"VPG" Q2 2026 Earnings Call - AI-Driven Order Surge and Humanoid Robotics Milestone Fuel Above-Target Growth Outlook

Audra, Conference Operator, VPG: Good morning, welcome everyone to the VPG second quarter 2026 earnings call. Today’s conference is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press the star key, followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Steven Cantor, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Steven Cantor, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, VPG: Thank you, Audra. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to VPG’s second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Our press release and slides have been posted on our website at vpgsensors.com. An audio recording of today’s call will be available on the internet for a limited time and can also be accessed on our website. Before beginning the call, today’s remarks are governed by the safe harbor provisions of the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Our actual results may vary from forward-looking statements, and there can be no assurance that such results, including the targets described in our updated operating model, can be achieved. For a discussion of the risks associated with VPG’s operations, we encourage you to refer to our SEC filings, especially the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, and our other recent SEC filings.

On the call today are Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, and Bill Clancy, CFO. Now I’ll turn the call to Ziv for some prepared remarks. Please refer to slide three of the quarterly presentation. Ziv?

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: Thank you, Steve. I will begin with some commentary on our results and trends for the second quarter. Bill will provide financial details and our outlook for the third quarter of 2026. Moving to slide three. To summarize our second quarter results, we delivered another quarter of a strong order momentum, highlighting the continued success of our strategy to increase our exposure to secular growth markets. Orders were $95.5 million, driven by sustained strength in our Sensors segment and continued demand from AI-related markets, including semiconductor equipment, data center infrastructure, and aerospace and defense applications. We generated $11.6 million in bookings from our business development initiatives in the second quarter and $21.6 million in the first half of the year. This puts us on track to reach our goal of $45 million for the year.

As a result, our consolidated book-to-bill ratio was 1.14, marking our seventh consecutive quarter at or above 1.0. Within Sensors, book-to-bill was very strong, 1.44, reflecting robust demand across our key growth markets. We continue to add manufacturing capacity and personnel to support future growth and address rising customer demand. During the quarter, we received an official vendor nomination letter from our initial humanoid robotics customer. This is an important milestone that positions us to support their expected production ramp beginning in the second half of 2026. Revenue was $83.9 million, essentially flat sequentially and up 12% year-over-year. Second quarter revenue was negatively impacted by the temporary delay in approximately 3 million of shipments at our KELK business. This delay was due to supply chain challenges that resulted from the implementation of a new ERP system.

The ERP issue have been addressed, and production has increased to a normalized level. We expect to ship the delayed orders by the end of the fourth quarter. Operating profit was down $200 thousand sequentially as a result of unfavorable product mix and an unfavorable foreign exchange, which were partially offset by manufacturing efficiencies. FX remained a significant headwind, reducing operating profit by approximately $900 thousand sequentially and $3.3 million compared with the prior year period. Our operational improvements initiatives are beginning to gain traction. We generated nearly $1 million of cost savings during the second quarter and remained on track to achieve approximately $6 million of savings this year. As a reminder, these actions represent the first phase of our three-year plan to deliver approximately $20 million of cost reductions through manufacturing footprint optimization, increased automation, and procurement efficiencies across our global supply chain.

Most importantly, our strong order trends and backlogs support our positive outlook for the year. We expect fiscal 2026 organic growth to exceed the 8%-10% annual growth target outlined in our three-year plan. I’ll now review the performance by segment. Moving to slide four. Beginning with our Sensors segment, second quarter revenue of $33.4 million was approximately flat sequentially and grew 26% from a year ago. Our backlog remained at a very high level as we continued to hire manufacturing personnel to increase our output. Sequentially, the increase primarily reflected in higher sales of precision resistors in the test and measurement and AMS markets, which was partially offset by lower sales of strain gages in the test and measurement market. Bookings of $48.1 million remained robust but grew 6% sequentially to an all-time quarterly record.

This resulted in a book-to-bill ratio of 1.44, reflecting continued momentum in our largest growth markets. Demand continued to be driven by investments in AI-related infrastructure. We recorded strong orders for our precision resistors products sold to semiconductor OEM equipment makers, as well as to semi-device makers for their own custom test systems. Bookings for manufacturers of long-haul, high-speed fiber optics transmission equipment remained elevated, supporting the build-out of data center infrastructure. We also saw continued good demand for avionics and defense applications, given sustained demand from both established and next-generation defense programs. Humanoid-related bookings were approximately $500,000 and sales were $320,000 in the second quarter. We received a vendor nomination letter from our initial humanoid developer customer. This marks an important step as the customer moves from a prototype development to early production ramp in the second half of fiscal 2026.

It also reflects more than two years of engineering collaboration, product development, qualification work, and operational reviews. Based on this customer’s forecast demand, we are adding additional capacity. At the same time, we continue to make progress with other humanoid robotics developers, and we are actively engaging additional potential customers. Our record orders, elevated backlog, and expanding manufacturing capacity reinforce our confidence in the long-term growth trajectory of the Sensors business. Moving to slide five. Turning to our Weighing Solutions segment, second quarter revenue of $30.3 million was essentially even with the first quarter and 3% higher year-over-year. Sequentially higher sales in the transportation and general industrial markets and OEM construction, which offset lower revenues in industrial weighing and in our other markets for precision ag and medical equipment.

Orders of $28.6 million declined 13% sequentially from a strong first quarter to normalized level, resulting in a book-to-bill ratio of 0.94. Demand was stable, but mixed across our markets for Weighing Solutions. We saw positive trends in consumer e-bike applications, as well as continued strengthening in construction equipment in the U.S. and Europe. This was offset by lower orders in the transportation market, which was impacted by higher oil prices and softer demand in our industrial markets. Despite the flat sales, we grew our gross margin 300 basis points from the first quarter to 37.3%, reflecting cost reductions and a favorable product mix. Moving to slide six. Turning to Measurement Systems, second quarter revenue decreased 3% sequentially, but increased 5% from prior year. The sequential decrease was primarily due to lower sales in the AMS and transportation markets, which were partially offset by higher sales in the steel market.

While reported revenue was impacted by $3 million of shipment delays associated with the ERP implementation, customer demand remained intact, and the delayed orders remained in the backlog. As I indicated, our operations are now increasing production, and we expect to complete the delayed shipments by the end of the year. Orders of approximately $19 million declined 22% sequentially. This reflected the timing of DSI customer projects. In addition, for our KELK business, the global steel market remained challenging despite solid demand in the U.S. from reshoring of steel capacity and growing opportunities in India. Nonetheless, our DTS business saw continued order growth in the second quarter, driven by strength in the aerospace and defense markets. We also were pleased to have DTS named Supplier of the Year by Automotive Testing Technology International, which is a leading global publication covering the auto test market. Moving to slide seven.

Our strategic initiatives continue to gain traction and order trends in our key growth markets remains positive. A core part of our strategy is increasing our exposure to attractive secular growth markets, including semiconductor equipment, AI infrastructure, fiber optics communication, aerospace and defense. In addition, we see early-stage physical AI applications starting to emerge. While these projects will take time to fully materialize, we are currently in the early technical discussions with several potential customers. Moving to slide eight. As we expand our presence in the humanoid robotics market, we believe we are well-positioned based on six core strengths. First, our foil-based strain gages technology provides a high level of accuracy and reliability required for advanced force-sensing applications. Second, we have a scalable manufacturing platform capable of supporting volume production while maintaining quality and cost competitiveness.

Third, our engineering team work closely with customers in the early development process, which helps us become embedded in the system designs and position us to participate as programs moves forward to commercialization. In addition, our ability to rapidly customize solution, our experience supporting mission-critical applications, and our long-standing reputation for reliable execution provides an important competitive advantage. Combined with our financial and operational stability, these capabilities position us well to support customers as the humanoid robotics markets evolves from prototype development to large-scale production. Looking ahead, we remain focused on executing our strategy, expanding our presence in attractive growth markets, improving operational performance, and creating sustainable long-term value for shareholders. Given the strength of our order trends and backlog, we are confident we can deliver organic revenue growth for 2026 above the target in our three-year model. I will now turn it over to William Clancy. Bill?

Bill Clancy, CFO, VPG: Thank you, Zeev. Referring to slide nine and the reconciliation table to the slide deck, our second quarter 2026 revenues were $83.9 million. Gross margin was 38.6% in the second quarter, basically flat from the first quarter. Sequentially by segment, gross margin for Sensors of 31.5% decreased primarily due to unfavorable foreign currency exchange rates, higher material costs, and wage increases as we hired additional personnel to increase our production output. Weighing Solutions gross margin of 37.3% increased from the first quarter, mainly due to cost reductions and favorable product mix. Gross margin for Measurement Systems of 52.5% was essentially the same as in the first quarter as manufacturing efficiencies offset lower volume and unfavorable product mix. Moving to slide 10. Our second quarter operating margin was a negative 0.4%. Adjusted for restructuring costs, stock-based compensation, and severance costs, adjusted operating margin was a positive 1.7%.

Selling, general, and administrative expense for the second quarter was $32 million, with 38.1% of revenues, which was similar to Q1. As Zeev indicated, unfavorable foreign exchange rates were a significant headwind to operating margin, which impacted second quarter-adjusted operating margin by $900,000 compared to the first quarter, and $3.3 million from a year ago. Our GAAP loss was $1.7 million, or a loss of $0.13 per diluted share. Adjusted net earnings was $586,000, or $0.04 diluted earnings per share, adjusted for restructuring costs, stock-based compensation, severance costs And a $1.2 million effect of foreign currency exchange rates on our balance sheet. The GAAP tax rate for the second quarter of 2026 was 8%, and for 2026, we are assuming an operational tax rate of approximately 30%. Moving to slide 11.

Adjusted EBITDA was $5.5 million, or 6.5% of revenue, compared to $5.9 million, or 7% of revenue in the first quarter. CapEx in the second quarter was $2 million, and for the first half of 2026, was $5 million. For 2026, we are forecasting $10 million-$12 million for capital expenditures. Adjusted free cash flow is a negative $1.4 million for the second quarter, which improved from a negative $3.7 million in the first quarter. As of the end of the second quarter, our cash position was $75.7 million, as we paid down $5 million of our outstanding debt, which will reduce our net interest cost by approximately $300,000 annually. With the pay down, our long-term debt was at $15.6 million, bringing our net cash position to $60 million. Regarding the outlook.

For the third quarter of 2026, despite seasonal impacts in our European operations, we expect net revenues to be in the range of $84 million-$89 million. This assumes constant second fiscal quarter 2026 exchange rates and excludes expected third quarter tariff refunds to customers, which are profit neutral. In summary, we had another quarter of strong orders driven by strength in our AI-driven markets. We achieved a key milestone with our initial humanoid developer customer as we prepare for an anticipated ramp in the second half of 2026. While we had some headwinds to revenue and earnings in Q2, we remain confident in the underlying momentum of our business and look forward to delivering double-digit revenue growth for the full year. With that, let’s open the lines for questions. Thank you.

Audra, Conference Operator, VPG: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. We’ll take our first question from Mark Smith at Lake Street.

Mark Smith, Analyst, Lake Street: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Just curious if you could expand a little bit on that humanoid pipeline, how many engagements you currently have, and where that is compared to maybe where you were at the end of 2025?

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: Yes. Absolutely, Jason. Let me review the humanoid situation at the company. Let me start with the first customer. As we said earlier, we have received the formal vendor nomination letter from our initial humanoid customer. At this point in time, the initial customer indicated the expectation of a production ramp up in the second half of the year from tens of bots per week up to hundreds and even thousands per week by the end of the year. The company is ready and have already hired personnel, which are in training. We made the capital investments for the capacity, We have ordered the raw material. Based on the nomination letter, the company is prepared for the initial volume and later the ramp up regarding the first humanoid customer.

The second humanoid customer has decided to reevaluate and refine its designs, they are looking at the existing designs while also we have been given an opportunity to quote new applications on new designs within the second humanoid customer. We continue to provide prototypes to the third and fourth humanoid customers. We have identified on our heat map around 150 potential humanoid suppliers, which we have started to act on and to provide some initial contacts. In some of them, we are in a more advanced contacts. In some of them, we are in an early contacts. We have a very structured plan how we should reach every and each one of them.

Mark Smith, Analyst, Lake Street: Got you. That’s really helpful. You might have answered what my second question was going to be on the capacity expansion. Is this primarily related to the demand pull you’re seeing in the humanoid sector, or is it broad-based demand amongst your other sensor customers as well?

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: Well, the production expansion is mainly in the sensors. Now, as you have seen, we have another very strong order intake. The production expansion is, at this point, which the information we have provided is related to AI infrastructure, data center defense, and I would say all AI-related markets.

The humanoid, at this point in time, we have the planning in place, at this point, the capacity is more designated to this initial customer who have provided us with an indication regarding their future volume for the second half of the year. Naturally, if there will be more opportunities, we are going to put in place more capacity and make more investments. At this point, it’s more designated per a specific discussion with a specific customer.

Mark Smith, Analyst, Lake Street: Okay. That’s helpful. I’ll come back to you.

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: Regarding humanoid.

Mark Smith, Analyst, Lake Street: Perfect. Thanks a lot, guys.

Audra, Conference Operator, VPG: We’ll go next to Josh Stickels at B. Riley.

Josh Stickels, Analyst, B. Riley: Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. Just to work through a little bit of math, I know there are a couple items impacting the quarter, but if you strip out the FX, I think it works out EBITDA would’ve been like $8.8 million roughly, and then you have to make some assumptions, but if you also factor in the ERP delay of like $3 million, that could’ve got you to like 10-ish million of EBITDA, and you expect those orders to be filled by the end of this year. Is that math right?

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: The math is, if you look quarter-over-quarter, I would say that the FX effect is $900,000. We had a very unusual product volume mix based on higher contract pricing, which we don’t expect to repeat itself. It was around $800,000 altogether. Now $1.7 million. In addition, if you add the $3 million of our KELK business at a contribution margin of one and a half, the total comes to, I would say-

Josh Stickels, Analyst, B. Riley: Yeah, close to $9 million. Yep.

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: Yeah.

Josh Stickels, Analyst, B. Riley: Got it. Thanks for clarifying that. That’s helpful. Look, the Sensors business has been exceptionally strong. Order activity book-to-bill, right? You’re setting records there. I just want to touch on when you just look at the little bit softness in Weighing and Measurement Systems, is that something you think is going to stay around these levels or potential to improve in the back half? How should we think about the cadence for those two divisions?

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: Sure. Let me start with Measurement Systems. We started the first quarter with a fairly strong order rate. I think that for DSI, we had record orders. This is a project-driven business, which was fairly soft in the second quarter, but we expect an improved order intake in the third quarter. Our DTS business has been enjoying good tailwind from the AMS market, which we expect it to continue, and our steel market is fairly soft, except the U.S. and India, which has been investing more. Regarding Weighing Solutions, we have seen fairly softness in the general weighing and in the precision ag, while an improved environment in construction.

I do believe that based on the situation, we should see an improved second half of the year, but I’m not sure if there are enough indication to show a much stronger improvement, or I would say a much more rapid order intake in the second half of the year. I think that at this point in time, there is higher likelihood for an improved business environment in the second half of the year in respect to the first half, but not in a very significant way unless interest rates or inflation, interest rates would go down, and I think this would be one of the triggers that we would see more investments in the industrial sector.

Josh Stickels, Analyst, B. Riley: Got it. Last question from me, just like housekeeping. I know it wouldn’t be an impact to profit, but just for the cash balance, can you quantify what you’re expected back in terms of like tariff reimbursement? Is that material?

Bill Clancy, CFO, VPG: No. Josh, for that, obviously, through the second quarter, we did not receive anything. In the third quarter, so far we received roughly about $1.5 million. That deemed not to be material. Obviously, that’ll be a reduction in revenues, but we’ll also have the reverse in COGS, so it’ll be profit neutral.

Josh Stickels, Analyst, B. Riley: Got it. Thanks. I’ll hop back in the queue.

Audra, Conference Operator, VPG: As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. We’ll take our next question from John Franzreb at Sidoti & Company.

John Franzreb, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. Can you talk a little bit about your ability to raise prices, considering having higher input costs both on the material and labor side?

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: Let me first talk a little bit about the labor cost. The labor cost is we do have an increase in labor cost, but part of that is also learning curve due to the fact that we have to hire in a more extensive way and to get many more people skilled up with scaled up with the higher capacity. Regarding material cost, yes, given some inflationary pressure, we have seen material cost increases. I would say given the fact that beyond our contracts, we already started to put in place, a few months ago, price increases in some selective product lines and products, which I believe we should start seeing the benefits in the P&L in the second half of the year.

John Franzreb, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: That’s good to hear. Can you give us a sense of magnitude?

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: I think that it will be, at this point in Q3, it could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and maybe slightly higher than that. Given the fact that we have a very large backlog, our backlog has increased by $11 million from first quarter to the second quarter to $135.8. Any price increases we would be able to place only with new orders, not with existing backlog. I would say that at this point in time, given the large backlog, we will not be able to see a much more meaningful effect on the ASP increase in the P&L. We did put in place a price increase program.

John Franzreb, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: Got it. Regarding the deferred KELK order, is that going to be balanced between Q3 and Q4, or is that totally a Q4 event?

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: As we indicated, as we are increasing the capacity, we will see some improvements in Q3, but in Q4, we would see the larger output coming to the revenue level at KELK.

John Franzreb, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: Ziv, I’m curious, adding capacity to address the humanoid robotics market, can you give us a sense of how much capacity you’re adding and how much of incremental revenue you could address with the additional capacity?

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: Currently, we are putting in place capacity based on our customers’ projection. As I said, we made already a significant capital investment based on their projection, and we would be able to support with the investment that we made. I believe we would be able to support thousands of bots per week once we get the orders.

John Franzreb, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: Got it. Okay.

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: Once we get the orders, yeah.

John Franzreb, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: Got you. One last question on the cost savings. I think you said it was $1 million achieved in this quarter.

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: Yeah.

John Franzreb, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: Can you give me the year-to-date number and when the balance of the $6 million is? How does that play out in the second half of the year?

Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, VPG: Okay. In the Q1, we achieved $600. Second quarter, $1. H1, $1.6. We are planning to complete the other part to reach the $6 million in H2.

John Franzreb, Analyst, Sidoti & Company: Okay. All right. Thanks for taking my questions. I’ll get back in queue.

Audra, Conference Operator, VPG: A final reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. We’ll pause just a moment. With no further questions in the queue, I would like to turn the conference back over to Steve for closing remarks.

Steven Cantor, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, VPG: Before concluding, I want to let everyone know that we will be participating in two upcoming virtual investor conferences, the Oppenheimer Annual Tech Conference on August 13th and the Needham Semiconductor & SemiCap Conference on August 20. You can contact me for more information or speak to your representative at those firms. We look forward to updating you on VPG next quarter. Have a good day. Thank you.

Audra, Conference Operator, VPG: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.