Acacia Research Corporation

Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining Acacia Research's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. My name is Jenny and I will be your conference facilitator today. All lines are currently muted to prevent any background noise. I would also like to remind you today's conference call is being recorded and is also available through audio webcast on Acacia's website. Following the speaker's remarks, there will be time for questions. Questions can also be directed at any time to Acacia at ir.acaciares.com. That's ir.acaciares.com. I would now like to turn the conference over to Elizabeth Chaconas of Gagne Communications. Elizabeth, you may begin the conference.

Thank you, Operator. Leading today's call are MJ McNulty, Acacia's Chief Executive Officer, and Michael Zambito, Acacia's Chief Financial Officer. Before MJ and Mike begin their prepared remarks, please be reminded that certain information provided during this call may contain forward-looking statements relating to current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about future events that are forward-looking as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements generally relate to the company's plans, objectives, and expectations for future operations and are based on current estimates and projections, future results, and trends. Actual results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, please see the risk factors described in Acacia's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. Earlier this morning, Acacia issued a press release disclosing its first quarter 2026 financial results. The press release may be accessed on the company's website under the press releases section of the investor relations tab at acaciaresearch.com. The company also posted its Q1 2026 earnings presentation to its website, which can be found under the quarterly results section of the investor relations tab. On today's call, the team will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA for the company and each of its operating segments. Information regarding the comparable GAAP metrics, along with required definitions and reconciliations, can be found in the press release disclosing first quarter 2026 financial results, available under the press releases section of the investor relations tab at acaciaresearch.com. I will now turn the call over to Acacia's Chief Executive Officer, MJ McNulty.

Thank you, Lizzie, and thanks, everyone, for joining us this morning. Coming quickly off the back of our full year 2025 call, we're excited to share some updates with you as our business continues to progress. As we have been, we continue to work diligently on our execution strategies across our businesses. At Benchmark, we drilled our first meaningful well in the Cherokee Plague, which we brought online late in March. The drilling of that well and a constructive commodity price environment have opened additional track-to-return opportunities in the benchmark business. We're continuing to make progress at Deflecto and Printronics, and we'll share some updates there. Further, in our intellectual property business, we're seeing some interesting monetization opportunities, both in our Atlas portfolio of Wi-Fi 6 assets and our R2 portfolio. I believe this quarter is another example of Acacia demonstrating the resilience of our evolving business despite persistent volatility in the market. Our strategy continues to remain the same, acquiring and building businesses where our operational excellence can create stable, long-term cash flow generation and scalability. Importantly, we've done this in a way that allows us to capitalize upon a diverse set of capital allocation and operational opportunities to create value for our shareholders. Through the combined strengths of each of our businesses, we aim to create meaningful, enduring value. Our successful execution of this strategy, combined with our disciplined cost control, stable cash yields, and targeted operational initiatives, enable Acacia to achieve Q1 revenue of $54.2 million and operated segment adjusted EBITDA of $6.8 million. If we look at these numbers before the impact of our intellectual property operations, Operated segment adjusted EBITDA was stable sequentially at $10.3 million. I believe that our consistent execution across operating segments and the significant actions we've taken since our current team took over has created substantial intrinsic equity value in Acacia that is not yet reflected in our share price. We feel very strongly about our ability to continue to generate value for our shareholders as we move further into the year. We continue to be laser-focused on growing EBITDA and free cash flow at each of our operating businesses while continuing to strategically grow our pipeline of acquisition opportunities. Our strong balance sheet, $330 million in total cash, securities, and loans receivable as of March 31st, puts us in a strong position to pursue accretive, organic, and inorganic growth opportunities in each of our core verticals. I'd like to take a moment to give you more of an update on our operating segments. Starting with Benchmark, our energy operations performed ahead of our expectations for the first three months of the year. We achieved record quarterly revenue of 18.7 million and generated 7.7 million in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter. Over the last 12 months, the team at Benchmark has been working hard to assemble an attractive set of drilling units from the land package that we were blessed with from the original Revolution purchase. These actions consist of buying, selling, and swapping acreage to maximize our monetizable units in what we felt were the most attractive parts of our basin. These efforts started to shine through in December when we spun our first well, which we are very excited about. The executive and land team at Benchmark continue to work hard to build our inventory of high-return projects, of which we now have many in the queue. Our production and revenue were up, our extraction costs were down on a per-barrel equivalent basis, and our G&A was in line. Notably, we've continued to generate attractive cash flow at this asset, which enabled Benchmark to self-fund the drilling of our first Cherokee well with the cash flow the business has generated. As we indicated on our last call, this new well started producing in late March. Initial results from this well are strong. Development costs of $11.5 million came in line with budget, and we're anticipating a greater than 2.5 times MOIC or 60% plus IRR on the project. Investors should see the full impact of this project beginning in Q2 and Q3, and we're proud to say that we set a company record for production in April, selling over 63,000 barrels of oil in the month. We have many more of these high-return projects within our portfolio and are eager to monetize these in the medium term. We had strong production volumes in the quarter despite some severe winter weather. As I'm sure everyone has seen, we also had and continue to have a strong commodity price environment, specifically in oil. While crude prices didn't really begin their ascent until the early part of March, the elevated price environment has continued into the second quarter, which of course is a benefit to us. I will remind everyone that we are 75% to 80% hedged for existing production, so it's not a one-for-one relationship. That said, we've been hedging volumes from our new Cherokee well into a more constructive environment, and the rise in prices increases the value of our asset overall. Based on the success we're seeing with our first drilled well, as well as with the current pricing environment, additional drilling both in our Cherokee acreage as well as our Cleveland acreage has become more attractive, and we're in advanced stages of evaluating additional projects. As we mentioned in the past, we approach drilling in a very deliberate way. The Cherokee well we just drilled was drilled with cash produced inside the company. We did not borrow money to drill the well. We're also actively evaluating capital and operating partnerships to drill additional wells that we believe could be attractive for our shareholders. Before I move on, there's one thing I'd like to note around our hedging strategy. Mike will get into this in more detail when he walks through the numbers for the quarter, but given the significant rise in oil prices in the quarter and our large hedge position, which covers more than two years of future production, we recorded an unrealized loss from the mark-to-market impact of the hedge book. which adversely impacted gap net income, EPS, and book value. Importantly, this is a non-cash line item. Because of the multi-year duration of the hedge book, the mark-to-market swings can have a disproportionate impact on a single quarter's results, particularly given the magnitude of changes in commodity prices in the last quarter. To put this into context, our oil hedges are struck at approximately $70 a barrel, and the price of WTI on March 31st was $101 per barrel. up 77 percent from December 31st. If oil prices were to stay flat at 101 per barrel through June 30th, the unrealized gain or loss on the hedge book would be zero. The ultimate goal of our hedge book is to reduce the volatility of cash flows from the benchmark investment. The knock-on effect of this is in periods of price volatility, we may experience unrealized hedge gains or losses. Today, as we look forward, we're earning more on our unhedged volumes earning the hedge rate on our hedge volumes, and we're putting on additional hedges at elevated prices as we bring on new production. Turning now to our manufacturing segment. Deflecto delivered another solid quarter, increasing revenue 4.6% and adjusted EBITDA 1.3% sequentially. Since acquiring the business in the fourth quarter of 2024, we've made meaningful progress enhancing operational performance, reflecting the impact of several targeted initiatives, including price increases, the reshoring and consolidation of select manufacturing operations, and a focus on reducing overhead and G&A expenses. These initiatives have greatly enhanced the future earnings potential of the business. While tariff pressures and macroeconomic headwinds persist, Deflector has been navigating this environment effectively under the world-class leadership of our operating partner, Clay Kiefaber. We're blessed to have talent like Clay on our team, which speaks to the capacity of this team's ability to scale a much larger business. Specifically, during the quarter, Deflecto successfully completed the consolidation of our Portland, Oregon facility into our Dover, Ohio facility. While we did incur restructuring costs and capex associated with this move, we believe the payback should be quick as we anticipate meaningful annualized cost savings beginning in the second half of the year. While early days, we believe that the improved absorption and efficiency from these initiatives could result in even greater earnings uplift, particularly when volumes return to more normalized levels. Further, we completed the sale of a small, unoccupied portion of our UK facility, the proceeds of which were used to pay down additional principal on our Deflecto term loan, which has a current balance today of $31.3 million. Deflecto's transportation segment is primarily focused on selling essential, non-discretionary products such as mud flaps and emergency warning triangles that are mandated by key regulatory authorities. That said, since our initial acquisition, we've seen macroeconomic headwinds in the Class 8 market that have reduced overall demand for the product set. During the quarter, we started to see an inflection in Class 8 water volumes, which has translated into a modest increase in demand for our products, with revenue for the vertical increasing 3.6% sequentially and 3.8% year-over-year. This gives us confidence that our product set has retained and perhaps gained share during the market downturn, and we're hopeful that the positive macroeconomic trends driving these results continue. Deflecto's consumer product segment focuses on essential, everyday, workplace and household items, such as sign holders, wall pockets, storage and organization products, literature holders and desk accessories that are supported by reoccurring demand. Within this segment, ongoing tariff and global trade uncertainty have led some customers to delay purchasing decisions, creating some manageable near-term headwinds combined with significant channel disruption as certain partners have exited the space. We appear to be reaching a steady state within this segment as revenue increased sequentially by 2.2% during the quarter and was flat year over year. We are enthusiastic about the months to come and are excited about the new channel opportunities that are emerging within e-commerce. Lastly, in Deflecto's building products business, which includes products such as air ducts, dryer vents, and vent deflectors, performance has been in line with the housing market and is going through a temporary pullback. While the segment was up 8.3% sequentially, we're still down 13.1% year over year. While still too early to call a recovery, we have full confidence in the essential and generally non-discretionary nature of Deflecto's building products portfolio. and retain our overall positive view on the long-term positive demand trends for housing in both U.S. and Canada. Now turning to our industrial segment. Printronics continues to deliver consistent results and serves as a reliable source of cash flow for Acacia, having generated approximately $4.8 million of cash flow in the past 12 months, representing a 15% cash flow yield relative to the price we paid to acquire the business. Our ongoing efforts to evolve Printronics into a dual hardware and consumables model, supported by a more streamlined operating structure, have expanded the product mix while driving meaningful cost efficiencies across the business. These initiatives are driving tangible results and reflect our broader approach to value creation, where we implement operational improvements across our portfolio to strengthen performance and position each of our businesses for long-term success, rather than optimizing them for a near-term exit. The business had a strong quarter in each of its products and geographies. As a reminder, the legacy impact printing business within Printronics is in structural decline, but we're excited about the pivot to a more consumables-heavy model and new product growth. Lastly, to our intellectual property segment, we recorded total revenue and adjusted EBITDA of $700,000 and a negative $3.5 million, respectively, for the quarter. As I've noted previously, this segment is inherently episodic in terms of its revenue generation, given the unpredictable timing of settlements. This unpredictability in receipt of settlements is more noticeable in quarters where we do not have revenue to offset the ongoing operational cost of our team, who have done a great job extracting value from the IP portfolio. While the confidential nature of our settlements limits the level of detail I can provide on a potential future activity for the IP business, continue to see meaningful value in our IP monetization platform, which has delivered attractive returns over the past 12 months. Of note, our R2 Solutions portfolio, which was originally owned by Yahoo and covers a broad array of innovative computing technologies in the database, internet search, AI, and big data analytics industries, has been particularly active in recent months. R2 Solutions is currently enforcing the portfolio in the big data analytics space and anticipates further developments in the coming months. Before passing it over to Mike to discuss our results in more detail, I'd like to reiterate that while I'm pleased with the improvement in execution of our operating segments, we're equally focused on acquiring and building businesses with stable long-term cash flow generation and scalability that can create compounding value over the long term. As you know, we've put together a highly talented team that we believe, together with the strength of Acacia's value-oriented business model, positions us to deliver across market cycles. And while it may seem quiet on the M&A side of things, please trust that we continue to leverage our institutional approach to due diligence and valuation discipline to ensure that we're spending our time on acquisition opportunities that will deliver the most value to our platform and shareholders. I'm genuinely excited about the acquisition opportunities set emerging across our target universe over the next few fiscal quarters. As financing conditions gradually improve, and sellers become more realistic around valuation. For well-capitalized buyers such as Acacia, I believe this will open a window to pursue opportunities where operational improvement and focused integration can drive meaningful value. To that end, our leadership team and board remain focused on evaluating both internal and external strategic capital allocation opportunities, where we believe our experience and approach can help augment underappreciated businesses and creating lasting value for our shareholders, and sustaining Acacia's long-term growth trajectory. With that, I'd like to turn things over to Mike to walk through the quarter.

Thank you, MJ. As MJ outlined, we delivered solid results for the first quarter, despite persistent and, in some cases, escalating macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds. A few key highlights before moving to the details. Total operated segment revenue, excluding IP, was $53.5 million. a sequential increase of 3.7 million or 7% over Q4 2025. Benchmark delivered record revenue in Q1 and successfully completed its first Cherokee well at the end of the quarter, well in line with budgeted expenditures and with an on-time completion. You should see this well start to impact results in Q2 and Q3. As MJ mentioned above at the FLECTO, we completed the move and consolidation of our Portland manufacturing facility into our Dover facility effective at the end of April. We expect to see the benefits of this consolidation beginning the end of Q2 and into the second half of the year. Additionally, our streamlining of the SG&A functions is well underway, with benefits expected in the second half of the year. Lastly, we paid down $1.6 million of the Plecto debt in Q1, a net neutral cash event, as we utilized proceeds from an unused portion of our UK building to make the payments. Our gap diluted EPS this quarter was impacted by the unprecedented run in oil prices, which resulted in a $9.7 million unrealized loss from the mark-to-market valuation of our energy hedge at Benchmark. The net impact attributable to Acacia's EPS was $0.10 per share. On a fully adjusted basis, excluding the unrealized hedge loss and other items, Acacia's adjusted diluted EPS loss was $0.07 per share. As discussed more fully below, Acacia's cash, equity securities, and loans receivable decreased by $9.7 million during the quarter. Cash generated from operations at our operated segments, excluding IP, was strategically reinvested in high ROI opportunities, notably the Cherokee Well discussed above, a small investment in our IP business, and the transformation at Deflecta. We are excited about the near-term returns from these investments. Our book value this quarter was primarily impacted by three drivers. The $9.7 million unrealized loss from the mark-to-market valuation of our energy hedger benchmark, a $1.6 million unrealized loss on our equity portfolio, and a quarter with no major IP settlements. As discussed by MJ, the IP business's settlement revenue is episodic and unpredictable. In the first quarter, we did not have revenue to offset the ongoing operational costs Onto the numbers. Acacia recorded total revenue of $54.2 million during the first quarter. Our energy operations generated $18.7 million in revenue for the quarter, the strongest revenue quarter for Benchmark under our ownership, compared to $18.3 million in the same quarter of last year. As mentioned, we had approximately 75% of our operating production at Benchmark. Realized hedge loss is not included in revenue of $1 million in Q126 versus a realized loss of $43,000 in Q125. Manufacturing operations generate $27.7 million in revenue for the quarter compared to $28.5 million in the first quarter of 2025, primarily driven by lower revenue in our air distribution business, where we're seeing some weakness in the Canadian housing market. Our industrial operations generate $7.2 million in revenue during the quarter, a slight decrease compared to $7.7 million in the same quarter of last year. Our intellectual property operations generated $0.7 million in licensing and other revenue during the quarter compared to $70 million in the same quarter last year. The year-over-year decrease in the IP revenue is primarily due to the Atlas portfolio settlement that took place in the first quarter of 2025. with no comparable settlement in 2026. Total consolidated G&A expense was $17.3 million during the first quarter, compared to $17.3 million in the same quarter of last year. Deflecto reported G&A expense for the first quarter of 2026 was $4 million, compared to $5.7 million in the prior quarter. Of the $4 million in deflecto G&A expense, Approximately $800,000 was related to depreciation of fixed assets and amortization of intangible assets, and $800,000 was related to non-recurring severance, restructuring, and transaction-related costs. The decline year-over-year is due to realization of our efforts to streamline SG&A. Our energy operations reported G&A expense was $1.7 million for the first quarter of 2026 compared to $1.6 million for the prior year quarter in 2025. The intellectual property business reported G&A expense decreased by $0.3 million for the first quarter, going from $3.5 million to $3.2 million. Printronics reported G&A expense decreased by $0.1 million in the first quarter, from $1.7 million to $1.6 million. Reported G&A at the parent level for the first quarter increased by $1.9 million year-over-year, from $4.8 million to $6.7 million. The increase was due to transaction-related costs in Q1 of 2026 that were not incurred in 2025, as well as certain timing-related adjustments impacting the comparability of Q1 in 2025. Parent G&I on an adjusted basis, or our non-GAAP parent costs, as shown on our adjusted EBITDA reconciliations, increased to $5.2 million in the quarter ended March 31, 2026, versus $4.0 million in the prior year. The company recorded a first quarter gap operating loss of $8.4 million compared to gap operating income of $38.3 million in the same quarter last year. This decline was primarily due to the lapping of the Atlas portfolio settlement. Total company adjusted EBITDA for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, was $1.6 million. Given certain one-time and non-cash charges, we believe adjusted EBITDA provides a clearer picture of our underlying performance. Energy operations contributed $5.3 million in GAAP operating income during the quarter, which included $3.4 million in non-cash, depreciation, depletion, and amortization expense, and does not reflect the realized hedge loss of $1 million we realized during the quarter, which was reported below operating profit. Adjusted EBITDA for our energy operations was $7.7 million, and free cash flow for our energy operations was negative $1.9 million in the quarter. This free cash flow included approximately $8.5 million of CapEx, primarily related to the development and completion of Benchmark's first well in the Cherokee play. Excluding this growth capital, free cash flow at Benchmark would have been over $6 million. Manufacturing operations had a $0.5 million gap operating loss during the quarter, included $800,000 in non-cash depreciation and amortization expense and $800,000 in non-recurring transaction-related expenses, restructuring costs, and severance costs as part of our operational initiatives at Deflecto. As MJ mentioned above, while Deflecto continues to experience cyclical headwinds, our restructuring efforts are showing positive initial results. We are utilizing the cyclical lows in the safety business to transform our safety manufacturing operations having successfully closed the Portland facility effective April 30th and consolidated the operations into our existing footprint in Dover. As part of this transformation, we are also implementing new processes and creating a leaner, more efficient environment. While these efforts will have a modest negative impact on free cash flow in the first and second quarters, the execution of these activities will drive cost savings in the second half of 2026 and position deflect a well when volumes return to incrementally add to EBITDA and cash flow. Adjusted EBITDA for our manufacturing operations was $1.2 million, and free cash flow was negative $0.2 million in the quarter, primarily due to the consolidation efforts just discussed. Industrial operations contributed $0.9 million in GAAP operating income during the quarter, which included $500,000 in non-cash depreciation and amortization expense. Adjusted EBITDA for industrial operations was $1.4 million, and free cash flow was $3.1 million in the quarter, primarily due to work capital improvements. GATMIS MEDLaws, attributable to Acacia Research Corporation in the fourth quarter, was $15.7 million, or negative 16 cents per share, compared to net income of $24.3 million, or 25 cents per share in the prior year period. Included in gap net loss for the first quarter was a $10.7 million loss on our derivative hedges from our energy operations. Of this amount, $1 million was realized and $9.7 million was unrealized, which significantly impacted our first quarter gap net loss. As noted previously, we hedge approximately 75% of our operating production at Benchmark. The unrealized loss associated with our hedging program reflects mark-to-market accounting on derivative positions that extend over a multi-year horizon and does not correspond to realized economic outcomes within the quarter. The charge is driven by changes in future price expectations and does not impact current period cash flows. Additionally, including gap net loss for the first quarter was $1.6 million, in unrealized losses relating to changes in the fair value of equity securities and realized loss of $600,000 in sale of equity securities. Adjusted net loss attributable to Acacia in the first quarter of 2026 was negative $6.6 million, or negative 7 cents per share. Among other items, our adjusted net loss attributable to Acacia excludes Acacia's portion of the unrealized loss on energy hedges discussed above. Further detail on these adjustments can be found in our press release. Moving on to our balance sheet, cash, cash equivalents, and equity securities measured at fair value and loans receivable totaled $329.9 million at March 31, 2026, compared to $339.6 million at December 31, 2025. Our core operated segments, benchmark deflectible infratronics, generated $10.2 million in operating cash flows, which was reinvested in high ROI activities. Specifically, Benchmark used cash flows from operations and balance sheet cash to drill its first well during the quarter, while Deflecto invested its cash flow to complete the consolidation of its Portland facility into its Tover location. Remaining cash flow generation at Printronics plus interest income was offset by the acquisition of additional interest in the Wi-Fi 7 portfolio and cash flows to support parent-level and IP operating costs. We continually assess capital allocation priorities across our existing businesses while actively evaluating new investment opportunities to drive long-term value creation for shareholders. Through disciplined decision-making and strategic investment, we remain focused on strengthening our portfolio and positioning the company for sustainable growth and shareholder returns. The parents, The parent company's total indebtedness was zero at March 31st, 2026. On a consolidated basis, Acacia's total gross indebtedness as of March 31st, 2026 was $90.5 million, consisting of $59.5 million and $31 million in non-recourse debt at benchmark and deflecto, respectively. Since closing the acquisition of the Revolution assets in April 2024, Benchmark has paid down approximately $23 million in total debt, underscoring the strong free cash flow generation of the business. Additionally, since acquiring Deflecto in October 2024, the company has paid down approximately $17.3 million in total Deflecto debt. These capital allocation decisions have significantly reduced our consolidated debt and interest expense, providing further operational flexibility. For more information on Acacia's first quarter results, please see our press release issued this morning and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q, which we will file with the SEC later this week. I'll now turn the call back over to MJ.

Thanks, Mike. As you've heard today, Acacia continues to execute well across her operating segments, delivering on her strategy despite the challenges presented by the current market environment. I'm really proud of our team's hard work and our productive start to 2026. I firmly believe that one of Acacia's greatest strengths is our talented team, and I'm thrilled to work with this group as we continue to grow the business together. We have an excellent portfolio of assets here at Acacia, where diverse exposure across multiple industries and the strength of each of our businesses in the portfolio positions us to generate significant value for our shareholders moving forward. Our approach to managing the business has been and will continue to be measured. taking care not to let volatility across the market impact our objectives for organic and inorganic growth within each of our core verticals. I'm confident that our value-oriented and diligent management team will enable us to continue driving positive momentum throughout the year and beyond. With that, I'll turn it back over to Jenny to open up for questions.

Thank you very much, MJ. At this time, we will be conducting our question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question... please press star 1 on your phone keypad now. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. And for anyone using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before you press the keys. Please wait a moment whilst we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question is coming from Anthony Stoss of Craig Hallam. Anthony, your line is live.

Thank you. Good morning, everybody. MJ, maybe can you lay out how many new wells at Benchmark are contemplated and, I guess, the expected timing and when you think you can get those wells up? And then I have a follow-up after that.

Yeah. Hey, Tony, great to talk. So we are evaluating several different locations. As I said, the team really spent, you know, the better part of the last six to nine months taking what we had and making it better. We bought, we swapped, we sold different acreages to put together units so that those units are then ready to be drillable. And we have several of those units that are at or close to I don't want to comment on the number of wells we're going to drill, but I am pretty excited about the units that we have and the opportunities set with some partnerships that we have as a potential operator of units to go ahead on some more drilling.

Okay. Shifting gears over to the deflective side, now that you've closed the Portland facility, how much do you think you'll save? Or just remind us, maybe over the next 12 months, and when will all the other actions be complete on Deflecto? It seems to be running about half of what you expected in terms of adjusted EBITDAs.

Yeah, I mean, so when we look at the Portland facility, our team's initial estimates are kind of $2 million in annualized cost savings from the consolidation. And, you know, with the consolidation, we've actually taken out excess capacity as well. And so as we see an uptick In volumes associated with Class A, we move more volume through those plants. We should see an enhanced margin as well. There's continued cost rationalization at the G&A level. So we continue to work through that. And as you probably remember, Tony, this is a complex business in the sense that it's both, you know, small relative to a lot of other businesses internationally. and has three different sets of businesses inside it. And so I wouldn't say that it's going slower. I would characterize it as we're making sure that we understand all the interoperability of those businesses, the facilities, and the people so that we do it the right way for a long-term positive outcome, long-term durable positive outcome.

Got it. Thanks for the color. Best of luck.

Yeah, thanks, Tony.

Thank you very much. Just a reminder there, you can still join the queue if you press star 1 on your phone keypad. Our next question is coming from Brett Reese of Jenny Montgomery Scott. Brett, your line is live.

Hi, I'm MJ. Hi, Mike. A couple from me. Hey, Brett. Morning. Hi. The MOIC of two and a half times on Cherokee. Can you share with us the timing and cadence, you know, of that two and a half return, two and a half times return on capital?

Yeah, so the way we, I'll tell you how we think about it broadly. These wells, when they come on, come on at high volumes, and over time, the volumes coming out of those wells decline, as you'd expect to see in any oil and gas well. And so, cash flows from the well come out pretty quickly. And the two and a half times is an undiscounted number. So as you think about payback on the wells, we're kind of inside two-year payback on the wells. So we think that's a pretty attractive return opportunity.

Yeah, I should say so. MJ, I listened the other day to the Devon Energy conference call. And they're a very good operator of oil properties. And they focused a lot on their ability to use AI to crunch data and improve returns on their properties. Are we doing some of that on our end? And if so, the high double-digit returns? You know, could they be greater, you know, in the future because of greater efficiencies?

So I love ChatGPT, and it's really helpful in my daily life. We at Benchmark are evaluating different AI tools that can help us. Somebody like a Devin is a significantly larger company with fields, you know, that are interconnected, not interconnected, is drilling wells all the time. I don't know exactly what they mean by using AI, but I would say that we're evaluating in the early stages different tools that we can use, whether it's partnering with drilling partners as we drill wells that incorporate AI into their process of drilling the well, folks that frack the well incorporating AI. We're using best-of-breed service providers, so we look for folks that are using the best technology, whether it's AI or not, to help enhance the performance and the cost profile and the time to depth. And so we're kind of evaluating all opportunities. We don't have a broad AI-related initiative that we are in a position to announce to the market that we're drilling wells with AI, but we are using AI in different places in our business to enhance the productivity.

Okay. And last one from me. share buybacks. Did you buy back any stock this quarter? How much of a window do you have to buy back stock and what's the existing authorization in place?

I'll answer this question as I usually answer this question. We evaluate the buyback in the context of Other capital allocation opportunities, as you heard Mike say, we invest in capital in wells, we invest in capital in rationalization at Deflecto that we think we have a very attractive payback on, and we invested a little bit of capital in the IP business. And so that's where we invest in capital at work.

Okay. Thanks a lot for taking my questions. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks, Brett.

Thank you very much. Just a reminder there, if you'd like to ask a question, you can join the queue now by pressing star one. Okay, we don't appear to have any further questions in the queue, so I will now turn the call back over to MJ for any closing comments.

Thanks, Jenny. Thanks for everyone joining us today. We look forward to talking to you after Q2.

thank you very much this does conclude today's conference call you may disconnect your phone lines at this time and have a wonderful day we thank you for your participation