working. We continue to outperform the broader firearms industry, and we are building a promising new growth vector through PEW Logistics. And we are doing so while maintaining a fortress balance sheet and returning capital to shareholders. The next generation of firearm consumers is already here. They transact on mobile, they transact with Bitcoin. They expect frictionless experiences. And they hold GrabAGun to the same standard as the best retail platforms on the Internet. We are built for this customer. We are winning today, and we're taking more market share every quarter. Before I turn it over to Justin, one regulatory item worth flagging that could reshape this industry. The ATF has proposed new regulations that would allow certain firearm transfers to occur remotely, with federal background chip requirements still met through secure identity verification. If finalized, lawful consumers could complete the full compliance process remotely. That includes direct-to-home firearm delivery within an approved framework. This could be the most significant change to firearms retail distribution in decades. Importantly, the infrastructure required to operate in this environment is complex. As currently proposed, the new regulations require remote identity verification, meeting federal standards, seamless NICS integration, advanced compliance systems, secure recordkeeping and the operational ability to execute all of it accurately at scale. GrabAGun is uniquely positioned for this opportunity. For more than 15 years, we have built a digital infrastructure and compliance foundation required to support highly regulated online firearm transactions. Few companies are positioned to adapt this quickly if the rules change. Regardless of regulatory outcome, the long-term strategy that we have been building on for years positions us to continue to drive evolution of firearms commerce. With that, I'll pass it over to Justin.

Thank you, Marc. I will now dive into our financials in more detail. First quarter net sales were $25.9 million, an increase of 11.1% compared to $23.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. Firearms product sales increased 10.5% year-over-year to $21.7 million, significantly outperforming adjusted NICS background checks during the quarter. The strength in firearms was driven by continued market share gains, favorable product mix and the ongoing effectiveness of our AI-powered pricing and demand forecasting capabilities. Non-firearms product sales were $4.1 million, an increase of 10.4% year-over-year despite widespread softness in ammunition demand that has been consistent across the 2A industry. Gross profit for the first quarter was $2.8 million or 10.7% of net sales compared to $2.2 million or 9.6% of net sales in the prior year period. Favorable mix towards higher-margin firearms categories plus continued benefit from our pricing optimization drove the 107 basis point improvement in gross margin. We remain focused on driving sustainable margin improvement while maintaining our competitive price positioning. Total operating expenses for the first quarter were $5.4 million compared to $2.2 million in the prior year period. The increase reflects planned investments in public company infrastructure, the launch and scaling of PEW Logistics and incremental headcount to support our growth initiatives. As a reminder, the first quarter of fiscal 2025 was a pre-public company period, so the year-over-year comparison reflects the full impact of incremental costs associated with operating as a public company. Net loss for the first quarter was $1.8 million. The $3.2 million increase in year-over-year SG&A expenses were primarily attributable to approximately $1.5 million in incremental headcount to support our growth initiatives, about $500,000 in stock-based compensation, and approximately $800,000 in insurance costs and professional fees associated with operating as a public company. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was a $2 million loss compared to $0.5 million in the prior year period. The decrease reflects the increased operating expenses I just mentioned, partially offset by higher gross profit from our revenue growth and margin expansion. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $106.4 million in cash and minimal debt. Our business model is built so that we can collect from our customers before we pay our suppliers with $9.2 million in inventory against $13 million in accounts payable, our suppliers are effectively co-funding our growth. As a reminder, while our results today primarily reflect our core direct-to-consumer business, over time, we expect PEW Logistics to begin contributing to our diversified revenue model in an even more meaningful way. This business carries a structurally higher margin profile than our core direct-to-consumer business, driven by a software-like revenue share model and highly scalable economics that leverage our existing infrastructure with minimal incremental fulfillment costs. As PEW Logistics scales and contributes more significantly to our revenue mix, we expect it to be accretive to overall margins over time. During the first quarter, we repurchased approximately $2.4 million of our common stock under our $20 million share repurchase authorization. We have just under $9 million remaining under the current authorization, and we'll continue to evaluate opportunistic share repurchases while maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation and preserving balance sheet flexibility to support our long-term growth initiatives. Looking ahead, we expect to continue investing in our strategic growth initiatives, including expanding PEW Logistics through additional manufacturers and driving continued market share gains within our core direct-to-consumer business. We remain focused on disciplined expense management while making the investments necessary to capture the significant opportunities ahead of us. With that, I'll turn the call back to Marc before we move into Q&A. Marc?

Thank you, Justin. I would like to quickly reiterate the key themes from today's discussion. We delivered a solid first quarter with 11% revenue growth and continued market share gains in a flat industry environment. We made meaningful progress scaling PEW Logistics with two manufacturers now on the platform. And we maintained our fortress balance sheet with over $106 million in cash and minimal debt, providing us with significant flexibility to pursue our growth initiatives and return capital to shareholders. We at GrabAGun continue to lead the generational shift towards digitally native commerce in the firearms industry. With the potentially large regulatory changes by the ATF, we believe we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the next industry evolution. Our 15 years of compounding investment in technology, supplier relationships and customer trust have built competitive advantages that widen as the market evolves. We are confident in our strategy. We are executing against our priorities, and we are excited about the opportunities ahead. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Matt Koranda with ROTH Capital.

Nice work on the outperformance versus mix again. Just wanted to hear a little bit more on the outgrowth as it pertains to units versus average order value on firearms this quarter. And then anything you can share on just cadence of the quarter? Obviously, we had some geopolitical disruption in March. Just wanted to hear how that might have impacted results intra-quarter and what you've seen in terms of demand trends since then, if you're willing to share sort of April or May trend that you've seen in terms of firearms demand?

Thanks, Matt, for joining. Yes. So I think most of the growth that we can attribute to this is the consistency of our platform. Obviously, we spend a lot of time making sure that there's as much reduced friction as possible. A lot of it also attributable to our product mix. We're continuing to purchase the right items at these right prices to help consumers purchase what they want as well as you've probably seen our expanded marketing capabilities. So now we're driving, I think, a lot more traffic, a lot more consumer demand into our platform through all the change we've done in marketing, whether that's social media or other marketing channels. And then in terms of like inter-quarter stuff, I mean, the quarter month-by-month is pretty stable across the line. That growth is an upward trend, and that trend is continuing through the first quarter and beyond. And it's been pretty stable. I don't see that many like peaks and spikes because of geopolitical events. There may be some, but they're not massive in any duration. It's the platform and the revenue that is generating has all been fairly stable and linear growing linearly.

Okay. All right. I appreciate that, Marc. And then just maybe on the PEW Logistics solution, good to see the second customer added there. How should we think about the funnel of opportunity, I guess, as it pertains to maybe manufacturing partners that could sign up, how you're attacking the market overall and how growth should unfold as that kind of ramps from a standing start?

Yes. I think we'll get more manufacturers on a much quicker cadence after they start seeing some of these metrics and revenue that's being driven by some of the partners we have on there already. As you know, we just launched this in mid-January with our first customer, KelTec and then Derya came on board and that website launched, I think, about 1 week or 2 ago. So it's all still very new. The more time we have under our belt with that and the more results that we show, these manufacturers, I believe, we will start to see kind of the option that they have to leverage a platform like this to grow their gross margin and again, to kind of work on that funnel of customer information that they're losing out on because of the way that they don't have a direct purchasing capability currently.