Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to NAPCO Security Technologies fiscal second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, note that all participants are in a listen-only mode.
Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press *0 for the operator.
Also note that this call is being recorded on Monday, February 2nd, 2026. I would like to turn the conference over to Francis Okoniewski, Vice President, Investor Relations.
Please go ahead.
Francis Okoniewski
Thank you, Sylvia, and good morning, everyone. This is Fran Okoniewski, Vice President of Investor Relations for NAPCO Security Technologies.
Thank you all for joining today's conference call to discuss financial results for our fiscal second quarter 2026. By now, all of you should have had the opportunity to review our earnings press release discussing our quarterly results.
If not, a copy of the release is available in the Investor Relations section of our website, www.napcosecurity.com. On the call today are Dick Soloway, Chairman and CEO of NAPCO Security Technologies, and Kevin Buchel, President and Chief Operating Officer, as well as Andrew Vuono, our Chief Financial Officer.
Before we begin, let me take a moment to read the forward-looking statement, as this presentation contains forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections of future performance based on management's judgment, beliefs, current trends, and anticipated product performance. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements relating to growth drivers of the company's business, such as school security products, recurring revenue services, potential market opportunities, the benefits of our recurring revenue products to customers and dealers, our ability to control expenses and costs, and expected annual run rate for our SaaS recurring monthly revenue.
Forward-looking statements invoke risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, such risk factors described in our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K.
Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently proved to be incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance, or achievements.
You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All information provided in today's press release and this conference call are as of today's date, unless otherwise stated, and we undertake no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.
I'll turn the call over to Dick in a moment. Before I do, I want to mention the schedule of investor outreach in the coming months.
On February 17th, we're participating in the Barclays 43rd Annual Industrial Select Conference in Miami Beach, Florida. We're also attending Citigroup's Global Industrial Tech and Mobility Conference, also in Miami Beach, Florida, on February 19th.
In March, our engagements include the Raymond James 47th Annual Institutional Investors Conference in Orlando, Florida, on March 4th. We will attend Cantor Fitzgerald's Global Technology and Industrials Conference in New York City, March 10th and 11th.
Finally, we'll cap off this busy period by attending our industry's largest trade show, ISC West, at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas, March 23rd through March 27th. If anyone's interested in attending, please reach out to me and I will arrange to get you a pass.
Investor outreach is a vital part of NAPCO's strategy, and we'd like to extend our gratitude to everyone who contributes to the success of these events. With that out of the way, let me turn the call over to Dick Soloway, Chairman and CEO of NAPCO Security Technologies.
Dick, the floor is yours.
Dick Soloway
Thank you, Fran. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our conference call.
We appreciate you joining us as we review our fiscal second quarter 2026 performance. Our second quarter results, which reflect record Q2 revenue, is a continuation of the momentum we reported from Q1 and is evidence of our focus on long-term growth.
Our strong financial results continue to be fueled by our recurring revenue model, which delivers steady growth while maintaining its substantial profitability. Our equipment revenue has shown consistent growth, as our pricing and market strategies have yielded double-digit increases in equipment revenue for consecutive quarters, bolstered by our door locking segment as well as double-digit growth in our intrusion and alarm segment.
The first half of fiscal 2026 delivered strong financial results, and we are confident in our ability to continue the momentum through the end of the fiscal 2026 and to execute on our plan to provide enhanced shareholder value and growth. In addition to our financial performance, we are pleased with the recent addition of our Chief Revenue Officer, Joe Posinski.
With his 35-plus years as a business development executive, he will provide the company with strong leadership, vision, and the ability to help NAPCO achieve even stronger revenue growth. Now I'll turn the call over to our President and Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Buchel, who will comment on some operational and financial performance highlights.
Following Kevin's remarks, our CFO, Andy Vuono, will go through the financials in more detail. Then I will return to delve deeper into our strategies and our market outlook.
Kevin, the floor is yours.
Kevin Buchel
Thank you, Dick. Good morning, everyone.
I'm going to take a few minutes to highlight our performance for the second quarter, which marked another strong period of execution for the company. We are extremely pleased with the results this quarter, which reflect disciplined execution, strong demand across our portfolio, and the continued focus of our teams on driving profitable growth.
Total revenue for the quarter was $48.2 million, and that represents a Q2 record and it's an increase of 12.2% compared to last year's second quarter. This performance underscores the momentum we are seeing across our business.
Within that total, equipment revenue was $24.3 million, and that's up 12% year-over-year. We're particularly pleased with this result, as it demonstrates the continued strength and durability of our distributor and dealer relationships, as well as the impact of the price increases implemented at the end of fiscal 2025, which are contributing as expected.
Equipment gross margin continued to improve, reaching 28%, and that compares to 24% in the prior year and 26% from the previous quarter. This improvement reflects ongoing pricing discipline, operational efficiency, and favorable product mix, and we are very satisfied with the progress we are making.
Recurring revenue continued its strong performance, growing 12.5% over last year's Q2 and maintaining a strong gross margin of 90.2%. We're very encouraged by the consistency and the quality of this revenue stream, with StarLink commercial fire radios again representing a significant portion of the mix.
We also saw continued momentum in our recurring revenue base, with the prospective annual run rate increasing to $99 million, and that's based on January 2026 recurring revenue. That represents an increase of approximately $4 million from the $95 million run rate we reported last quarter.
We are pleased with this steady progress we are making in building long-term, high-margin revenue. From a profitability standpoint, operating income for the Q2 increased 32% year-over-year to 14.8 million.
Net income increased 29% to 13.5 million, and that represents 28% of revenue for the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased 26% to $15.3 million, and that resulted in an EBITDA margin of 32%.
These results demonstrate strong operating leverage, and we are pleased with the level of profitability achieved this quarter. Our balance sheet remains a significant strength.
Cash and marketable securities continued to grow and totaled $115 million as of December 31, 2025. That gives us substantial flexibility to continue investing in the business while also returning capital to shareholders.
Given our strong financial performance and cash position, our board approved another increase to our quarterly dividend, raising it to 15 cents per share, which represents a 7% increase. This decision reflects our confidence in the business and our commitment to delivering shareholder value.
Overall, this was another outstanding quarter. We are very pleased with our performance through the first 6 months of fiscal 2026.
While there is still more work to do, we believe the company is well positioned to continue executing at a high level. With that, I will turn the call over to our CFO, Andy Vuono, for a deeper look at the financials.
Andy?
Andrew Vuono
Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. Net revenue for the quarter increased 12.2% to 48.2 million, as compared to 42.9 million for the same period a year ago.
Net revenue for the 6 months ended December 31st, 2025, increased 12% to 97.3 million, as compared to 86.9 million for the same period a year ago. Recurring monthly service revenue continued its growth, increasing 12.5% in Q2 to 23.8 million, as compared to 21.2 million for the same period last year.
Recurring monthly service revenue for the 6 months ended December 2025 increased 11.8% to 47.3 million, as compared to 42.3 million last year. Our recurring service revenue now has a prospective annual run rate of approximately 99 million based on January 2026 recurring service revenues.
That compares to 95 million based on October 2025 recurring service revenues, which were reported back in November. The increase in net service revenue was due to increase in the number of our cellular radio communication devices that activated during the period.
We expect radio sales to continue to be a key contributor to our overall equipment sales, which leads to continued growth of our highly profitable recurring service revenue. Equipment revenue for the quarter increased 12% to 24.3 million compared to 21.7 million last year.
The increase in net equipment revenue was primarily attributable to the impact of price increases and increased volume in our door locking product lines. Equipment revenue for the 6 months increased 12.1% to 50.1 million, as compared to 44.6 million for the same period last year.
The increase was primarily due to increase volume in our door locking products as well as increased prices. Gross profit for the 3 months ended December 2025 increased 15.3% to 28.2 million, with a gross margin of 58.6%, as compared to 24.5 million with a gross margin of 57% for the same period last year.
The gross profit for the 6 months increased 14.2% to 56.1 million, with a gross margin of 57.6%, as compared to 49.1 million with a gross margin of 56.5% a year ago. Gross profit for recurring service revenue for the quarter increased 11.1% to 21.5 million, with a gross margin of 90.2%, as compared to 19.4 million with a gross margin of 91.3% last year.
The gross profit for recurring service revenue for the 6 months increased 10.6% to 42.7 million, with a gross margin of 90.3%, as compared to 38.6 million with a gross margin of 91.2% last year. Gross profit from equipment revenues in Q2 increased 31.2% to 6.7 million, with a gross margin of 27.6%, as compared to 5.1 million with a gross margin of 23.6% last year.
Gross profit for equipment revenues for the 6 months increased 27.4% to 13.4 million, with a gross margin of 26.8%, as compared to 10.5 million with a gross margin of 23.6% for the same period last year. The 160 basis point increase in overall gross margin is due to the continued highly profitable recurring revenue and overall improved margins on equipment revenue.
The decrease in gross profit margin from service revenue for both the 3- and 6-month periods ended December 2025 was a result of a one-time credits reducing royalty expense in the comparative periods and marginal increases in data costs to run our network operations center. The increase in gross profit and gross margin from equipment revenue for both the 3- and 6-months ended December 2025 is attributable to improved manufacturing overhead absorption due to increased production, the impact of price increases, in addition to lower sales discounting.
Research and development costs for the quarter increased 11.8% to 3.5 million or 7.2% of revenue, as compared to 3.1 million or 7.2% of revenue for the same period a year ago. R&D costs for the 6 months ended December 2025 increased 8.9% to 6.7 million or 6.9% of revenue, and that compares to 6.2 million or 7.1% of revenue for the same period a year ago.
The increase in research and development for the 3 and 6 months is primarily the result of increased labor and benefit costs related to expanding our engineering staff. Selling, general, administrative expenses for the quarter decreased 1.9% to 10 million or 20.8% of revenue, as compared to 10.2 million or 23.8% of revenue for the same period last year.
SG&A expense for the 6 months ended December 2025 increased 5.3% to 21 million or 21.5% of revenue for that, and that compares to 19.9 million or 22.9% of revenue for the same period last year. The decrease in SG&A costs for the quarter was primarily due to decreases in legal fees, which were net of insurance reimbursements, and accounting fees, offset by increases in wages and bonus compensation and sales commissions.
The increase in SG&A costs for the 6 months ended December 2025 was primarily due to increases in legal fees, commissions, and wages and bonus compensation, offset by decreases in accounting fees and stock-based compensation. Operating income for the quarter increased 32.1% to 14.8 million, as compared to 11.2 million for the same period last year.
Operating income for the 6 months ended December 2025 increased 23.3% to 28.4 million, as compared to 23 million for the same period last year. Interest income for the quarter decreased 4.7% to 884,000, as compared to 921,000 for last year.
For the 6 months, interest income decreased 6.9% to 1.7 million compared to 1.9 million last year. The decrease for both the 3- and 6-month periods was primarily due to lower interest rate yields on our cash and short-term investments.
The provision for income taxes for the 3 months increased 37.6% to 2.2 million, with an effective tax rate of 14.2%, as compared to 1.6 million with an effective tax rate of 13.4% last year. For the 6 months ended December 2025, the provision for income taxes increased 36.8% to 4.7 million, with an effective tax rate of 15.5%, as compared to 3.4 million with an effective tax rate of 13.7% last year.
The increase in the provision for the 3 and 6 months ended 2025 was due to higher pre-tax income, as well as a larger portion of the company's taxable income being attributable to US operations, and the remeasurement of certain deferred tax liabilities due to tax rate changes enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Net income for the quarter increased 29% to 13.5 million or 28% of revenue or 38 cents per diluted share, as compared to 10.5 million or 24.4% of revenue or 28 cents per diluted share for the same period last year.
Net income for the 6 months increased 18.5% to 25.7 million or 26.4% of revenue or 72 cents per diluted share, and compares to 21.7 million or 24.9% of revenue or 59 cents per diluted share for the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter increased 26% to 15.3 million or 43 cents per diluted share, as compared to 12.2 million or 33 cents per diluted share for the same period a year ago, and equates to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 31.9% this year compared to 28.4% last year.
Adjusted EBITDA for the 6 months ended December 2025 increased 22.6% to 30.3 million or 84 cents per diluted share, and compares to 24 24.7 million or 67 cents per diluted share for the same period last year, and equates to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 31.1% this year compared to 28.4% last year. Free cash flows for the quarter increased 17.4% to 14.5 million, as compared to 12.4 million for the same period a year ago, and equates to a free cash flow margin of 30.1% this year compared to 28.8% last year.
Free cash flows for the 6 months increased 9.5% to 26 million, as compared to 23.7 million for the same period a year ago, and equates to a free cash flow margin of 26.7% this year compared to 27.3% last year. Continuing on to our balance sheet, as of December 2025, the company had 115.4 million in cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities, as compared to 99.2 million as of June 2025, a 16.3% increase.
That's after paying 10 million in dividends during the 6-month period. The company had no debt as of December 2025.
Cash provided by operating activities for the 6 months ended December 2025 increased 4.7% to 26.7 million compared to 25.5 million last year. Working capital, which is our current assets less current liabilities, was 158.8 million as of December 2025, as compared to working capital of 138.4 million at June 2025.
The current ratio was 8:1 at December 2025 and 6.8:1 at June 2025. Our capital expenditures for the quarter totaled 600,000 compared to 1.1 million in the same period last year, and for the 6 months amounted to 800,000 compared to 1.8 million last year.
That concludes my formal remarks. I would like to return the call back to Dick.
Dick Soloway
Thank you, Andy. As you've heard today, our second quarter and first half of fiscal 2026 reflect another period of strong execution and meaningful progress against our long-term strategy.
Record Q2 revenue of 48.2 million, double-digit growth across both equipment and recurring service revenue, expanding margins, and strong operating leverage all reinforce that our business model is working exactly as intended. At the core of our strategy is our recurring service revenue platform, which continues to deliver consistent, high-margin growth.
Recurring service revenue now represents nearly half of our total sales, supported by sustained gross margins of over 90%. Our annualized run rate has reached approximately 99 million.
This steady, high-quality revenue stream provides predictability, strong cash generation, and long-term value creation. StarLink commercial fire radios remain a key driver and have become the industry standard for commercial fire communicators, with continued healthy demand across both new installations and our expanding installed base.
On the equipment side, we are equally encouraged by the momentum we're seeing. Equipment revenue increased 12% over year to 24.3 million, supported by strong performance in our door locking solutions and in our intrusion and alarm product segments.
Pricing actions implemented late last fiscal year are having the intended impact, contributing to improved equipment gross margins, which expanded to 28% in the quarter. These results reflect disciplined pricing, operational efficiency, and favorable product mix, all of which we continue to actively manage.
Profitability remains a major strength of the company. Operating income, net income, and adjusted EBITDA all grew at significantly faster rates than revenue, demonstrating strong operating leverage.
With EBITDA margins now exceeding 30%, we are generating substantial cash flow while continuing to invest in innovation, infrastructure, and growth initiatives. Our balance sheet further differentiates us.
With 115 million in cash and marketable securities and no debt, we have exceptional financial flexibility. This allows us to invest organically, pursue strategic opportunities where appropriate, and continue returning capital to shareholders.
The board's decision to increase the quarterly dividend to 15 cents per share reflects our confidence in the sustainability of our cash generation and our ongoing commitment to shareholder value. In addition to our strong financial performance, as I mentioned earlier, we are pleased to announce the appointment of Joseph Posinski as Chief Revenue Officer, a newly created executive role.
In this position, Joe will oversee NAPCO's revenue organization, including sales, channel strategy, pricing, and go-to-market execution across the company's full product portfolio. This appointment underscores our continued focus on accelerating equipment revenue growth, expanding recurring service revenue, maximizing operating leverage, and strengthening customer and dealer engagement.
With more than 35 years of experience in revenue leadership and business development, Joe brings deep experience and a strong execution mindset. We believe his leadership will further position NAPCO to capitalize on new market opportunities, deepen dealer and customer relationships, and accelerate our long-term growth strategy.
Operationally, our team continues to execute at a very high level. We are managing inventory tightly, investing in product development, compliance, automation, and infrastructure, and returning capital through dividends, all while maintaining a debt-free balance sheet.
Our manufacturing facility in the Dominican Republic remains a key competitive advantage, providing cost efficiency, stable logistics, and low tariff exposure compared to many competitors operating in higher tariff regions. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the remainder of fiscal 2026 and beyond.
Demand across our product portfolio remains strong, our recurring service revenue base continues to expand, and our operating discipline remains firmly in place. We've diversified our distribution base, implementing pricing actions, and continued to enhance the StarLink platform, while investing in automation and technology designed to sustain growth and expand margins.
One area where NAPCO continues to make a meaningful impact is school security, one of the most critical challenges of our time. We are proud to partner with school districts nationwide, providing integrated solutions that include our Trilogy and Architech locks, sets, and enterprise scale access control systems.
These platforms are secure, scalable, and align with strict industry standards. What truly differentiates NAPCO is our ability to integrate locking, access control, and alarm technologies into a unified, interoperable platform, protecting students and staff everyday while driving future growth.
At the same time, we continue to expand recurring service revenue opportunities through innovation. A great example is our MVP cloud-based access control platform, which integrates seamlessly with our locking hardware.
MVP introduces a new subscription-based revenue stream for both NAPCO and our dealers and is offered in two configurations: MVP Access, an enterprise-grade solution supporting unlimited users, and MVP Easy, a mobile-first solution for locksmiths and smaller facilities. We believe MVP has the potential to be a game changer, extending our leadership into hosted access control and reinforcing our strategy of pairing innovative hardware with cloud-based services to drive high-margin recurring service revenue.
Beyond education, our Alarm Lock and Marks hardware lines continue to gain traction in healthcare, retail, multi-dwelling applications, and airport infrastructure upgrades. Additionally, as the transition away from legacy copper phone lines accelerates, our StarLink radios, operating on AT&T, Verizon, and now T-Mobile networks, are well positioned to capture additional market share across millions of commercial and residential buildings.
While external market and regulatory conditions remain fluid, we remain focused on what we can control: driving innovation, executing with discipline, and expanding our base of recurring service revenue. In summary, we have begun fiscal 2026 with solid momentum, a clear strategic focus, and a stronger financial foundation than ever.
I'm incredibly proud of our team and what it has accomplished and excited about the opportunities ahead. I want to thank all of you for continued support and confidence in NAPCO.
Our formal remarks are now concluded, and we'd like to open the call for the Q&A. Operator, please proceed.
Operator
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions, please press * followed by 1 on your touch-tone phone.
You will then hear a prompt acknowledging that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press * followed by 2.
If you're using a speakerphone, we ask that you please lift the handset first before pressing any keys. Please go ahead and press *1 now if you have any questions.
Thank you. First, we will hear from Jeremy Hamblin at Craig-Hallum.
Please go ahead, Jeremy.
Jeremy Hamblin
Thanks, and congrats on the strong results. I wanted to start by just getting into the dealer channel and what inventory levels look like.
You saw a really strong improvement in your gross margin, obviously getting a little bit of benefit from the price increases that were taken last year. Wanted to just understand, it looks like you may have a little bit better inventory situation in the channel in getting that better gross margin flow through.
Wanted to see if you could add a little bit of color on how things shape up here in calendar 2026.
Kevin Buchel
Thanks, Jeremy. The channel is much more normalized than it was last fiscal year, when there was chaos about tariffs, when there was chaos about certain distributors not wanting to do quarter-end buys.
It seems to have become stable. One of the things we did see in Q2 was a more normal buying pattern.
They would buy throughout the quarter, not wait until the very end, some distributors, not all. What that does for us is that helps reduce the discounting that has to go on.
That's reflected somewhat in the gross margin. Gross margin was helped by a bunch of things: less discounting, price increases, mix.
Locking remains strong. That gives us tremendous margins.
When you discount less and you wind up with the price increase like we've done, that bodes well. We wound up having almost a 28% gross margin on revenue that was 24.3 million.
Obviously, we want to see that revenue go much higher, and with it, we think we'll get towards our goal, which is to get the hardware margins, the equipment margins, back into the 30s where it used to be and where it belongs. That's what I said earlier, we have more work to do.
That's one of the things we're working on. We think margins could go even higher, and we think they will as this fiscal year progresses.
Jeremy Hamblin
Great color. Since you mentioned the strength in the locking segment, wanted to see if we could dive a little bit deeper into the MVP access platform.
I know that you've been rolling that out, looked like pretty good response at ISC East in November. Can you give us a sense for what the uptake is on this product and when you think that it could contribute meaningfully to your recurring service revenues?
Is that something that's kind of a second half of calendar '26, or what point do you think that that might be contributing to the run rate? At first,
Kevin Buchel
we knew the first half of our fiscal year was not going to be a major contributor from MVP. We are very encouraged.
We are getting recurring from it. It's not something we have to disclose.
It's more of a second half of calendar '26 story, maybe by Qs 1 and 2 of fiscal '27, we'll start to see more meaningful contributions. What we are pleased with is the reception.
You were at ISC East, you saw a lot of dealers all over our booth. We're still seeing a lot more of that interest.
It takes time, new concept for locking dealers. They're getting to love it, because now they're going to get recurring revenue like the alarm people get.
They're going to have a business that has equity, and that's what the alarm guys have. Locking guys are next.
The opportunity is tremendous. There's many more doors than there are buildings.
Just got to get there. We're working hard to get to that point.
We're going to show it again at ISC West in March, end of March. Then I think by the beginning of fiscal 2027, second half of calendar '26, we should start to see some meaningful contributions.
Jeremy Hamblin
Thank you. Last one for me.
Just wanted to check to see, obviously the magnitude of kind of the storm activity has had some impact certainly on construction work and completion of getting some businesses kind of open here in Q1. Wanted to see if it's had any impact at all from a supply chain perspective or otherwise for your business.
Kevin Buchel
No, other than our containers, which we get from the Dominican every week, takes about 6 days on the water, other than maybe taking 7 days instead of 6, something like that, other than that, we've seen no impact. We just keep rolling along, no problems.
Jeremy Hamblin
Great, thanks so much for the color, and good luck this year.
Kevin Buchel
Thanks, Jeremy.
Operator
Next question will be from Jim Ricchiuti at Needham & Company. Please go ahead, Jim.
Jim Ricchiuti
Hi, thank you. Just on the hardware growth that you saw, it looks like you saw growth in both areas of the business, and you talked about price.
Going forward, how much an additional benefit could we see from the pricing actions in Q3 versus Q2? In other words, has the bulk of the pricing benefit been realized, or is there still more to come in the current quarter versus the December quarter?
Kevin Buchel
Andy, can you take that one?
Andrew Vuono
Sure. Product pricing has been adjusted throughout the portfolio, so that was effective the beginning of Q2.
There's no additional price increases other than some one-offs expected through the end of the year. That should be fully baked in for the year, as far as our price increases go.
We did not see the full lift in Q1, I think we discussed, and we have maybe a few trailing things in Q2 on some locking back orders. Going into Qs 3 and 4, all the pricing has been fully adjusted and is baked in for the balance of the period.
All right,
Jim Ricchiuti
thanks, Andy. Just on the strength that you saw in the door locking device business, how would you characterize the larger projects business?
I know that can be lumpy at times, and it does create some year-over-year variability. I was just wondering, what are you seeing in that area of the business?
Kevin Buchel
Bunch of projects, school projects, other type projects. Nothing that's going to make a comp difficult for next year.
At 24.3 million, that's not a difficult comp for next year. We just keep working.
I wish we could talk to you about some of these projects, cuz we're not allowed to, especially with schools. They don't want to be known what's going on.
We continue to have projects as a key part of this. No difficult comps really coming up in the balance of this fiscal year either, which bodes well for our comparisons as we get to Q3 and 4.
Jim Ricchiuti
Thank you.
Kevin Buchel
Thanks, Jim.
Operator
Again, ladies and gentlemen, please press *1 at this time if you have any questions. Next, we will hear from Peter Costa at Mizuho.
Please go ahead, Peter.
Peter Costa
Hey, good morning, guys. Could you just provide an update around the ADI partnership?
How is penetration at the end dealer level going, and are you still getting incremental new introductions from ADI? Thanks.
Kevin Buchel
ADI relationship been great, probably a couple of years now, and we've talked about how they've made introductions to some of the largest dealers in the world. They continue to do that.
It's one of the benefits of having the relationship with them, because they have entree to certain dealers who only, for whatever reason, even though they're large, they like to go through distribution. ADI continues to help us every day with that.
ADI stats are very good. ADI buys a lot of fire radios.
We want to get ADI to the point where they're a locking contributor also. We're not seeing that part, and we want that.
Can you imagine how they do so well with us on the intrusion side, we can get them really cooking on the locking, that would be tremendous. We're working hard on that.
We're not just sitting back and saying everything's great with ADI, there's more work to be done with them as well.
Dick Soloway
What's interesting, this is Dick Soloway. What's interesting about the ADI relationship, as we get introduced to large dealers, both national and international dealers, but we make products for all of North America.
We have an engineering department that's been expanded to 80 engineers. We do everything internally: hardware development, software, all kinds of app work.
The special projects that we do for the large installation companies are very important because it works into their automation systems, and we give real hands-on service. We do all of our development in Amityville that is for these type of specialized accounts, and it ties us closer together.
We bring a lot of innovation, they bring a lot of ideas. It's a great collaboration with these introductions that makes for solid growth, and we're going to see a lot more of this in the future.
Peter Costa
Thanks. Then maybe just one more on pricing.
Is there any need for incremental actions in the second half just to offset any raw material pressures, and were you definitively price/cost positive in the quarter?
Kevin Buchel
I don't believe there's any need to do that, right, Andy?
Andrew Vuono
Yeah. No, we're monitoring our component costs continually.
If we have to make any adjustments in pricing, we will. We are not seeing any incremental inflation in our component costs, and our pricing increases were positive as pertains to the tariff increases and any incremental cost we had on components through the 6 months.
Peter Costa
Awesome. Thanks, guys, and congrats on the quarter.
Kevin Buchel
Thanks, Peter.
Dick Soloway
Thank you.
Operator
Again, ladies and gentlemen, one last reminder: should you have any questions, please press * followed by 1. Thank you.
Next question will be from Lance Vitanza at TD Cowen. Please go ahead, Lance.
Lance Vitanza
Hi, thanks. I wanted to start with a question regarding the schools and door locking remote access.
I understand that you can't name names, but could you give us a sense for what the sales funnel and the pipeline is looking like, and I guess specifically, is NAPCO in the running for any new projects that you expect will be awarded over the back half of the year? If you do get awards, how long of a lag before you start to generate revenue from those awards?
Kevin Buchel
There's projects all the time, and they're different. Some projects, the revenue stream could start right away.
Some are custom-type projects where our engineers have to develop certain things that these projects require, and some projects grow over a number of years. They come in all sizes and shapes, and there's no real way to put it in any specific way.
They're contributors, and we need them, and we're getting them, and our sales team is going out working with integrators to get more of them. Big area for us.
We don't really disclose what they are. If it's a big school win, I would disclose it if they let us, but they don't typically.
Just know that we're working hard on it. There's more of them.
They will continue, and they're probably spread over a number of years.
Lance Vitanza
Great. Then just on the equipment side, you had called out door locking sales in the press release and elsewhere, but it looks like radio sales had nice growth year-over-year in the quarter as well.
Could you talk about the outlook there in particular as it feeds into recurring service revenue growth that you're expecting over the back half of the fiscal year?
Kevin Buchel
We were encouraged by the growth rate of the recurring year-over-year. We were encouraged by the run rate of $4 million.
There's a lot of buildings out there that still have to convert away from copper. We talk about this.
We probably have about a million active radios. There's probably several more million buildings to go by 2029, which is kind of the date that the carriers have put as we're not supporting it anymore after that date.
There's going to be a lot of action between now and then. We have a lot of relationships with very large dealers now that we didn't have several years back.
We basically built the almost $100 million run rate that we have with a lot of small guys, guys you never heard of. Now, and we love those guys, believe me.
It's like pennies add up to dollars. These are important guys.
Now we're dealing with big guys, too. That could bode well over the next 4, 5 years as the conversion continues.
Then, of course, we put our StarLink radios in our products. For new work, we make fire panels, control panels with radios in it.
We expect this is the new norm. We expect this to go on forever.
We're very encouraged by what we saw this quarter. We think it'll be very good for the balance of fiscal '26 and beyond.
Lance Vitanza
Just one last one for me. Thank you for the color.
Just one last one for me: on the balance sheet, the cash continues to build up to $115 million of cash and marketable securities now. I'm just wondering, is there sort of a point at which you say, "Hey, maybe we don't want to be walking around with this much cash, and we decide either to pull the trigger on an acquisition or maybe there's a special dividend or some sort of other return of capital"?
I'm just wondering how you're thinking about capital allocation in the context of the increasing cash build. Thanks.
Dick Soloway
I would say all of the above, as you just mentioned, is in our thought process. When we do an acquisition, we want to make sure it fits our criteria of being accretive from day one.
It's a product that our dealers install all the time. That the company is buttoned up enough so that it doesn't cause disruption to our existing business, but it enhances our business.
If the company is manufacturing products which are in foreign lands, because of the Dominican operation, we can manufacture it in our factory, cuz we're completely vertically integrated there also from the components that come in to the finished product that goes out, and then we get it in a week. There are opportunities.
We don't want to do anything which could cause stress on our operation now. There are opportunities out there, we're looking at that very, very carefully.
All the other considerations of increasing our dividend and other things to pay back to shareholders is also on the table. It's a position that we're very carefully contemplating about on how to do this, because we expect recurring revenue to keep on growing very, very strongly.
Now we're piling on more recurring revenue with our locking product line, it should be a fantastic addition, because there are so many doors, and there's so much monitoring of those doors that institutions want to do on a real-time basis. It's a equity builder for the access and the locksmith trade, which they don't have now.
We're very innovative, and we're going to keep it up.
Lance Vitanza
Very good. Thank you.
Dick Soloway
Thanks, Lance.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, one more reminder to please press *1 if you do have any questions. Thank you.
At this time, it appears we have no other questions registered. I would like to turn the conference back over to Richard Soloway, CEO.
Dick Soloway
Thank you, everyone, for participating in today's conference call. As always, should you have any further questions, feel free to call Fran, Kevin, Andy, or myself for further information.
We thank you for your interest and support, and we look forward to speaking to you all again in a few months to discuss NAPCO's fiscal Q3 results. Bye-bye, have a wonderful day and a great week.
Operator
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today.
Once again, thank you for attending. At this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines.