Senstar Technologies Corporation ($SNT)

Welcome to Senstar Technologies First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Corbin Woodhull of Hayden IR. Corbin, would you like to begin?

Thank you, Sherry. I would like to welcome everyone to the conference call and thank Senstar Technologies Management for hosting today's call. With us on the call today are Mr. Fabien Haubert, CEO of Senstar Technologies; and Ms. Alicia Kelly, the CFO. Fabian will summarize key financial and business highlights, followed by Alicia, who will review Senstar's financial results for the first quarter of 2026. We will then open the call for a question-and-answer session. I would like to remind participants that all financial figures discussed in today's call are in U.S. dollars and all comparisons are on a year-over-year basis, unless otherwise indicated. Before we start, I'd like to point out this conference call may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the company's future performance. These statements are only predictions and Senstar cannot guarantee that they will, in fact, occur. Senstar does not assume any obligation to update that information. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected, including as a result of changing market trends, reduced demand, the competitive nature of the security systems industry as well as other risks in the documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, during the course of the conference call, we will describe certain non-GAAP financial measures, which should be considered in addition to and not in lieu of comparable GAAP financial measures. Please note that in our press release, we have reconciled our non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in accordance with Reg G requirements. And with that, I will now turn the call over to Fabien. Fabian, please go ahead.

Thank you, Corbin, and thank you to those joining us today to review Sensor Technologies Third Quarter 2026 financial results. Our first quarter results reflect continuous project timing delays and elongated customer procurement cycles in portion of our business, particularly in the U.S. government markets and mainly in corrections. Despite this near-term pressure, we continue to see healthy customer engagement and pipeline activity across several of our strategic growth areas. We're seeing strong underlying momentum across our business and encouraging traction in a number of important growth areas. At the headline level, we reported consolidated revenue of $8.1 million, a 4% decline versus the first quarter of 2025. As we anticipated, the first quarter of 2026 was transitional and shaped by a few transitory dynamics. Because of this, I will provide more granular details behind our performance as the story is more nuanced than a single percentage. Now on to review of quarterly highlights and business drivers. Our first quarter performance can be explained by the following factors: continued pressure in the U.S. correction markets following the federal government shutdown and delayed funding deployment. However, while projects in this vertical has been delayed, we did not record any major loss, and we expect most of them to convert over the remainder of 2026. The absence of the large nonrecurring energy project in APAC that benefited the year ago quarter, which, by its nature, did not repeat. And with Blickfeld revenue coming online 6 weeks after the quarter starts, we have sold that operating costs with less than half a quarter of revenue affecting profitability in Q1. We have retained previously planned projects in our pipeline, though timing has shifted into the second half of 2026. This gives us confidence in the strength of our pipeline and the overall demand environment. Performance across our core vertical markets was mixed in the quarter, declining approximately 25% year-over-year. The decline was primarily driven by the U.S. correction market weakness as well as tougher comparison in energy due to nonrecurring project in the first quarter of 2025 as a positive offset utility posted plus 40% growth versus the prior year quarter, continued strength in telecom and data centers. More broadly, traction across these verticals remain on course worldwide, and we're focused on opening new logos while deepening our cross-selling opportunities. On the technology front, I want to spend a moment on LiDAR, because it is increasingly central to our story. In the first quarter, consolidated LIFO revenue reached 11% of total revenue and order intake has been strong with the majority of recent bookings scheduled for delivery in Q2 and beyond. It's important to understand that LIDAR is complementary to Senstar solutions and significantly broadens our addressable market. We're pleased to report that combined lighter cells across Blickfeld and Senstar grew by approximately 4x during the first quarter, the first full quarter validating the strategic rationale and demonstrating strong early commercial traction. These figures I provided to offer context on the scale of the LiDAR business prior to the acquisition and may not be disclosed quarterly in the future. Our closest peers in the lighter security market are growing at close to 50% per year, and we're confident we can achieve high growth rate in LIDAR as we scale with securely applications, volume and traffic monitoring representing the factors where we are deploying the most resources. LiDAR is becoming a technological cornerstone of same-store technology in place, an increasingly important role in our long-term strategic plan. The integration of the Brickfield and Senstar commercial teams is progressing well. we're aligning our go-to-market strategies across multiple regions, and the response from customers has been outstanding, proof of concepts, evaluations and form of rotation are being run across all our traditional vertical worldwide, and we continue to expect accelerated growth globally without requiring significant investments. Together, we're well portioned to scale our light our capabilities globally leveraging sensor customer relationships and like technology and market presents. Product innovation has always been a key differentiator for Senstar and the first quarter of the year was no exception. At ISC West Springs, we introduced 2 major innovations that received exceptionally positive market reception. One, our next generation embedded fiber platform features a compact ruggedized AI-enhanced architecture that significantly improved detection performance, ease of deployment and operational robustness, all with a fully redesigned graphical user interface. This represents the next chapter of our market-leading fiber perimeter detection franchise. Through the sensor flow engine, which is the next major enhancements were Senstars' software management platform. It brings intelligent workflow engine functionality and the new graphical interface that enables sophisticated scenario understanding across sensors and over time, transforming our secure management software and video management software platforms into an operational intelligence system. Both innovations are on track for market release in the second half of 2026, and we believe that will reinforce our competitive positioning and support expansion within existing accounts. Turning to our geographic performance. The quarter reflected a mix of near-term timing pressure along some continued strength in several strategic growth areas. The primary drivers of the slight overall decline was the temporary U.S. federal government shutdown, which impacted portions of our U.S. Corrections business, as well as a difficult comparison against several large nonretained projects recognized in the prior year, particularly in APAC. At the same time, we continue to see encouraging traction across a number of important markets and geographies. Europe, Middle East and Africa delivered strong growth in the quarter, reflecting the benefits of our long-term investment in the region. Expanding customer relationships and growing demand across utilities, telecom, energy, military and security applications. We are also seeing increasing LIDAR engagement in India including activity in traffic and volume monitoring alongside our traditional perimeter secured business. In North America, while the U.S. correction market remained pressured by the federal shutdown and delayed procurement activity, customer engagement and project activity levels remain healthy. We also continue to see encouraging order activity in later and ongoing commercial engagements across data centers, utilities, energy, airport and industrial application. In APAC, results were impacted primarily by difficult operations against unusually strong prior year project activity. Excluding this non-electric project, customer activity levels remain constructive, and we continue to invest in expanding our presence across key verticals, including data centers, energy transport, utilities and corrections. Overall, while product timing continues to impact midterm revenue conversion during the quarter, we remain encouraged by customer engagements, order activity, geographic diversification and the expanding contribution from LIDAR-related opportunities. To summarize, we recognize the need to improve consistency in quarterly performance. At the same time, our booking customer engagement order activity and the diversification of our pipeline continue to support our confidence in the long-term opportunity, and we remain focused on improving revenue conversion over the coming quarter. The confidence is supported by the following: one, EMEA continues to deliver strong growth, supported by our long-term investment in the region and increasing demand across verticals; two, we continue to see healthy customer engagement and project activity in the U.S. correction market despite delayed procurement activity associated with the federal shutdown as well as in the utilities data centers and energy sectors; LiDAR ,#3, is becoming an increasively potent growth driver for Senstar as the Blickfeld combination strengthens our position in these high-growth markets; four, we're launching 2 new innovative products in the second half of 2026 that we believe will reinforce our competitive positioning and support expansion within existing accounts; and five, our pipeline remains diversified across multiple geographies, technologies and end markets, supporting future growth opportunities as project timing normalizes. Before turning the call over to Alicia, I would like to thank our employees for the continued dedication, our customer for their trust and our shareholders for their ongoing support. I will now turn the call over to Alicia for a review of the financial results in more detail.

Thank you, Fabien. Our revenue for the first quarter of 2026 was $8.1 million, which compared to $8.4 million in the year ago quarter. This year-on-year reduction is related to nonrecurring project timing in APAC and impacts from the federal government shutdown in the U.S., positively offset by a stronger performance from LiDAR. The EMEA region was the strongest performing geographic area in the quarter, with revenue increasing by 43% year-over-year. Growth in the region was fueled by steady demand in utilities, telecom, energy, corrections, [indiscernible] and military. As Fabien discussed previously, LIDAR applications continue to generate accelerated inbound customer demand, including significant opportunities within traffic and volume monitoring. Revenue from North America declined by 20% in the quarter, driven by a 21% revenue decline in the U.S. As Fabian commented, the performance in the U.S. was attributed to challenging market dynamics. Including a 35% reduction in the corrections vertical and the impact of the federal government shutdown and associated project delays that we expect to resume in 2026. Canada experienced pressure in the quarter as well, with revenue declining by 14%. We experienced solid traction in energy, military, utilities and corrections verticals. [indiscernible] and we remain focused on serving our customers in this important region. The APAC region declined by 30% in the quarter due to challenging year-over-year comparisons, which included a large energy project in the first quarter of 2025 that did not reoccur. The quarter included contribution from energy, corrections, utilities, telecoms, data centers and growing traction in the transport vertical. Our geographic breakdown as a percentage of revenue for the first quarter of 2026 compared to prior year quarter is as follows: North America, 41% versus 49%; EMEA, 45% versus 30%; APAC, 13% versus 17%. All other regions were immaterial for both periods. First quarter gross margin of 60% compared to 67.2% in the year ago quarter. This variation in gross margin is primarily the result of less favorable product mix, lower revenue and overhead expense cadence. Our operating expenses were $5.5 million, representing an 18% increase compared to $4.6 million in the first quarter of the prior year. Operating expenses represent 67.5% of revenue compared to 54.8% in the year ago period. The acquisition of Blickfeld contributed approximately $600,000 in incremental operating expenses during the ownership period. The largest year-over-year increases were in G&A and marketing costs increased primarily due to the addition of the Blickfeld sales commercial structure as well as targeted investments in sales and marketing initiatives within the Sunstar Group. The increase in G&A was mainly attributable to the Blickfeld acquisition, foreign exchange impacts and in the extraordinary bad debt provision of approximately $100,000. The operating loss for the first quarter of 2026 was $603,000 compared to operating income of $1 million in the first quarter of last year. Operating loss for the quarter was primarily driven by revenue declines and high G&A expenses. The company's EBITDA for the first quarter was a loss of $403,000 compared to positive EBITDA of $1.2 million first quarter of last year. Financial loss was $49,000 in the first quarter of this year compared to financial income of $269,000 in the first quarter of last year. This is mainly a noncash accounting effect we regularly report due to the adjustments of the evaluation of our monetary assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currency of the operational entities in the group in accordance with GAAP. Net income attributable to Senstar Technology shareholders in the first quarter was a loss of $800,000 or a loss of $0.04 per share compared to net income of $1 million or $0.04 per share in the first quarter of last year. Added to Senstar's operational contribution are the [indiscernible] platform expenses and amortization of intangible assets from historical acquisitions. The corporate expenses for the first quarter were approximately $420,000 and compared to roughly $500,000 in the year-ago period. Turning next to our balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents and short-term bank deposits were $10.6 million, or $0.45 per share as of March 31, 2026. This excludes restricted cash of $900,000. The restricted cash relates to Blake field's closing balances. This compares to $22.5 million or $0.96 per share as of December 31, 2025. The company has no debt as of March 31, 2026. This concludes my remarks. Operator, we would like to open the call to questions now.

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question is from Ken Liddy with Oppenheimer & Company.

Could you talk more about your opportunities that are not security-related for LiDAR?

Sure. So thanks, Ken, for this question. So we see two main basically applications on [indiscernible] the main one today is what we call the volume metering. So it's using the LiDAR, LiDAR basically provides digital twin and our 3D rebuild pictures of environment. And when using this technology to measure on the fly, basically, volumes of both materials like sold like sand, like fertilizer, petrochemicals and so on. There's been one of the major verticals of Blickfeld mainly in the U.S., and it has a very strong traction. We've been working so far mainly in the salt measuring for basically solving the roads and DOTs, but we're expanding to petrochemicals and others. We see very high potential in this application in the future, [indiscernible] mentioned, petrochemical application, fertilizer anything related to bulk transports because you can measure on the spot, the exact volume of basically a truck or whatsoever or a container without stopping the operation and optimize your logistics streams of this [indiscernible].

And with regards to the traffic, could you talk about what type of application...

Thank you very much. So traffic monitoring as one of the -- which we foresee basically in the future has a very strong growth potential. You have two main applications, you have highways and whatsoever and what we call the Crossroads. Today, Crossroads is very complex in the sense that you need to excavate and to put sensors below its growth, its crosspoints to measure the number of vehicles crossing and whatever, with a lot of uncertainty. Putting a LIDAR gives you the possibility to classify basically the type of vehicles, cars, bikes, parts their speed, their direction and to give basically lots of information in the purpose of Smart City management. It's a business that is picking up worldwide. And when -- where Blickfeld had some first very interesting wins prior to the acquisitions, which we are deploying and we're willing to invest a lot. I would see that as something which is not short term, but short term, midterm, I would say, but we believe a very high growth potential in this vertical as well.

Staying on LiDAR. Previously, you worked with Blickfeld on a small airport, I believe, in Europe. Is there any opportunities like that?

Yes, we have plenty. So basically, that's what we have said, we are -- if you take basically the lager sales and not given those biggest which we will not repeat over time. But if you take the lines of the period, they went to 0 last year to 11% of the whole quarter, taking into account that life sales were only accounted from the 14th of February until the end of the quarter, it represents 11% from 0 last year. So you can see the growth. Number two, if you take basically the invoice of both companies from January 1 until the end of the quarter, both companies, the sales has been multiplied by 4 versus last year. So it gives an idea of traction. So we have been able to sell in correction in airport, in -- oh gosh, it's a data center, of course. And so it's been everywhere we had the security footprint we're basically either making proofs of concept or sales of this application on top of the perimeter. And that has been an amazing success, and we see basically a very high potential growth in the secure application it's hard to give an exact project because we currently have tens of projects which we're running. And it's expanding our markets by the potential target seems to us between 5 and 10x the current total addressable market.

Are you converting more long-term customers into permanent customers rather than repeat customers rather than one project to another project, getting larger -- getting more repay customers on security.

So we see 3 -- oh, sorry, sorry, Ken. I thought you were done, excuse me, Ken.

Go ahead.

So we see three basically top of customers. So it's not the new of the old. We see three ways to market to promote the LiDAR. The first one is pretty much all our existing customers are currently basically investigating or purchasing according or LiDAR on top of the current relationship. So that's something which we see as a as a major win. On top of it, we have a new range of customers for other applications which are interested. And finally, we're working as well with distributors to distribute the product much broadly for different applications. So in our vertical, it's working with existing and new ones. And we're trying to broaden it with approaching and working with distributors to broaden the spread to the market for different application, eventually less critical. But yes, we see a traction pretty much in our verticals and beside our verticals.

And one more question. With regards to your overall pipeline for the company, is it greater now than it was in, say, December 31 or about the same? Or has it declined?

So it's hard to answer precisely this question. I would with a lot of questions tell you globally that it's kind of comparable. We have a very strong pipeline. What I can say, the LIDAR pipeline is increasing tremendously from 1 quarter to the other continually for a couple of quarters, tremendously.

[Operator Instructions]. There are no further questions at this time. I would -- Mr. Haubert, would you like to make your concluding statement?

Thank you. On behalf of Sensor management, I would like to thank our investors for their interest and long-term support of our business. Have a good day.

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