ADTRAN Holdings, Inc.

ADTRAN Holdings, Inc.

4.73
USD
-0.33
(-6.52%)
-0.21EPS
1.13BMarket Cap
Mar 03Next Earn

Q3 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptNovember 3, 2026

Tom Stanton

Morning, everyone. ADTRAN delivered third-quarter results slightly below the midpoint of our guidance range while navigating a challenging supply environment.

Importantly, the underlying trends of our business remain encouraging. We continue to see strength in optical, growing momentum with hyperscalers, and progress in Europe.

Together, these growth drivers are expanding our reach across service provider, cloud providers, and enterprise markets, helping us build a broader and more diversified customer base. Optical remained a primary growth engine with revenue increasing 11% year-over-year and 4% sequentially, supported by particularly strong performance in the US.

These results are consistent with our expectations entering the year for growth to build throughout 2026. In Access and Aggregation, revenue grew 5% year-over-year, led by strength in Europe despite a slowdown with one of our largest customers due to adjustments in timing of ongoing projects, as we have previously discussed.

We are pleased with where we are with that customer and still expect orders to return to normalized levels in Q1 of next year. In Subscriber Solutions, revenue increased 4% sequentially, led by Carrier Ethernet.

Demand remains strong as operators continue to expand fiber connectivity to homes, businesses, and critical infrastructure sites, and as expectations for speed and reliability keep rising. Taken together, these results reflect a demand environment that remains solid across our core markets, even as supply availability continues to influence timing.

At the same time, AI is reshaping network requirements, driving the need for faster, more secure, and more reliable connectivity. Our strategy remains focused on three key areas: helping service providers build high-speed fiber networks with AI-driven automation, growing our business with cloud providers as they build out AI infrastructure, and expanding our position in enterprise and critical infrastructure.

Each represents an important growth opportunity for ADTRAN. I'll start with service providers.

AI is driving growing bandwidth demand as operators connect cloud and AI infrastructure and carry increasing network traffic, leading them to expand network capacity and translating into stronger demand for our optical solutions. That AI build-out is led by hyperscalers, and it's easy to understand why some are increasingly their focus and resources there.

We are participating in that growth as well, and as you'll hear in a moment, but hyperscaler networks don't exist in isolation. The growth in and between data centers ultimately extends into the carrier networks that connect them to enterprises, homes, and each other.

That growth can't reach its full potential unless those networks are upgraded to carry it. While we are growing with cloud providers, we are deliberately staying focused on the service providers that connect them, where our deep customer relationships and differentiated technology give us a strong position.

As some competitors turn their attention elsewhere, we intend to capture the opportunity that they create. Higher bandwidth alone, however, is not enough.

Networks also need to be secure, resilient, and trusted. This is continuing to increase pressure on high-risk vendor replacement, which remains a key growth driver for the company.

Although operators across Europe are already moving away from high-risk vendors, particularly in new deployments, the proposed EU Cybersecurity Act 2, which would establish a stronger framework for securing Europe's technology supply chains and would accelerate the replacement of high-risk equipment already in networks. Our success in Europe demonstrates the strength of our position, and we believe we can benefit as these replacement programs expand.

We are also seeing continued investment in access network upgrades to support multigigabit services as connected homes require greater speed, reliability, and security. As AI applications move into homes and businesses, the access network increasingly determines the user's experience.

Across the US and Europe, demand for higher-speed broadband continues to drive investment in higher-capacity access networks and CPE, supported in part by broadband programs such as BEAD. AI is also reshaping how these networks are operated.

We introduced AI-driven automation with Mosaic One Clarity and have since augmented those capabilities with Mosaic One Fabric and an expanded suite of Mosaic One agents. These agents are designed to automate routine traffic management tasks and proactively identify and resolve issues.

Fabric also gives operators the unique ability to build and deploy their own agents, providing greater autonomy and helping them automate across complex multivendor network environments. The response from operators of all sizes has been extremely positive, and we believe Mosaic One Fabric positions operators to lead this transition.

Turning to our second growth area, cloud and AI infrastructure, here our opportunity goes beyond connecting AI infrastructure with carriers. We are positioning ADTRAN to participate directly in its build-out with solutions at three critical points in the cloud network architecture.

Data center interconnect is where we have long served cloud providers, and we are starting to see the benefits of our investments in this area. Revenue from hyperscaler customers grew more than 200% year-over-year.

Inside the data center, AI is creating unprecedented bandwidth demand as increasingly large clusters of GPUs must be connected to support AI workloads. Building on our innovation in low-power, high-performance optics, we are extending our technology to address this growing opportunity.

Our Lightwave 800 development remains on track, with customer trials expected to begin in the first half of next year and production scaling in the second. Customer engagement remains very positive.

At the cloud handoff, where cloud providers connect to service providers or other cloud providers, our MicroMux Quattro solution is scheduled for release in the first half of 2027. It is generating significant interest from hyperscalers, content providers, and wholesale network providers.

Moving to enterprise and critical infrastructure, this remains a higher-growth area for us. Enterprise continued to deliver double-digit year-over-year growth, and we see good momentum as customers invest in higher-speed networks with a growing focus on security and resiliency.

We believe we have one of the most competitive portfolios in the market, with advanced quantum-safe networking capabilities embedded into our optical and Ethernet solutions. We see this level of security increasingly becoming a fundamental requirement for networks supporting the AI-driven economy.

Shifting to product costs and pricing, we continue to operate in a dynamic environment. Reported gross margins benefited from IEEPA tariff refunds this quarter.

On a more normalized basis, higher component costs combined with product and customer mix continued to pressure margins. We continue to work actively with suppliers, implement product redesigns, and pursue pricing adjustments to help offset these pressures.

Looking ahead, we continue to see strength in optical across both service provider and cloud markets, solid growth in enterprise, and additional opportunities in broadband as high-risk vendor replacement programs gain momentum. We remain focused on addressing gross margin pressures, maintaining disciplined expense management, and achieving our long-term target of 10% non-GAAP operating margin.

To close, this was a quarter of continued progress across several of our strategic objectives. Our priorities are unchanged: maintaining tight expense control, generating cash, and converting our strong pipeline into revenue.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Tim to review our financial results in greater detail. Tim?

Tim Santo

Thank you, Tom. Thank you for all joining us today.

Revenue for the quarter was $281.2 million, up approximately 1% from the prior year and in line with the prior quarter. Geographically, US revenue was $128 million, representing approximately 46% of total revenue, up 6% year-over-year.

Non-US revenue was $153.2 million, representing approximately 54% of total revenue and down 4% year-over-year. By product category, Optical Networking Solutions revenue was $114.5 million, or 41% of total revenue, increasing 11% year-over-year and 4% sequentially.

Access & Aggregation Solutions revenue was $78.5 million, or approximately 28% of total revenue, up 5% year-over-year, but down 10% sequentially. Subscriber Solutions revenue was $88.1 million, or 31% of total revenue, down 13% year-over-year and up 4% sequentially.

Turning to margins, non-GAAP gross margin was 42.1%, a sequential increase from 40.7% in the second quarter of 2026. Gross margin benefited approximately 200 basis points from IEEPA tariff refunds received during the quarter.

Non-GAAP operating expenses were $104.2 million, compared to $103.9 million in the second quarter of 2026 and $102.4 million in the third quarter of 2025. We continued to take proactive measures to maintain cost discipline and offset inflationary pressures.

Non-GAAP operating income was $14.1 million, resulting in a non-GAAP operating margin of 5%. This is compared to $15.1 million and 5.4% on a year-over-year basis, and $10.6 million and 3.8% on a sequential basis.

Non-GAAP tax expense during the quarter was $3.8 million, reflecting an effective non-GAAP tax rate of 31.4%. Non-GAAP net income attributable to ADTRAN Holdings was $7.1 million, or 9 cents per diluted share, compared to 5 cents in the third quarter of 2025 and 4 cents in the prior quarter.

Turning now to the balance sheet and cash flow. Working capital increased during the quarter, resulting from higher accounts receivable and inventory, partially offset by increased accounts payable.

DSO increased to 77 days, reflecting higher billings and the timing of collections. Inventory increased to $227.4 million, and accounts payable increased to $179 million, reflecting purchasing activity in the current supply environment.

Operating cash flow was negative $24.5 million during the quarter, resulting from negative free cash flow of $39.4 million. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately $18 million of ADTRAN Networks SE shares, further reducing the minority ownership and increasing ADTRAN Holdings' ownership to 73.4%.

We ended the quarter with $71.7 million of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash, compared to $79.2 million at June 30, 2026. We expect collections to increase and working capital levels to return to a more normalized level in the fourth quarter.

Turning to the fourth quarter outlook. We expect revenue to be between $272 million and $292 million, and non-GAAP operating margin to be between 1% and 5%, overcoming historical seasonality, availability of supply, and timing of large customer projects.

I'd like to note that we'll be participating in the Craig-Hallum Alpha Select Conference in New York on November 17th, and plan to attend the 29th Annual Needham Growth Conference in January. We hope to see many of you there.

With that, I will turn the call back to Tom.

Tom Stanton

All right. Thanks very much, Tim.

Cara, would like to go ahead and open up to any questions people may have.

Operator

Yes, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand, and to withdraw your question, press star one again.

We just ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you're muted locally, please remember to unmute your device.

Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Irvin Liu from Evercore ISI.

Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Irvin Liu

Hi, good morning, and thank you for the question. I had one and a follow-up.

First, Tom, are you able to quantify the revenue impact, if any, related to current supply environment for Q3? Just in other words, has the availability of supply impacted your ability to ship product, or has supply been mostly a cost headwind so far?

Tom Stanton

No, it definitely impacted our ability to ship product. It did.

Last couple of quarters it has, and we continue to see it be something that we're having to manage around. I would say there was tens of millions of dollars we could have shipped if we had more supply.

Irvin Liu

Got it. Thank you.

Then for my follow-up, I understand you typically guide one quarter at a time, but to the extent that you can, are you able to provide any sort of preliminary thoughts into 2027? Should we still expect high-risk vendor replacement to be a tailwind, and does the BEAD program become more meaningful?

Just how are you thinking about supply and perhaps contribution from the Lightwave 800 or MicroMux Quattro?

Tom Stanton

Sure. That's a That's a bunch of questions.

Let let me let me start with just kind of a BEAD will be stronger next year than this year. That's we're just kind of getting started, and we expect that to be kind of a multiyear, program.

The vendor replacement in Europe is just an ongoing, continual thing. I think there's a a general belief, and when I say that that's not just, ADTRAN speaking, there's a general belief that activity around vendor replacement will pick up, and that's because of the, legislation, CSA2, that's being right now, negotiated in Europe, and we ex- current thoughts are that that will be finalized, probably early next year.

That itself kind of puts a some specific laws in place, that continue to drive, positive pressure towards getting that vendor replacement, done. As far as Lightwave, light- I I mentioned it in my comments, we expect to be able to ship it.

It'll be in towards the tail end of next year, where we expect really, meaningful supply availability, and we will be trialing that in the first half. Quattro is about 6 months ahead of that, we should be in production right around the turn of the year.

Those should be positive, they will be, because they're all incremental, positive contributors to us. I I see right now the environment we're in, which is very much a supply-constrained environment, continuing on.

I I think our biggest hurdles for next year, our biggest headwind for next year is just going to be continuing to get enough supply.

Irvin Liu

Got it. Thank you for the color.

Appreciate it.

Tom Stanton

Okay. All right.

Operator

Your next call comes from the line of Ryan Koontz with Needham. Your line is open.

Please go ahead.

Jeff Hopson

Hi, this is Jeff Hopson on for Ryan. Thank you for the question.

Just trying to understand, is there any specific component that's hard to get a hold of, and has that been changing over the past couple of quarters, or it's the same cast of components?

Tom Stanton

I'd say generally the same ones that were very problematic coming into the year or last quarter continue to be problematic, and that's typically optics, lasers, pump lasers, just about many pieces of our optic solution. There are some semiconductor shortages or tightness, and of course we're seeing price inflation in semiconductor as well.

Memory continues to be a problem. I had mentioned, I believe, on the last call that although that's been problematic, at least it seems stable, and that you can get supply.

I would still say that that's true. I would say the only change from, let's say, now versus 6 months ago is those components are difficult, but at the same time, you're seeing a new base of components, lead times are extending.

PC boards is a good example of that, where we traditionally never seen PC boards, even in the supply crisis, we didn't see this kind of tightness in PC boards. Us being able to forecast better and continue to reach out with POs farther into the cycle is becoming more important.

Jeff Hopson

Got it. That's very helpful.

Maybe just in Europe, any update on just general RFP activity you expect to translate to ADTRAN revenue over the next 6 to 12 months?

Tom Stanton

We've got ongoing. In fact, we just had one submitted yesterday of a fairly good size.

There are multiple components that have to be replaced, or that have to be first resourced and then replaced. Actually, if I think about just the one yesterday, that was a full-out replacement over 4 years.

That activity is just ongoing.

Jeff Hopson

Very helpful. Thanks for the questions.

Tom Stanton

Okay.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Genovese with Rosenblatt Securities. Your line is open.

Please go ahead.

Amol Dhaliwal

Hi, this is Amol Dhaliwal on for Mike Genovese. Thank you for the question.

Touching on what you said earlier, excluding the 200 basis point benefit from refunds, the gross margin was roughly about 40%. I was wondering if you could double-click on that number and share how much the pressure was component costs versus change in product mix.

Once the supply conditions begin to normalize, how much of that pressure is temporary headwinds versus structural or mix-based? Thank you.

Tom Stanton

Good questions. I think, without a doubt, the overarching thing is supply cost and increases in our supply cost.

We did get hurt some by mix, as some of you know. We've gotten some of our European businesses doesn't kick back on until Q1.

There's a particular mix associated with that. I'm going to tell you, just generally speaking, it's 80%, 90% supply cost that we wouldn't be having this discussion if we didn't have the acceleration in supply cost.

Amol Dhaliwal

All right. Thank you.

Tom Stanton

Okay.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Christian Schwab with Craig-Hallum. Your line is open.

Please go ahead.

Christian Schwab

Hey, thanks for taking my question. Tom, I just would like an explanation with some semblance of clarity if you can provide it, on attaining eventually your 10% non-GAAP operating margin target.

It sounds like maybe that's passing on supply costs, or mix, or etc. I'm just wondering if you can elaborate on you haven't operated at that in quite some time, just the steps that we can take that are under your control to get there, I guess, is what I'm asking.

Tom Stanton

That's a fair question. The thing that's hurting us now that's kind of out of what our plan was, is the impact on gross margins.

We are stepping through price increases, and we have new redesigns that are coming online. In fact, we have some of them that will be coming online early next year, both in the optic space and in the CPE space.

Those will help. The question is what does the supply chain do between now and then, and are we able to continue to actually make up ground or just continue in the position that we're in today?

We are also passing on price increases. We have a price increase that has been put in effect just a recent increase that covers about 70% of our customers, and then the rest of them will be coming online in early next year.

We're continuing to make those movements. The real answer to your question, it's very difficult to forecast that gross margin.

We do think mix shift will be better next year. We think that our optical sales and access will benefit from increased sales next year, which is typically positive to gross margins.

That's really the question. Our levers are two.

We have operating expense, to the extent that we control that, and then we have gross margins. Gross margins, we continue to do this pieces we can do on our side, but there's a piece that is out of our control, which is the supply chain cost itself, or the component cost itself.

I'm not really ready to forecast next year, but we have two pieces that are within our control.

Christian Schwab

Great. Thank you.

No other questions.

Tom Stanton

Okay.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dave Kang with B. Riley.

Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Dave Kang

Yes. First question is on the hyperscalers segment.

It was up 20% year-over-year. Just wondering how it performed sequentially and what is that in terms of percentage of revenue?

Tom Stanton

I don't think we actually break that out as a percentage of revenue. I think last quarter, Tim, can you help me here?

Last quarter, it was up...

Tim Santo

I

Tom Stanton

think it was up about 100% year-over-year last quarter. You keep growing 100% and 200%, it's going to be meaningful no matter what.

You have any help on...

Dave Kang

We can take that offline then if you don't...

Tom Stanton

All right. That's Great.

Dave Kang

Just on the MicroMux and LPO activities, just wondering how those trials are progressing. Have you added any new customers trialing your products, data center products?

Tom Stanton

We have some OEMs as well as some hyperscalers themselves. Some of them have pushed OEMs to come our way for both of those products.

The Quattro right now, we have some units that are kind of very early units that are out in testing. The Lightwave, not yet.

I would expect that, though, early in Q1.

Tim Santo

Hyperscaler quarter-over-quarter was about 20%.

Dave Kang

Oh, 20%. Got it.

I think last quarter you said it was about 10% of revenue, it should be a little bit higher than 10% for third quarter. Sounds like.

Tom Stanton

That's right. Yeah.

Dave Kang

Yeah. My last question is on the access segment.

Just can you talk about seasonality? For next year, should we expect typical first half stronger than second half?

Is that how we should think about seasonality?

Tom Stanton

I'm going to have to take you a little bit out of our norm. Seasonality in the fourth quarter, access is typically down.

Then it typically comes back up in first quarter. We have a couple of customers that drive that number pretty significantly.

Being as one of those customers is really not buying a lot in access and agg through the end of this year, we would expect the first half of next year to be fairly strong. It's too early for me to talk about the second half of next year.

Dave Kang

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of George Notter with Wolfe Research. Your line is open.

Please go ahead.

George Notter

Hey, guys. I just had one question about securing supply.

It sounded like on the Lightwave product, it would start to ramp really second half next year. Are you securing supply for that today?

Because I know some lead times on some products or components can be a year-plus. I was just wondering how you're navigating the environment from that perspective.

Tom Stanton

We're securing supply commitments. We're trying to secure capacity.

To be very honest here, it's the tail end of next year. Don't expect a whole lot of shipments in Q3 for Lightwave.

We are securing commitments for capacity.

George Notter

Got it. Thanks so much.

Mhm.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Bill Dezellem with Titan Capital Management. Your line is open.

Please go ahead.

Bill Dezellem

Thank you. Let me start, if I may, with the high-risk vendor replacement.

Would you please discuss in more detail the legislation that's taking place in Europe, and the timing of that legislation coming to fruition and the implications of it, not only in terms of the replacement that would need to be done, but the time frame at which it would need to be accomplished by?

Tom Stanton

Yeah. The legislation does a few things.

It's been in the works now for well over a year. Hopefully we're coming to the end of the process.

There is some proposed language that you can find. I think if you do a search on the internet right now, you can see some of the proposed language that's currently contemplated.

There are a few things that are still yet undetermined that aren't agreed upon, but in general, the concept is you stop buying, and then you have a period of time by which you have to remove and replace all of the offending vendor equipment in your network. The legislation itself and getting that put into law, I think, of course, is a positive catalyst just for ongoing business.

The dates associated with full replacement, like I said, aren't decided yet, but right now I think it's generally contemplated to be around 2035 to actually have all the equipment ripped out. No new equipment would be effectively right away.

Bill Dezellem

Great. That's helpful.

Given the pace that legislation can move, even though it's a year into the process, is the implication that there may be another year or more, or do you see momentum behind this? Apologies that I haven't paid as close of attention to just how this is picking up or not.

Tom Stanton

No problem. I would tell you all of our investors that this is important legislation for ADTRAN.

We are the biggest beneficiary of this legislation being approved. You're right, it is an EU rule, right?

It's not just one country. There are multiple countries that have a vote.

The current thought is, and I would say that that's kind of the way that the participants are viewing it, is that it will be done early next year. Having said that, this is multi-government legislation.

It's something you wouldn't want to bet on. Hate

Bill Dezellem

to say it so bluntly,

Tom Stanton

but that's kind of. Literally the current time frame is actually first half of next year.

Bill Dezellem

That is helpful. Taking this one step further, the stop buying the high-risk vendors, how much revenue do the high-risk vendors currently earn each year?

Really the spirit of that question is trying to understand the magnitude that we're talking about here at this point, and, I guess, in 2026 and '7.

Tom Stanton

Yeah. We actually commissioned an independent study to actually look at that, and, I think it was, yeah, in 2025, that number was somewhere in the mid-$800 millions of directly relatable to our equipment on an annual basis.

I would still have to think we're in the same ballpark at this point, and the bigger piece, of course, is if they do get this legislation, or when they do get this legislation approved, there's a solid $10 billion worth of equipment that's got to be replaced.

Bill Dezellem

That's helpful. Really appreciate all that color, Tom.

Then given that we're only 35 minutes into the call, I am going to ask you to dive into a more detail, if you would, on the data center activity in terms of what you all are doing today, and then the magnitude of the opportunity that your new products could lead to if they are as successful as you think they will be.

Tom Stanton

Yeah. What we're doing today is mainly data center intraconnect or in, right?

It's actually connecting data centers to data centers. I guess that would be interconnect.

That's using our ongoing optical products. I will say that it's also impacting our carrier sales.

We're seeing some really good activity here in the US and in some portions of Europe where you have carriers that are really trying to make sure that they upgrade their network to be able to meet data center traffic requirements, and one I'm hearing in the US is very vocal. Our business is definitely picking up because of that.

We also are in data center upgrades, where the hyperscalers themselves are upgrading, and we have one customer that, of course, is materially larger than the rest. That's ongoing.

We expect actually that business to continue to grow meaningfully. The new intersection point for us is these two chips.

The LPO is huge. We have strong interest in that product, and I'm trying not to over-hang myself here, but we have strong interest in that product.

That product is not singular. We have different versions of that product that will be coming out over the next probably 3 years or so.

We've got very good interest on our very first. Anything that has to do with hyperscalers, it's typically tens to hundreds of millions of dollars.

It would be very beneficial for the company when we're successful there.

Bill Dezellem

Thank you. One additional question, and I do promise I'll step away.

The interest that you said is very strong, is that coming from one or two potential customers, or is it much more broad-based than that?

Tom Stanton

On the Lightwave, it is really large data center owners. There's a finite number of them.

On the Quattro, it is pretty much across the board. It's carriers, it is data hyperscalers, it's neoscalers, it's MSO-type customers.

It's across the board. It's a much broader product.

It's a much broader customer set. Okay?

Bill Dezellem

Great. Thank you again.

Tom Stanton

Okay. Looks like our question queue is empty at this point.

Thank you very much for everybody joining us, and we look forward to talking to you next quarter.