TransAct Technologies Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Recurring Revenue Surge and Strategic Shift to Software Monetization

Jesse, Conference Operator, Conference Services: Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Ryan Gardella, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Ryan Gardella, Investor Relations, TransAct Technologies / ICR: Thanks, Jesse. Good afternoon. Welcome to the TransAct Technologies 1st quarter 2026 earnings call. Today, we’ll be discussing the results announced in the press release issued after market close. Joining us from the company is CEO John Dillon and President and CFO Steven DeMartino. Today’s call will include discussion of the company’s key operating strategies, the progress on these initiatives, and details on our 1st quarter financial results. We’ll then open the line to participants for questions. As a reminder, this conference call contains statements about future events and expectations which are forward-looking in nature. Statements on this call may be deemed forward-looking, and actual results may differ materially. For a full list of risks inherent to the business of the company, please refer to the company’s SEC filings, including its reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q.

TransAct undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the call. Today’s call and webcast will include non-GAAP financial measures within the meaning of SEC Regulation G. When required, a reconciliation of all non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP can be found in today’s press release as well as on the company website. With that, I will turn the call over to John.

John Dillon, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), TransAct Technologies: Thanks, Ryan, and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us. It’s a nice afternoon here, and I’m pleased to report today that TransAct delivered a solid first quarter, 2026. Total net sales, $14.4 million, up 10% year-over-year, generating an adjusted EBITDA of $1.4 million, which is a strong start for the year. As we discussed, our focus remains on driving revenue growth in our Food Service Technology or FST vertical, with software as our primary growth engine going forward, supported by targeted and disciplined investments across the business to accelerate sales. In the first quarter, we sold 1,370 BOHA! Terminals, driven mostly by upgrade orders from our 40,000+ unit install base from prior sales of older products.

We also continue to see strong interest from existing customer base to move from either the AccuDate, which is an older system, or the T1, which is also an older system, to our newer Terminal 2, T2. We see a long runway of growth there, so that’s a good sign. We ended the first quarter with 19,959 online terminals, which is an increase of a little over 1,000, actually specifically 1,062 new online terminals over the fourth quarter of 2025. Most importantly, our recurring FST revenue continues to grow. Our software revenue were up 23% year-over-year, which gives us confidence in our strategic direction. We’re very focused on generating this revenue, which is high margin, certainly higher margin than hardware. It’s more sustainable and predictable.

It’s a focus we didn’t really have in the past because we didn’t own the software, and we own it now. We can start selling the software in a way we couldn’t do before. With nearly 20,000 online terminals now in the field, this is the time to begin monetizing these deployments more effectively. In the past, we didn’t really do this. In fact, software was often bundled for free to make a hardware sale. Now our focus is to ensure that our customers are paying for and receiving the fair market value of our leading software offering. Given the importance of this growing revenue stream, we will begin sharing more and more of our ARR details, recurring revenue details each quarter to help you track that progress.

ARR includes, for your reference, software, but it also includes contracted support service, which is a high-margin service for us because our products are highly reliable, and the labels. From an information standpoint for first quarter, ARR revenue was $3.3 million, and we firmly believe that the future for TransAct will come from recurring software revenue rather than one-time hardware sales. Longer term, we’re aiming to get our install base up to $100-$200 per machine per month in recurring software revenue, which could really unlock a lot of significant value given the size of our install base and the fact that it’s growing. Next, let me say a few words about the update on our port of our software to the new platform.

As you know, we acquired the software about 1 year ago last April, we’re making good progress here. We’ve pulled forward our go-live date from what was originally suggested to be Q1 2027. Now it looks to be late Q2 this quarter, late in this quarter or early Q3 2026. That’s really good news and good progress. I’d like to say that our cloud partner, our public cloud partner in this has done a really terrific job helping us with this transition. As I stated before, ownership of the source code and launching our own hosting platform is really crucial for our recurring revenue model going forward.

It provides us with an increased level of operational freedom and enables us to accelerate software innovations like exploring, for example, an application store model for our own terminals, where we could add additional applications which either are grown in-house or may be sourced from outside through partners. This model is appealing, and as we get into full production here, I think that’s an interesting growth engine that we probably can explore successfully. I also want to speak briefly about AI, also known as artificial intelligence. I know it’s a hot topic in any software investment thesis right now. I’d like to say a few words about it. Most of you probably know that AI was developed in the 50s. We’re talking a long time ago, almost 75 years ago.

Now it’s really coming into its own because we have more data, we have cloud compute capacity, which bursts and allows you to put a lot of machines to work all at once. We have compute power in the form of GPUs and other optimization that’s happening so the compute power is greater. Work that couldn’t used to be done in a meaningful fashion or certainly couldn’t eclipse human capability now is doing some stunning things which are really important. I believe AI will serve and continue to serve as an accelerant, in our case, for our business. It allows our developers to focus more time crafting existing new applications for our platform and reduces many of the mundane tasks that previously consumed enormous amount of time from our good engineers.

Our integrated solutions approach insulates TransAct for most of the potential downsides from AI that might affect valuations for companies with simple applications and really a somewhat, again, simplistic pure SaaS model. That’s not TransAct. If you keep in mind that we offer SaaS applications, of course, that are software as a service, but these are integrated applications or rather solutions running on a purpose-built platform with hardware, software, communications like Bluetooth, LTE, Wi-Fi, APIs, application program interfaces that talk to other systems, IoT, which includes sensors like for Temp and Sense in the kitchens, things like that. Of course, you know, a mainstay for us are our printing capabilities in the different types of food service environments.

All in all, having an integrated solution is something that isn’t easily disintermediated, and we see AI as a plus for us, given that right on the threshold of a lot of advance and a lot of progress, you know, as we roll out software into the marketplace that we’re already in. For us, AI is a great accelerator, and we think it’s going to serve us well, and I just thought it was worth saying a few words about that. Separately and in other calls, I’d be happy to talk a little bit more about AI. In terms of our GTM, the go-to-market, we’re pleased with our strategy.

It includes an emphasis on competitive pricing, strategic partnerships, targeted outreach, and high-potential sub-market verticals such as QSR, that’s quick service restaurants, convenience stores, grab-and-go sushi, which has done really well for us, and co-corporate food service management from food service management companies. At the same time, we expect to maintain a disciplined cost management regimen, target positive adjusted EBITDA, and preserve the strength of our balance sheet, things I’m sure you guys care about. Turning to our FST highlights specifically for the first quarter, total FST net sales came in at $4.7 million, driven by strong recurring revenue growth and more offset by lower hardware sales. Recurring FST revenue reached $3.3 million. The ARPU, the average revenue per unit, $709 per unit.

Labels were $2.6 million in the quarter, up 26% from the prior year, driven by stronger volumes from long-standing customers, including Love’s Travel Stops, Hissho Sushi, and our 2025 win at Yummy Sushi. These customers spend a lot of money with us. We have designed software. We help them with their labeling systems, and frankly, it’s one of the things that creates a greater degree of customer intimacy, and frankly, it also makes the customer relationship with us stickier. It means that attrition rates are low, retention is high, and that’s a good thing. Labels remain a margin-accretive component of our P&L, and they help build the stickiness that I already mentioned. As a solutions vendor, our labeling expertise and related services add a lot of differentiated value for our clients.

Near term, our labels business also holds potential for labels-only deals, where we might win customers based on the value, the quality, expertise, and pricing advantage that we can offer. That’s another door into customers. It’s a distinctive competence that we can use to ultimately get in and sell additional products to clients that might start with us for just labeling and then move into some of the other applications our BOHA! Suite offers. In the first quarter, we landed 22 new logo accounts from direct sales and from our market partners, and with the potential of about 1,405, you know, about 1,400 potential future units.

We tend to use a land and expand strategy because our product performs well in situ. It’s great for us to get a small order from a potentially large client, then we treat that as an account management opportunity to get follow-on business and expansion revenue. We also remain confident in our new pipeline logo pipeline for the remainder of 2026, we feel like we’re in pretty good shape. I also wanted to mention that when our customers win, we also win. We had a number of key customers this last quarter adding new stores to their portfolio in the quarter. That presents an opportunity for us to sell into these new locations. When we get revenue growth from these expansions, it comes without a huge sales investment like it takes when we want to win a net new account.

Expansion business is always easier to win, and it’s a really important aspect of our land and expand model. As our customers expand, we can expand with them. I also wanted to provide a brief update. You know from prior press releases and maybe conversations that we hired a new Chief Marketing Officer, CMO, last quarter. Her name’s Dana Loof. She joined us, I think, in early January, and I’m incredibly happy with the structure and progress she’s brought to our marketing function since joining us. I’ve had conversations with many of you about how our brand is somewhat, I guess I would say lackluster or kind of languishes out there. Our website hasn’t been particularly hard-hitting with calls to action and, you know, really compelling reasons why you should buy our technology, why you should buy it now.

She’s changing all that. I’m delighted. The progress from her so far has been excellent. Her focus has been competitive positioning, messaging, and building out our lead gen engine. We’ve already seen improvements in our press cadence and digital presence. She’s also been hard at work to update our website, which some of you have commented on to me personally as well. In any event, we’re delighted with the improvements she’s already made and even more excited about the momentum she’s building. We think she can generate a lot of opportunity for us. Stay tuned. I think you’ll see TransAct delivering a much improved market presence and brand presence as we go forward into the future. I think of that as actually really good news. A key individual, key executive really making a difference.

Shifting over to casino and gaming, we recorded net sales of $8.3 million for the quarter, up 24% from $6.7 million in the prior year period. Both domestic and international demand was strong, with results in each segment up over 20%. Our Epic TR80, which is a relatively new product, is also gaining some meaningful traction internationally in what we call roll-fed gaming applications. These would be things for, like, kiosk betting and things like that, where it’s a roll printer that prints out the tickets from these machines. Although our casino and gaming business is highly cyclical, we have found there’s always a significant free cash flow component generated from it, and we don’t expect that to change much in 2026. I do point out that it’s lumpy, somewhat, but it’s always bounced back and it’s consistent.

I’ve got some recent casino statistics and slot machine statistics. You know, the CAGR there is respectable. It continues to grow, and more casinos are opening. At this point, as you know, it’s a relatively high margin business, and we’re in a duopoly market, and we continue to service a significant portion of that overall market. Today, we believe that our ship share now approaches parity with the other large vendors serving the same market. That’s really important. We’ve made great progress. We’ve got a great sales team there. They know the industry cold, and we’re very well equipped to continue to maintain our presence in this space going forward. Turning to our financial outlook for 2026, I’m reaffirming our 2026 net sales outlook. We basically suggested $55 million to $57 million for the top line.

As you’d expect, I’m raising our adjusted EBITDA outlook to between a range of $1 million-$1.75 million based on first quarter guidance and performance. We’re off to a good start. $14.4 million in net sales. $1.4 million of adjusted EBITDA. 1,370 BOHA! Terminals. Grew our online terminal base to nearly 20,000, which is a good opportunity for us going forward. Software revenue rose 23%, bolstering our confidence in that part of the market. It’s high margin, recurring revenue model, which you’d expect us to try to drive. We’re making progress on monetizing the install base and look forward to giving you more updates on the ARR progress each quarter.

I’m hoping to be able to add more specific metrics so that you can dive in and get a better understanding of the business. Feel good about the strategy, direction, and where we fit in the marketplace and the evolution of our business in the coming year. That’s kind of where we’re at. Before handing the call over to Steven, I know you’ve probably seen that we made a report last week, with his transition for our Chief Financial Officer. I just wanted to thank Steven for 30 years of tireless, I promise you it was tireless effort and support at TransAct. He’s been a stalwart. He’s been here from the original IPO way back in 1996, which is just an incredible feat of dedication, support, loyalty, and a job well done.

Steve, you’re an asset to the team. You’re gonna be missed, your retirement certainly earned and deserved. We wish you all the best. I know you’re gonna be around. You’re gonna be helping us at least through the end of the year in various forms and fashion and support. Congratulations on this well-earned retirement. With that, maybe this is your last call. I’d like to turn the call over to Steven DeMartino.

Steven DeMartino, President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), TransAct Technologies: Thanks for the kind words, John, and thanks everyone for joining us today. Let’s turn to our first quarter 2026 results in a little more detail. Total net sales for the first quarter were $14.4 million, and that was up 10% compared to $13.1 million in the prior year period. Sales from our FST market for the first quarter were $4.7 million. That was down 4% compared to $4.9 million in the first quarter of 2025 and nearly flat, declining just 2% sequentially from $4.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. As John said, we sold 1,370 terminals during the first quarter of 2026. Our recurring FST sales, which include software and service subscriptions as well as consumable label sales for the first quarter, were $3.3 million.

That was up 26% compared to $2.7 million in the prior year period. Our ARPU for the first quarter of 2026 was $709. That was down 7% compared to $761 in the first quarter of 2025. Down 6% sequentially from $756 in the fourth quarter 2025. Our ARPU reflects our continued focus on the growing recurring revenue base, and we are making progress transitioning our large hardware-only customer towards a recurring model. We expect this effort to begin to contribute positively to ARPU in the coming quarters. Our casino and gaming sales were $8.3 million. That was up 24% from $6.7 million in the first quarter of 2025 and up 55% sequentially from $5.4 million in the fourth quarter 2025.

Domestic sales were up 20% year-over-year on strength from several large domestic OEMs, while international printer sales grew at 35% with solid contributions from both Europe and our Asia, Australia regions. The Epic TR80 is also beginning to build momentum internationally in roll-fed gaming applications. While we expect fluctuations quarter-to-quarter in our sales, overall, we expect casino and gaming sales to continue to contribute positively to our cash flow throughout 2026. POS automation sales of our Ithaca 9000 printer for the first quarter 2026 were $620,000, essentially flat compared to $618,000 in the prior year period. Overall, Ithaca 9000 sales remain in a normalized range, and we expect results to remain similar going forward. Moving to TransAct Services Group or TSG sales.

For the first quarter, TSG sales were $764,000. That was down 5% from $808,000 in the prior year period. The decline was driven by lower spares and accessories revenue as our legacy installed base continues to naturally wind down. Legacy consumables, which consist solely of our remaining thermal POS paper roll inventory, at this point, are nearly fully sold off, so we expect little to no revenue from these products going forward. Overall, we expect TSG sales to continue to slowly decline over time. Moving down the income statement, our first quarter gross margin rose to 50.3%. That compares to 48.7% in the prior year period and up sequentially from 47.6% in the fourth quarter 2025.

That was largely on the strength of casino and gaming sales in the first quarter. Strong casino gaming sales in the first quarter. We continue to expect our gross margin to be in the high 40% range for the full year 2026. Our total operating expenses for the first quarter were $6.5 million, and that was up 2% compared to $6.4 million in the prior year period. The modest increase was driven by higher selling and marketing expenses and G&A expenses, partially offset by a meaningful reduction in engineering expenses as we began to capitalize R&D costs related to the BOHA! software in-housing effort.

Breaking down our OpEx a little bit, our engineering and R&D expenses for the first quarter were $1.4 million. That was down 16% compared to $1.6 million in the prior year period. Our selling and marketing expenses for the first quarter were $2.2 million. That was up 5% compared to $2.1 million in the prior year period. The increase reflects new hires initiated during the first quarter, as well as higher travel expenses and sales commissions tied to our stronger sales results. Lastly, our G&A expenses for the first quarter were $2.9 million. That was up 10% compared to $2.7 million in the prior year period. The increase was largely driven by higher share-based compensation and recruiting fees for new hires made during the first quarter.

For the first quarter 2026, our operating income was $800,000 or 5.3% of net sales. This compares to near break-even operating loss of $15,000 or 0.1% of net sales in the prior year period. On the bottom line, we recorded net income of $800,000 or $0.07 per diluted share for the first quarter 2026. This compares to net income of $19,000 or break-even results per diluted share in the year-ago period. We recorded income tax expense of $23,000 at an effective tax rate of 2.9% as we continued to take a full valuation allowance on our U.S. and Macau pre-tax earnings and record tax only on income from our U.K. sub-subsidiary.

Our adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was a positive $1.4 million. This compares to negative $499,000 in the fourth quarter 2025 and $544,000 in the first quarter 2025. This was a strong start to the year and keeps us well on track to deliver positive adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2026. Lastly, turning to our balance sheet, it remains solid. We ended the first quarter with $18.8 million in cash. That compares to $20.4 million at year-end 2025. In terms of debt, we had $3 million of outstanding borrowings under our credit facility with Siena Lending. Finally, thank you all for your interest and trust over the years.

As my 30-year career at TransAct comes to a close, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to our shareholders for your steadfast support of both TransAct and me. I look forward to staying in touch. With that, I’d like to turn the call over to the operator for questions. Operator?

Jesse, Conference Operator, Conference Services: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting our question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. The confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 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. One moment please while we poll for questions. Thank you. It appears we have no questions at this time, so I would like to turn the floor back over to John Dillon for closing comments. Mr. Dillon, you may proceed with your closing remarks.

John Dillon, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), TransAct Technologies: Thank you very much for joining us today. There’s no questions. Be happy to chat with any of you offline downstream. You can reach us through Ryan Gardella from ICR. Again, thank you and best regards. With that, Steve and I will sign off.

Jesse, Conference Operator, Conference Services: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for your participation. This does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.