NVE Corporation

NVE Corporation

61.50
EUR
-13.50
(-18.00%)
3.26EPS
27.91P/E
440.18MMarket Cap

Q2 FY2027 · Earnings Call TranscriptOctober 21, 2026

Pete Eames

Good afternoon, and welcome to the NVE Corporation conference call for the quarter ended September 30th, 2026. I'm Pete Eames, NVE's President and CEO.

With me on the call is Daniel Nelson, our Principal Financial Officer. This call is being webcast live on YouTube and Google Meet and being recorded.

Replay is available through our website, nve.com, and our YouTube channel, youtube.com/nvecorporation. All participants are currently in a listen-only mode.

After our presentation, there will be a question and answer session. After my opening comments, Daniel Nelson will present our financial results, then I'll cover the business.

I'll also cover the recent leadership transition and board expansion, and then we'll open the call to questions. We issued our press release with summary financial results and filed our quarterly report on Form 10-Q in the past hour following the close of market.

Links to the press release and 10-Q are available through our website, the SEC's website, and X, formerly known as Twitter. Please refer to the safe harbor statement on your screen.

Comments we may make that relate to future plans, events, financial results, or performance are forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including, among others, such factors as: our reliance on several large customers for a significant percentage of revenue; uncertainties related to the economic environments and the industries we serve; uncertainties related to future sales and revenues; as well as risk factors listed from time to time in our filings with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31st, 2026. Actual results could differ materially from the information provided, and we undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements we may make.

We're pleased to report solid revenue and earnings for the quarter, driven by a 67% increase in distributor sales. Net margins increased to 54% due to decrease in our effective tax rate.

Daniel Nelson will cover the details of the financials. Daniel?

Daniel Nelson

Thanks, Pete. Total revenue for the quarter decreased 8% compared to the prior-year quarter.

The decrease was due to a 9% decrease in product sales, partially offset by a 25% increase in contract R&D revenue. The decrease in product sales was due to a short-term inventory adjustment at one of our large medical device customers, and an 85% decrease in defense product sales.

Inventory adjustments by medical device customers can create short-term order volatility for us. Defense product sales can be highly variable because of government procurement cycles.

Looking forward, we expect medical device and defense sales to recover in the current quarter, and we expect revenues in the second half of the fiscal year to be consistent with the first half. Aside from the short-term order flow adjustments in medical, we saw a 67% increase in distributor sales due to strengthening industry conditions and strong demand for our new and legacy commercial products.

The increase in contract R&D revenue in the past quarter was due to progress on existing contracts. Total operating expenses increased 4% for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2026, due to a 44% increase in selling, general, and administrative expense, partially offset by a 17% decrease in R&D expense.

The decrease in R&D was due to staffing redeployment. The increase in SG&A was due to higher director option grant date stock prices.

Our effective tax rate, which is the provision for income taxes as a percentage of income before taxes, decreased to 14% from 20% in the prior-year quarter, primarily due to favorable tax law changes. The decrease is consistent with our previous estimates, and we expect our effective tax rate to be between 14% and 16% for at least the remainder of the fiscal year.

Net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 was $3.17 million, or 65 cents per diluted share, compared to $3.31 million, or 68 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. Our profitability metrics for the quarter remain strong.

In addition to the 54% net margin Pete mentioned previously, gross margin was 78%, operating margin was 55%, and pretax margin was 63%. For the first six months of fiscal 2027, total revenue was $16.9 million, up 36% over the same period in fiscal 2026.

The increase in revenue was due to strong sales across our product portfolio, as well as increases in both direct and distributor sales. Net income was $9.57 million, or $1.97 per diluted share, for the first two quarters of fiscal 2027.

Turning to cash flow items. Cash flow from operations was $11.1 million for the first six months of fiscal 2027, compared to $8 million for the first six months of fiscal 2026.

Cash plus marketable securities increased from $43.5 million to $44.4 million as operating cash flow more than covered our dividends and purchases of fixed assets for the first half of the fiscal year. Receivables decreased 12% due to timing of customers' payments.

Inventories decreased 3% due to increased product sales in the first half of the fiscal year. We paid a $1 per share quarterly dividend the past quarter, and declared another dividend to be paid at the end of November.

Now I'll turn the call back over to Pete Eames to cover the business. Pete?

Pete Eames

Thanks, Daniel. Our R&D strategy is to transition the world's best technology into the world's best products for high-value markets, such as advanced automation and robotics, data centers, and highly automated Fourth Wave factories using the artificial intelligence of things.

This quarter we announced two new products. The first is a new design in our series of wafer-level chip-scale sensors.

The new sensor provides analog information such as position from the motion or changes of external magnetic fields. These sensors are the smallest products we've ever made at NVE, measuring just 0.55 mm².

Combined with the small size is an extremely high sensitivity. This combination enables unmatched spatial sensitivity for precision motion applications, including medical devices, industrial automation, and robotics.

We are promoting our new products on YouTube with videos showing the sensor detecting tiny motions of minute magnets. You can view these videos on our website.

We also released a family of gear sensors in the past quarter for precise motion, speed, and position sensing in industrial automation and robotics. These sensors are biased by a small magnet and detect the motion of gear teeth as they pass the sensor.

Seven different versions of these sensors match common gear sizes in a newly available sensor form factor. The new sensors provide large, low-distortion signals, allowing more precise control in linear and rotational encoders, and closed-loop servo systems that are ubiquitous in factory automation and robotics.

We have videos of these new products on our website and YouTube channel, showing the incredible small size, high precision, and versatility of our new sensors. In addition to these new product launches, we're developing several new products, including even more precise sensors for robotics, and more power-efficient isolators and power conversion.

Next, I'll cover our recent leadership transition and board expansion. I was elected director and appointed president and CEO at our annual shareholders meeting in August.

Former CEO Dan Baker replaced Terry Glarner as chairman. We also elected a new director, Carolyn Valentine, expanding the board from five to seven directors.

The larger board strengthens our governance. I'm honored to lead NVE as CEO.

We have a talented team, strong customer relationships, and many exciting opportunities ahead. I look forward to building on our momentum to create long-term value for our shareholders through profitable growth and expansion in attractive markets.

We see significant opportunities in robotics, power conversion, and the artificial intelligence of things. Now we'd like to open the call for questions via Google Meet.

To ask a question, from Google Meet, click "Raise my hand" icon at the bottom of the screen, and unmute yourself to speak. From a phone, press *6 to unmute.

Please state your name and affiliation before your question, and to prevent background noise, please mute your line after asking your question.

Hey, Pete. Am I able to ask a question here, just unmute?

Pete Eames

Hi, Kaden. Go ahead.

Great, thank you. I'd love if you can give some more color on the rescheduled orders here.

You guys attribute the decline to customer rescheduling orders. Were those pushed out into H2 and not necessarily into next fiscal year?

Were they roughly the size of the shortfall, or smaller? The quarter-over-quarter shortfall, or smaller than that?

Pete Eames

Sure, Kaden. The order variability was primarily from orders being pulled into quarter one from quarter two.

We don't see any further disruptions looking forward, and as Daniel said in the prepared remarks, it's a relatively short-term effect.

Okay. Following up there, it seems just from your AR, shipments look weighted toward September.

Would you say that September was the strongest month of the quarter, and do you guys have any other commentary around H2's velocity versus H1?

Pete Eames

Sure, maybe Daniel can comment on receivables.

Daniel Nelson

In response to that question, we did see revenue increase towards the end of the September quarter. Yes, we did see increase in September compared to the immediate month, which was August.

Got it. I'll jump back in the queue.

I have other questions, but I'll let others ask before me.

Pete Eames

Thanks, Kaden. Other questions?

If there's not, I'll ask more.

Pete Eames

Please go ahead.

Great. Would you guys give some color around the growth you're seeing in the automation market and then as well as the power conversion markets versus your core medical sales in H1, and could you also give commentary about how that's looking into H2?

Pete Eames

We're definitely seeing strong growth in both power conversion and in robotics applications. We highlighted some important products in the prepared remarks, especially focused on automation and the new sensors that go into robotics applications.

The spatial sensitivity that we're providing with those devices is unmatched in the industry, and we're optimistic partly because of that. We also have a high level of inventory, and we think the market is timed right for robotics applications and power conversion applications.

It's driving overall optimism on our part.

Great. Would you give some color on maybe any design wins or design-ins that you have that could be driving the growth through H2 and even into the next fiscal year?

Pete Eames

Yes. For the wafer-level chip-scale parts that we talked about in the prepared remarks and on the previous investor calls as well, we do have some important small design wins for those products.

Still early there, but I think the feedback from the industry has been very positive. We're expecting growth long term from those parts and those technologies in general.

Okay. When you say small design wins, is that small in terms of revenue or can you maybe describe the size of the customers?

Pete Eames

It's a mix. When we say small design wins, it's usually in markets that start small with samples and then later move into low-thousand type quantity purchases while they work out system-level integration challenges.

That can take some time. Sometimes it takes a couple quarters, sometimes less, for those to then translate into larger orders, to factors of 10 larger than the sample orders I described.

It does take some time to ramp up, and I would say that we're certainly within that cycle with several products. That's why we're optimistic.

Okay. When you say small, it's simply given that it's more sampling and prototyping volumes.

Would you give any color on customer size, like who these customers are? Is there any directional understanding of on the robotics side, are these top five OEMs, on the maybe factory arms or humanoid side?

Do you have any additional color you can give on the size of these potential customers?

Pete Eames

It's unusual for us to comment specifically on customers, but I can say that there's a variety of customers interested in the technology that spans customers in the robotics space, of course, but also spanning beyond that, and we like the potential for very high volumes there.

Would you size very high volumes?

Pete Eames

Certainly. Yep, we're certainly chasing very high volumes.

Would you be able to put any directional numbers to that, like what you guys are targeting?

Pete Eames

We're certainly not unfamiliar with producing millions of sensors, and tens of millions of sensors are certainly well within our capacity here. We can easily scale well beyond that as well in the short term, and certainly within the timescale that we expect these customers to ramp up.

Got it. Okay.

On the power conversion side, on the 800-volt, you've discussed that step-ups in voltage kind of raise your dollar content. Many of the PSUs, if you look, you'd see NVE's parts to some degree.

Would you be able to give more color on the power conversion side on the progress as data centers are transitioning to 800-volt, and your progress with your customers there?

Pete Eames

Yep, happy to, and happy to highlight the advantages that NVE provides as the application voltages continue to increase. We provide the highest isolation in the industry, and as voltages increase in power supplies and power conversion applications, that continues to favor NVE's products, and we're continually optimistic for that reason.

We see the trends favoring NVE's technology, and we're expecting continued growth there as well.

Okay. I might be the only person that's going to ask you questions, I guess, Pete.

Pete Previtt

I'd like to ask a question.

Great, I'll get off for a while.

Pete Previtt

Hi, Pete. This is Pete Previtt calling from Florida.

Great job on your continued success there. My question is this: are NVE sensors applicable to gears for humanoid robots?

You mentioned robotics, it could be arms in automation and factories, but what about humanoid robots? Is that something where your sensors can be used, and are you having any conversations there?

Pete Eames

Yep, definitely. The new gear sensors that I talked about on the call are especially intended towards robotics, both industrial and humanoid robotics.

They're intended for advanced encoders and servo systems, and those are exactly what are being used in humanoid robotics and elsewhere. We think that the timing of that introduction is perfect with the growth in the humanoid robotics industry, and we're seeing some strong interest there already.

As I said previously, we're optimistic about those applications.

Pete Previtt

Great. Thank you very much, appreciate it.

Mhm.

Ittai Eden

Hey, Pete, this is Ittai Eden from Principal.

Pete Eames

Hi, Ittai.

Ittai Eden

I just wanted to ask, just so I heard you right, you basically said that the second half in terms of top line should be similar to the first half of the year, is that correct?

Pete Eames

That's correct. That's what we said in the prepared remarks.

We do see the order disruptions as a temporary situation, and we expect to returned to growth in the next quarter.

Ittai Eden

Got it. My follow-up would be, how do these new products and the secular growth market fit into those expectations, if you will?

Are you guys forecasting the back half based on existing orders, or is there still orders to go get from these new products and new use cases?

Pete Eames

We're definitely seeing more orders come in, and as Daniel said in the prepared remarks, the growth is across our product portfolio, including distributors and direct sales and legacy products, and also our new products. We're happy with the growth there, and we expect that to continue.

Ittai Eden

Got it. I guess asked another way, what would be call it upside to those internal expectations of a similar second half?

What are some things you think could drive upside there?

Pete Eames

Generally I think the market we're seeing is continuing to accelerate. We just got Abbott's numbers this morning, for example, and they project a 10% year-over-year increase.

Short term, we're not seeing any further disruptions in our current sales, and I think long term, we have impressive products and important customers, and long-term growth for those types of customers.

Ittai Eden

Got it. Thank you.

Is there any color you can give on backlog or backlog coverage or any metrics you could share there? That would be helpful.

Pete Eames

We typically don't track backlog. I'd say we typically have a strong order flow, and we have plenty of inventory to satisfy those expected orders, and I think we're in good shape there.

Ittai Eden

All righty. Then the last one for me would be, can you speak to the capacity expansion and how that's going?

I recall last quarter you mentioned it was mostly R&D for the time being. Has that moved into volume production in earnest, or any color around that would be helpful.

Pete Eames

There certainly has been some shift towards production capacity with the additional resources from the expansion. I'd say the shift is relatively small now, but as I mentioned previously, there are some important design wins in our wafer-level chip-scale products, and that capacity is primarily from what we've added from the expansion.

That's a good news, and we'll continue to transition that capacity in that direction as the order flows increase here.

Ittai Eden

All righty, I'll jump back in the queue. Thanks, guys.

Mhm.

Hi, mind if I go now?

Pete Eames

Go ahead.

Hi. I remember last quarter you mentioned that there was a bunch of new customers that start out small.

I was just wondering if there's any growth in those new customers.

Pete Eames

In general, I think the trends are definitely moving in the right direction. As I described earlier, it's common for some of those new customers to start with relatively small orders and grow over time.

We're definitely seeing that, and specifically in the products that I mentioned in the prepared remarks, and in wafer-level chip-scale products, we're seeing a continual increase in the interest and increases in order sizes. It's definitely moving in the right direction.

Got it. These new customers are mostly in the new industries you were talking about, like robotics, correct?

Pete Eames

Robotics and automation, and factory automation and humanoid robotics are two important areas where we're seeing that interest.

Awesome. Thank you.

Mhm.

Hey, Pete. Are you there?

Pete Eames

Go ahead.

Hi. I'm a relatively new independent investor, and just congratulations on your new role.

Curious to know, in terms of the long-term horizon of the company over the next 2 to 3 years, what is your sort of vision now for the company? Is it going to be a little bit different from what your predecessor was doing, and how should investors think about the company going forward?

Pete Eames

I would say the main focus for me is taking advantage of the recent expansion, and leveraging that towards new products and new products in fast-growing markets. It's a continuation of our previous efforts, and my efforts on the expansion in general.

I'd say it's a continuation in the trajectory that was started under Dan's leadership, and moving to take advantage of that expansion.

Good, good. Then on the medical device portion of the revenue, I know that a sort of strong percentage of that is coming from Abbott right now.

Is there a focus on sort of diversifying that out or how do you think about that?

Pete Eames

We definitely work to expand our products throughout the medical device industry. Cardiac rhythm management, and Abbott, obviously, is an important customer of ours, but we see growth in other areas as well.

Other implantable medical devices, such as neural stimulators, are important growth areas for NVE's products as well, and it's because we have the advantages of small size and low power makes us a perfect technology for implantable medical devices.

Got it. Thanks a lot, and all the best to you in the future.

Pete Eames

Thank you very much.

Pete, final question here for me. Would you say that your humanoid robotics customers are planning to be entering production volumes in 2027, or even in 2026, at the tail end of this year?

Pete Eames

It's hard to say. We talk to our robotics customers regularly, and there is definitely a forecast for growth there.

It's hard to speak directly to what their plans are, but we do see increasing production on our side, and we're happy to report that those are moving in to those types of applications. Automation and humanoid robotics.

Generally, I think we're aligned well with the industry, and the specific needs for the robotics market, and we'll continue to see things move in that direction.

Great. My final, I guess, question on the humanoid robotics front, two-pronged here.

Would you say most of your humanoid robotics customers are Western OEMs? Would you be able to size the relative dollar content per robot that you guys are expecting, even if it's a range?

Pete Eames

Sure. We have global distribution network for our robotics customers, and our subsystem customers in the robotics marketplace.

We're servicing both Western customers and global customers to answer the first part of your question. The second part of your question, in terms of the dollar content, a typical NVE product ASP is perhaps $1 to $2 per sensor, and, obviously, there's several sensors used in the precision motion application of human robotics.

We see the potential for several NVE sensors per robot there, and that drives a significant revenue from our perspective, I think there's a big upside.

By several, would you say in the tens of sensors, just a scale of 20

Pete Eames

to 50?

Can you give a rough range?

Pete Eames

Certainly in the tens of sensors, I think, is fair.

Got it. All right, thank you so much, Pete.

I'll let others ask.

Pete Eames

Yep, thanks, Kaden.

Hi, Pete.

Pete Eames

Hi, go ahead.

Just had one question. With the short-term disruption, [chuckle], with respect to the second quarter, and some of that revenue getting pulled into the first, is it really fair to say when you think about your second half estimates being kind of in line with the first half, that you would normalize those first two quarters, in other words?

It would be somewhere along the midpoint on a quarter-by-quarter basis going forward of the first two quarters?

Pete Eames

That's certainly one way to look at it. I think the year-to-date numbers are appropriate, and that's kind of where the estimates came from.

Okay. Great, thank you.

Mhm. Pete,

Pete Previtt

Pete, this is Pete Previtt again. Do you have any more expansion plans?

I remember when I was there a few years ago, the new area that you guys expanded, sounds like you've got equipment filling that area. Is there a need for additional space?

Have you secured any additional buildings where you moved admin into that, and then you're going to use that area in the existing building for production?

Pete Eames

That's right, Pete, a good memory. That is the option that we evaluate.

We haven't discussed further expansion plans beyond the space that you saw when you visited. However, that is something, obviously, that we keep in mind, and we will continue to expand as needed, and we'd follow the strategy that you mentioned, which is to move some of the admin offsite, and continue to expand by leveraging the infrastructure that we have here within our current building.

We definitely keep those plans fresh, and we'll adapt to them as we need to.

Pete Previtt

Great. It seems like you have a phenomenal board of directors.

Are you guys meeting quarterly, and how do you feel they are in supporting your efforts, your growth efforts, and in any needs that you have in order to continue to grow the company?

Pete Eames

We have an excellent board, as you mentioned, and we're happy to draw from experience throughout the industry. We expanded our board to seven, and I think that makes them even stronger.

We meet on a quarterly basis, and happy to get the feedback and direction that the board provides. It's very valuable to the company.

Pete Previtt

Great, thank you. Mhm.

Ittai Eden

Pete, could you just talk quickly about the distributor sales increase? How has it changed, and from last quarter?

Should I view that as an increase in distributor sales mix being the ability to flex revenue higher, but coming at lower margin?

Pete Eames

I think that's a safe assumption. We have a global distribution network, as I mentioned earlier, and they leverage sales for us.

This is sort of broadest estimate of the sales of the company. It covers the broadest product portfolio for us.

When we see growth there, that's a very good sign for revenue in general. We're very happy to see distributor sales increasing, and it's a sign of continued attraction of NVE's products in general, gaining in the market.

Ittai Eden

Wait, you're saying as a percent of mix, distributors sales had increased quarter-over-quarter?

Pete Eames

It has. It does bob around a little bit, and vary from quarter to quarter, as you might expect.

Certainly, when we have a lower direct customer sales, as we did in the last quarter, then our percentage of distributor sales increases. It's common for it to vary somewhat throughout the year, but in general, it's fairly steady, usually between something like 1/3 and 2/3 of total revenue.

Ittai Eden

All right. Thank you.

Mhm.

Hi, Pete. I just have two questions.

First off, congratulations on the new role.

Pete Eames

Thank you.

Yes, I had a question in regards to specifically the distributor sales growth year-over-year, and how you see those trends going forward. Then, a little bit more color on the first half of the year related to non-medical sales growth, stripping out Abbott and all those medical sales growth, if you can give any color on that.

Pete Eames

Sure. As I mentioned, distributor sales is a pretty broad representation of NVE's product portfolio.

When we see growth there, that's a good sign, because it's sort of a more general reflection of NVE's products and sales, and we see that as a very good sign. Then, in terms of the distributor sales in general, we're pleased to see that increasing, and I think, overall, the growth that we've seen year to date and going forward will be a continuation of some of the things we said in the first quarter, and that's growth, broadly, generally, and across NVE's products.

Great, thank you.

Pete Eames

Any other questions?

Did I hear correctly that distributor sales grew 67% year-over-year? Did you guys say that in the initial remarks, or was I mishearing something?

Pete Eames

No, that's correct, Kaden.

Is that for H1 or is that for Q2?

Pete Eames

That's for Q2.

Do you have an H1 figure for distributor sales year-over-year?

Pete Eames

It's somewhat less than that. I would place it a little bit lower, perhaps in the 40% range.

Okay. Distributor sales has accelerated in Q2 versus Q1.

Pete Eames

Correct.

Understood. All right, thank you, Pete.

Mhm.

Hi, Pete, I have one more question.

Pete Eames

Sure, go ahead, Spencer.

About my question earlier about, I guess customer diversification, and then you were saying how, the end of year, the second half of the year's earnings are going to be similar to the first half, is that correct?

Pete Eames

Correct, yep.

Is that mix going to be similar to the first half, where it's mostly a few large customers, or do you believe that the growth is going to come from additional customers, like the additional ones that were gained in the first half of the year?

Pete Eames

We certainly expect revenue to increasingly come from new customers, and that's because the market is continuing to accept our new products, and we'll continue to see growth for that reason. I think there's some short-term optimism as our wafer-level chip-scale products, new gear sensors, and others that we've talked about previously continue to grow, and become more of a representative of the total revenue numbers.

Got it. Thank you.

Pete Eames

Any other questions?

I guess I have one more general question, if no one else has any questions. Given that obviously NVE has very, I guess you could say niche technology that isn't very easily replicated, and has many applications that obviously are growing in fields like robotics and automation, what would you say is the biggest barrier to entry, or I guess the biggest competitive advantage that NVE, and more specifically the spintronic technology has, and I guess why other new entrants can't come in and take over, in a sense?

Pete Eames

Barriers to entry include NVE's patent portfolio, and that prevents competitors from operating in our space. We have excellent patent coverage in spintronics, and we think that provides that coverage.

We also have trade secrets and expertise within the company that make it very difficult for competitors to do what NVE does, and to try to copy what the advantages that NVE provides with spintronics. It's a unique technology, and we provide a benefit proposition to our customers that's unlike any others, and we think our company is reflective of those advantages.

Thank you so much.