Drilling Tools International Q4 2025 Earnings Call - Record Free Cash Flow and Shrinking Leverage Amid Soft Rig Count
Summary
DTI closed 2025 by leaning into cash generation and capital discipline, producing record adjusted free cash flow while trimming net debt despite a 7% year-over-year rig count decline. Management highlighted faster-than-expected traction in the Eastern Hemisphere, continued integration of recent acquisitions into the COMPASS platform, and a conservative 2026 guide that assumes a flat first half and modest recovery in the second half.
Risks are immediate and visible. The Middle East conflict is being actively managed and has caused minimal operational disruption so far, but it remains an unknown that could swing activity in either direction. Management’s playbook for 2026 focuses on reducing leverage, selective M&A, and opportunistic share repurchases, all while driving adoption of higher-value products like ClearPath stabilizers and drilling ream tools internationally.
Key Takeaways
- DTI reported consolidated 2025 revenue of $159.6 million, comprised of $129.6 million in rental revenues and $30.1 million in product sales.
- 2025 adjusted net income was $3.4 million, adjusted diluted EPS was $0.10, adjusted EBITDA was $39.3 million, and adjusted free cash flow was $19.2 million.
- Q4 2025 consolidated revenue was $38.5 million, with tool rental revenue of $30.4 million and product sales of $8.1 million.
- Q4 adjusted net income was $1.5 million, adjusted diluted EPS $0.04, Q4 adjusted EBITDA $10.1 million, and Q4 adjusted free cash flow $6.1 million.
- DTI finished 2025 with $3.6 million cash and cash equivalents, net debt of $42.2 million, and net leverage of 1.1 times, down from 1.2 times a year earlier.
- The company paid down over $11 million of debt in the back half of 2025, including $5.5 million in Q4, and ran share repurchases of about $660,000 in H2 2025 at an average price of $2.17 per share.
- Eastern Hemisphere revenue grew 78% year-over-year in 2025 and represented roughly 14% of total revenue, driven by increased adoption of ream tools and ClearPath stabilizer technology.
- Management closed its fourth acquisition since going public in January 2025, and noted additional debt taken to fund the Titan Tools acquisition earlier in 2025 while emphasizing disciplined integration.
- Q4 margin strength was partly a product of favorable mix, with higher-margin product sales including lost-in-hole DBR sales boosting quarterly margins.
- Maintenance capital expenditure in Q4 was approximately 10% of revenue; full-year 2025 CapEx was managed via a flexible model to prioritize cash generation.
- 2026 guidance: revenue $155 million to $170 million, adjusted EBITDA $35 million to $45 million, CapEx $18 million to $23 million, and adjusted free cash flow $17 million to $22 million. Guidance assumes flat activity in H1 and modest improvement in H2.
- Management highlighted One DTI synergy program and the COMPASS asset management platform as tools to shorten integration timelines and improve operating leverage from acquisitions.
- DTI is expanding APAC operations via a Malaysian entity, and cited traction across Africa, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific for new technologies like Deep Casing and drilling reamers.
- On geopolitical risk, management reported minimal disruption so far from the Middle East conflict, all local personnel accounted for and a crisis response plan in place, but emphasized uncertainty and will not bake any conflict-driven upside into guidance.
- Capital allocation priorities remain debt reduction first, then selective M&A and opportunistic buybacks, with the company signaling a likely continued emphasis on lowering leverage if cash flow permits.
Full Transcript
Operator: Greetings, and welcome to the Drilling Tools International 2025 year-end and fourth quarter financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Ken Dennard, Investor Relations. Thank you, sir. You may begin.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for Drilling Tools International’s 2025 year-end and 4th quarter conference call and webcast. With me today are Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, and David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer. Following my remarks, management will provide a review of year-end, 4th quarter results, and 2026 outlook before opening the call for your questions. There’ll be a replay of today’s call that’ll be available via webcast on the company’s website. That’s drillingtools.com. There’ll also be a telephonic recorded replay available until March 13th. Please note that any information reported on this call speaks only as of today, March 6th, 2026, and therefore, you’re advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay listening or transcript reading.
Also, comments on this call will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements reflect the current views of DTI’s management. However, various risks and uncertainties and contingencies could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in the statements made by management. The listener or reader is encouraged to read the company’s annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K to understand certain of those risks, uncertainties, and contingencies. The comments today will also include certain non-GAAP financial measures, including but not limited to adjusted EBITDA and adjusted free cash flow. The company provides these non-GAAP results for informational purposes, and they should not be considered in isolation from the most directly comparable GAAP measures.
A discussion of why we believe these non-GAAP measures are useful to investors, certain limitations of using these measures and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release and our filings with the SEC. Now with that housekeeping behind me, I’d like to turn the call over to Wayne Prejean, DTI’s Chief Executive Officer. Wayne. Thanks, Ken, and good morning, everyone. I will open with some comments on our full year results, hand the call over to David to review fourth quarter financials and our 2026 outlook. After that, I will wrap it up with a few additional thoughts before we open up for questions. We are pleased with our strong performance in the fourth quarter, which enabled us to finish the year on a positive note.
These results demonstrate our ability to deliver consistent returns in the face of continued market softness. Despite global rig count declining 7% year-over-year, we were able to produce resilient results and generate significant free cash flow. In fact, DTI’s annual adjusted free cash flow has grown each year since going public in 2023. This is an achievement we take great pride in and underscores our ability to operate efficiently, capitalize on opportunities in the market, and navigate the evolving energy landscape. Our 2025 results came in at or above the high end of our guidance ranges. We generated total rental revenues of $129.6 million and total product sales revenues of $30.1 million or $159.6 million on a consolidated basis.
Adjusted net income for 2025 was $3.4 million and adjusted diluted EPS for 2025 was $0.10 per share. We generated 2025 adjusted EBITDA of $39.3 million and adjusted free cash flow of $19.2 million. We completed our fourth acquisition in January 2025 since going public, and we were able to meaningfully reduce our net debt compared to the same period a year ago. This reflects our capital discipline and intentional focus on paying down debt. As the market softened throughout the year, we utilized our flexible CapEx model and pivoted to harvesting cash, which we then used to pay down over $11 million of debt in the back half of 2025. We also returned a portion of our free cash flow to shareholders through our share buyback program.
These actions reinforce our commitment to enhancing shareholder value and maintain our solid financial position. Geographically, our Eastern Hemisphere operations experienced continued growth in 2025. This expansion was a large contributor to the resilience of our results. Year-over-year, our Eastern Hemisphere revenue grew by 78% and contributed approximately 14% of our total revenue. The Eastern Hemisphere segment has continued to perform well, reflecting significant demand for our tools, along with consistent execution and DTI’s growing market presence. Western Hemisphere operations were impacted by softer North American drilling and completions activity in 2025, managed to only see a low single-digit revenue decline when compared to 2024. As the situation evolves in the Middle East, we are focused on supporting our employees and clients. As of today, most all rigs are operating.
Assuming this remains the same, we anticipate a positive baseline of activity with upside driven by oil capacity expansion and strategic gas development. This momentum sends an encouraging signal as we look to further expand our Eastern Hemisphere operations. Our strong alignment with local operators positions us well for continued expansion, and again, assuming there are no major rig activity or infrastructure disruptions, we expect our customers to scale up their activities heading into 2026, and we expect growing market adoption of our tools to make us the service company of choice in the region. As evidence of the traction that our tools have gained in the Eastern Hemisphere to date, our wellbore optimization product line offering continues to benefit from the significant increase in utilization of drilling ream tools and our ClearPath stabilizer technology throughout the Eastern Hemisphere.
We expect this constructive trend to continue as rig activity in Saudi Arabia stabilizes and selected programs are reactivated, creating incremental demand tailwinds for our Eastern Hemisphere segment. Over the past 24 months, we have completed several strategic acquisitions, even as market conditions have tempered some of the near-term upside, we have remained focused on disciplined integration and realization of targeted synergies. This has allowed us to strengthen DTI’s foundation and position the company for meaningful financial improvement as activity levels rebound. I’m encouraged by our team’s ability to make the best out of a challenging environment, I firmly believe that this will set us up for future success. David will now take you through our results in greater detail and introduce our 2026 outlook. David?
David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Drilling Tools International: Thanks, Wayne. In yesterday’s earnings release, we provided detailed year-end and fourth quarter financial tables. I’ll use this time to offer further insight into specific financial metrics. Wayne gave an overview of our full year results in his opening comments. I will provide some additional color on our fourth quarter results. However, just to echo Wayne’s comments from earlier, we are pleased to have achieved another record year for adjusted free cash flow. Even with the general industry and typical Q4 seasonal softness, we prioritize generating and preserving cash flow by managing cost and CapEx. We intend to maintain our capital discipline strategy in 2026 by driving operational efficiency across the business.
As of December 31, 2025, we had $3.6 million of cash and cash equivalents, net debt of $42.2 million, and a net leverage ratio of 1.1 times, which is down slightly from 1.2 times a year ago, despite taking on additional debt to fund the Titan Tools acquisition in 2025. Turning to our fourth quarter results. We generated consolidated Q4 revenue of $38.5 million. Fourth quarter tool rental revenue was $30.4 million, and product sales revenue totaled $8.1 million. Net income attributable to stockholders for the fourth quarter was $1.2 million or $0.03 per share. Q4 adjusted net income was $1.5 million or adjusted diluted EPS of $0.04 per share.
Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was $10.1 million, and adjusted free cash flow was $6.1 million. Our capital expenditures in the fourth quarter were $4 million. Looking at maintenance CapEx for the fourth quarter, it was approximately 10% of total revenue. Just as a reminder, our maintenance capital is primarily funded by tool recovery revenue, which keeps our rental tool fleet relevant and sustainable regardless of market trends. CapEx is just one component of our capital discipline strategy. We take a disciplined approach to all capital deployment, prioritizing opportunities that align with our capital allocation framework and support long-term value creation for shareholders.
For example, we paid down $5.5 million in debt in the fourth quarter and overall approximately $11 million in the second half of 2025, bringing down our net debt to EBITDA leverage ratio to 1.1 times. We have also been active in our share buyback program in the second half of 2025, where we purchased approximately $660,000 of additional common shares, averaging $2.17 per share. We remain focused on maintaining a strong financial position and will thoughtfully use our capital allocation levers as attractive opportunities arise. Looking at our geographic segment mix, we continue to benefit from our diversified geographic footprint and customer base, with 14% of our total Q4 revenue coming from our Eastern Hemisphere segment.
This growth reinforces the effectiveness of our strategy and commitment to delivering consistent, high-quality performance across our global footprint, especially as we look ahead to a market rebound. As we disclosed in yesterday’s earnings release, and as Wayne alluded to earlier, we have released our 2026 full year guidance ranges that reflect year-over-year growth at the midpoint. 2026 revenue is expected to be in the range of $155 million-$170 million. adjusted EBITDA is expected to be within the range of $35 million-$45 million. Capital expenditures are expected to be between $18 million and $23 million. Finally, we expect our 2026 adjusted free cash flow to range between $17 million-$22 million.
We have constructed these ranges with the assumption that activity will remain relatively flat in the first half of 2026 and improve slightly in the second half of the year. Regardless, we continue to believe that our established geographical footprint will provide a meaningful runway for growth as market momentum returns. That concludes my financial review and outlook section. I will now turn the call back over to Wayne for closing comments.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Thank you, David. We continue to make substantial headway on our synergy program called One DTI. We have been able to align our operating divisions into integrated systems and processes, as well as onboard new business units into our COMPASS platform to manage assets and transactions from our customers. This represents an important milestone for the company’s growth potential as it streamlines workflows, enhances accountability, and materially shortens the timeline for integrating future acquisitions into the DTI platform. We also remain active in evaluating additional M&A opportunities that align with our strategic and financial objectives. As we continue to thoughtfully scale our current operations, we believe DTI is the preferred provider for downhole tool rentals supporting wellbore construction and casing installation.
Despite the near-term softness we expect to occur within the first half of the year, our outlook for 2026 reflects not only the solid foundation we have established, but also our forward-looking commitment to operational excellence and delivering consistent results. We believe there are several potential catalysts across multiple geographies that offer upside potential later in the year, including rig reactivations in Saudi Arabia, incremental tenders in the broader Middle East, and increased project activity in select international markets where we have recently expanded our presence, among others. These are not built into our guidance, but may materialize into areas of outperformance. Looking forward, I am optimistic about the momentum we’re building across the organization and the attractive opportunities we see on the horizon. The investments made to date are beginning to gain traction and are positioned to drive meaningful results.
We are confident that elevated demand for complex wellbore solutions should further reinforce the need for our differentiated technology and the value-added solutions we deliver to customers around the world. Our ongoing focus on generating shareholder value is supported by the prospect of a more favorable market backdrop emerging later this year. Finally, I want to address the conflict in the Middle East as it pertains directly to DTI. As of yesterday, our Middle East personnel were all accounted for, have sheltered in place per local government requirements and are maintaining continuity with customers’ needs and supporting our operations. We have experienced minimal disruption to our ongoing business thus far. We do not have any American expat employees in the conflict zone, but we do have numerous expat employees from other nationalities who are based in the Middle East.
We are diligently monitoring the situation and have launched our crisis response plan, which is providing resources to support our team members in the area. We are conducting frequent meetings, obtaining regular operational updates, and are maintaining communications with our personnel in the region. I want to thank every member of the DTI organization for their continued commitment to working in a safe, inspired, and productive manner, with special thanks to those personnel who are in the Middle East for their continued support of our operations. Our thoughts are with you every day. Our employees’ commitment and dedication have been essential in navigating a constantly evolving environment and is central to the success and future growth we are building together. With that, we will now take your questions. Operator?
Operator: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Steve Ferizani with Sidoti. Please proceed with your question.
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Morning, everyone. Appreciate the detail and color on the call this morning. Also appreciate, Wayne, your message on Middle Eastern safety. I think that’s certainly appreciated right now. Couple of really strong numbers that surprised me in the quarter. Wanted to get your thoughts and color around what drove it. The first one, the big one, was the really healthy EBITDA margin this quarter. Highest, and it looks to us like in 6 quarters. 6 quarters ago, the rig count was much better. What drove that really strong margin this quarter?
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Oh.
David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Drilling Tools International: Yeah, you want me to take that one?
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Yeah, take it. Yeah.
David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Drilling Tools International: Yeah, I think it, Steve, it was just a combination of, you know, we didn’t see all the Q4 sorta typical seasonal softness in some of our numbers.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Yep.
David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Drilling Tools International: We, you know, we were further benefiting from some of the cost reductions, you know, that we did earlier in the year. Kind of the combination of that we had, you know, our product kinda mix was a little bit different. Yeah, just an overall a good quarter compared to, you know, the rest of the year.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Yeah.
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Anything specific one quarter type mix here? Your margin in the quarter was above the full year guide for 26 on the margin line.
David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Drilling Tools International: Yeah. I think mainly it was a product sale, impact. We had some additional-
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Okay.
David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Drilling Tools International: product sale, that’s a little bit better, you know, kind of margin profile, especially on the lost-in-hole, DBR.
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Yeah.
David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Drilling Tools International: type sales. That’s driving improved.
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Okay.
David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Drilling Tools International: margins there.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: It helped support the overall quarter. You know, generally it was steady state, you know, pretty good performance overall.
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Got it. Then all of your numbers came in at the very high end of your full year ranges. The one that beat was adjusted free cash flow. It was a very strong free cash flow quarter. Anything driving that? You, and you put out-
David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Drilling Tools International: Yeah.
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: A really solid guidance for free cash flow again next year.
David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Drilling Tools International: Yeah, Steve, I think that’s a good point. We’re definitely seeing kinda that durable free cash flow generation, you know, since kind of going public. That was kind of our stated goal, kind of focusing on the M&A front for growth and, you know, really demonstrating that we can generate that free cash flow. Typically, you know, and we’ll see it kinda every year, a lot of our CapEx is front-loaded in the year.
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Yep.
David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Drilling Tools International: As we kind of cycle through those, you know, first couple of quarters, and I think we saw our third quarter was stronger than the first and second quarter, and then our fourth quarter was even stronger on the free cash flow side, for that reason.
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Got it. That’s helpful. and speaking about free cash flow, your leverage now, I mean, you’re barely above 1x. Great place to be. If we’re theoretically, and I think you’d think that we’re at a trough on your annual EBIT or very close. By our model, your leverage goes under 1x next year. What’s the thought here? What’s M&A looking like? Are there opportunities? Would you still reduce debt further? How are you thinking about cash flow?
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Well, you know, we’ve stated in previous quarters and on previous calls, we have a healthy pipeline of M&A opportunities that we’re constantly evaluating. You know, we’ll continue to look at the most accretive, most attractive strategic opportunities that are out there. You know, our use of funds as they flow will be, you know, debt service, M&A, you know, some buybacks, you know.
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Yep.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Mostly, you know, throughout 2025, we focused on integration and gaining efficiencies from what we acquired previously. Right now, you know, we’re probably, you know, looking at a number of opportunities. They ebb and flow as the market dictates, but there are definitely still opportunities on the horizon.
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Got it. That’s helpful. I saw, you know, just going through the new deck you put up, the guidance does show, you expect Eastern Hemisphere share of revenue to be even higher next year if we’ve seen that steady growth. Can you talk about where the opportunities are in Eastern Hemisphere? Also particularly curious about your opportunities in APAC.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: You know, throughout as we’ve integrated all of the product lines and all the business units and, you know, aligned our management team and sales team, they’re all firing all cylinders and doing a great job. You know, we’re getting lots of opportunities throughout Africa with various products. We’re moving products around, you know, many of the countries in the Middle East. You know, despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, we’re able to continue maintaining our customer support. Surprisingly, you know, most everyone’s still in operation. You’ve probably heard of, you know, different news reports of different things and, you know, facilities and refineries, drilling operations are still commencing without major disruptions to our knowledge.
We also have our, you know, Malaysian entity up and running with our Asia Pac focus. You know, that’s starting to gain traction. We’re distributing a lot of our new technologies such as our drilling reamers, our Deep Casing products, and our ClearPath product lines, which was an acquisition of the ED Projects group a year ago. All of those things are starting to get traction in Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pac.
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Got it. That’s helpful. What’s implied in your guidance in terms of revenue per active rig in the U.S.? How are you thinking about that? If I think a lot of us assume we’re modeling in sort of a flat rig count, you know, January 1 to December 30th. How are you thinking about that? Can you grow revenue per rig in an active rig in a flattish market?
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Yeah. We model it as a steady state with opportunistic-
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Okay.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: realities where some of our new technologies gain traction. You know, those things are evolving.
Steve Ferizani, Analyst, Sidoti: Yeah.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: -in different markets. We think our opportunity to overachieve is. As those new technologies gain more traction, that’s where we’ll see our opportunity to increase over and above where we’re at today. Mostly, you know, the market’s a steady-state environment.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Got it. That’s helpful. Last one for me, I know this is a totally unfair question, you know, I have to ask it anyway. In terms of we’re only a week in terms of the Middle East developments we’ve seen so far, any thoughts? We don’t know how long or how this exactly plays out, how you’re positioned one way or the other as this plays out. Any initial thoughts? I know it’s an unfair question.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Well, I’ll start with, you know, if you’ll notice our revenues are about 14%, as we’ve stated in here, right? We hope that they’ll grow. They’re only, you know, and the Middle East is a part of that 14% of the Eastern Hemisphere. It’s still, you know, a smaller part of our overall, you know, revenue and earning stream, but it’s emerging and growing. It could be, you know, how it’s gonna be affected is unknown today. All we know today is that things are still operating. We’re, you know, I don’t think anyone’s sure of exactly what the impact might be.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Yeah.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: We don’t have a lot of personnel scattered throughout. You know, we have some personnel, they’re scattered throughout, you know, different parts of that area, and they’re all in, you know, safe and accounted for today and operating. We’re able to move tools about. We’re able to support our customers’ operations. They’re asking for support. Despite the noise and everything that’s going on and the unknowns, what we know today, it feels like it’s minimally disruptive. I don’t mean that to minimize the conflict and the impact of that.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Right. Right.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: I mean, from a business point of view, so far, our team has performed just fantastic. I mean, we really kinda, you know, we’re operating off our COVID, you know, style playbook of how to do crisis management and, you know, deal with remoteness and things like that. A lot of lessons learned from that experience on how to operate remotely with our clients and coordinate logistics and things like that. You know, all of our team is working well in that regard, so.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Got it. Okay. Thanks so much, Wayne. Appreciate it, David.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Mm-hmm. Thank you.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Thank you, Steve.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Mm-hmm.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of John Daniel with Daniel Energy Partners. Please proceed with your question.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Hey, guys. Thanks for having me. Just three quick ones for you. I’m assuming.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Yeah.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: This is a safe one here, but the revenue the guidance you provided for 2026, I’m assuming that was all created pre-Iran. Is that fair?
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Correct.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Okay. Good job on paying down the $11 million in 2025. Do you have an established goal for 2026? I mean, looking at the free cash flow guidance of, you know, say, $20 million bucks at the midpoint, roughly, what would you envision as being allocated to debt reduction versus buybacks?
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: I think if you look at our historical pay down, you know, events, this is the one you just described, you know, one could expect continued pay down majority of the debt. Hopefully, we could probably accelerate that, but it will depend on, you know, the occurrences that happen throughout the year. As these events unfold, particularly the events in the Middle East, it’ll help us understand where we need to focus our efforts on investments. You know, if the U.S. market picks up, we can, you know, dial that up. If we find that the conflict is less impactful and, you know, it returns to more normal, we can dial that up, and so on.
As other parts of the world, you know, the good news is we’re spread out throughout and now established with infrastructure and capabilities in many parts of the world. We have a lot more diversification in how we can, you know, deploy our capital in meaningful ways across different geo-markets, depending on where the needs are and the adjustments are made.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Okay.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Mm-hmm.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Last one, and again, recognizing we’re, like, five days into this thing or whatever, but, you know, there’s a little bit of turmoil, right? Just look at crude prices, market concerns, et cetera.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Sure.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Wayne, the question would be, like, in a weird way, does this get you excited that there’s gonna be great opportunities to capitalize on the turmoil, or do you go more defensive? How do you think about just running the business the next few quarters as this is all playing out?
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Well, John, it’s a very dynamic and fluid situation because there’s so many unknowns of, you know, how things will be impacted. you know, it’s, you know, speculation is dangerous on my part, but we kind of feel like we’re in a position to deal with the situation, in multiple, as I just stated, in multiple areas. I think we’re flexible with regard to the opportunity that may present itself as a result of this conflict. When I mean that, and I don’t mean to diminish the impact of a war, but.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: No.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: You know, oil is a dynamic, you know, commodity. If there’s a major supply disruption, someone else will fill that gap, and we are prepared to participate in where that activity may be. You know, our fleet is relevant and sustainable, and we have the diverse, you know, geo-geo market, you know, exposure now with different technologies. We’re in a good position to deal with how this dynamically unfolds, so.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Okay. Last one. I lied to you. I told you there’s three, there’s four. I’m just looking at this chart here, WTI, $88 right now, Brent better. I mean, there’s been a lot of pricing pressure for the service industry the last couple years. I mean, things have changed. How do you have you even started thinking about how you’re gonna start your customer discussions given the backdrop and where we are relates to price?
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: For sure. I mean, you know, particularly in North America, there’s been a meandering rig count, you know, mostly meandering downward with capital discipline and, you know, the need for, you know, improved earnings. But we, you know, our business has what we call a ceiling and a floor, on pricing and how we participate in the market and how we provide our customers value. You know, if the price is too low, no one will invest in it. If the price is too high, everybody will invest in it. We feel like we’re very efficient in the middle to upper tier of that range, participating with our clients. How do we get OFS pricing up?
I think it’s just a matter of time, in my opinion, that, you know, people are gonna have to reinvest in equipment. That will drive a push back on, you know, on pricing reductions and get to a more neutral state and maybe upward in the future. Of course, an activity increase will immediately create probably a stress point in the supply chain throughout the industry. I think we can all make that calculation, so.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Thanks for having me, guys. Have a great weekend.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Mm-hmm.
John Daniel, Analyst, Daniel Energy Partners: Thanks, John.
Operator: We have reached the end of the question and answer session. Mr. Prejean, I’d like to turn the floor back over to you for closing comments.
Wayne Prejean, Chief Executive Officer, Drilling Tools International: Thank you, everyone. You know, this, we had a good quarter and a good year, and we have a, you know, pretty positive outlook throughout 2026. There are some challenges ahead of us, you know, the conflict notwithstanding. We are, you know, prepared from our company point of view, our employee point of view, and we’ve got a great customer base and a good geographic diversity, and we’re executing well in all those markets. Thank you for your interest in Drilling Tools International and appreciate your time on the call.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.