nLIGHT, Inc.

and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please raise your hand. If you have dialed into today's call, please press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. I will now hand the conference over to John Marchetti, VP, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. John, please go ahead.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Enlight's third quarter 2025 earnings results. I'm John Marchetti, Enlight's VP of Corporate Development and the Head of Investor Relations. With me on the call today are Scott Keeney, Enlight's Chairman and CEO, and Joe Corso, Enlight's CFO. Today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements, including financial projections and plans for our business, some of which are beyond our control, including the risks and uncertainties described from time to time in our SEC filings. Our results may differ materially from those projected on today's call, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement except as required by law. During the call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. We have provided reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in our earnings release and in our earnings presentation, both of which can be found on the investor relations section of our website. I will now turn the call over to Enlight's chairman and CEO, Scott Keeney.

Thank you, John. Q3 represented another solid quarter of execution for Enlight, with total revenue at the high end of our guidance range and both gross margin and adjusted EBITDA beating our expectations. Third quarter revenue of $67 million grew 19% year over year, and we're once again driven by record aerospace and defense revenue of $46 million. with defense product sales growing more than 70% year over year. I am particularly pleased with the expansion of our product gross margin, which came in at a record 41% and increased from 29% in the same quarter a year ago. Our adjusted EBITDA was also above our expectations at more than $7 million in the quarter. The expansion in our gross margin and the subsequent growth in our adjusted EBITDA demonstrate the leverage that is inherent in our operating model. In aerospace and defense, we remain focused on two key markets, directed energy and laser sensing. And revenue from both markets outperformed our expectations in the quarter. In directed energy, we are uniquely positioned with our vertically integrated and industry leading high power laser technology developed over the past two decades and spanning the entire technology stack from chips to components to full laser systems and beam directors. all of which are designed and manufactured in the US, have generated revenue at nearly every level of vertical integration in the directed energy market. And we have established ourselves as one of the most comprehensive suppliers to the US government, other prime contractors, and foreign allies. During the third quarter, we continue to make solid progress on our Health C2 program. As a reminder, This is a $171 million program to develop a one megawatt high energy laser with a completion date expected in 2026. The shipment of critical components towards the Health C2 program was a significant driver of our record defense product revenue in the quarter and is expected to be a substantial contributor to growth through the remainder of the year and into 2026. We continue to transition our latest generation of amplifier products into advanced production by leveraging Enlite's experienced manufacturing teams and implementing quality and control processes. This transition, while not without risks, is progressing well and is critical as we continue to optimize our amplifier production line for higher volumes. Our work on the Army's DEM SureEd short range air defense program is nearing completion, and we look forward to delivering this 50 kilowatt high energy laser and beam director to our partner. Once delivery is completed, the system will begin field testing. Overall interest in U.S. direct and entry programs remains high, particularly for counter UAS applications, and we expect new contracts to be awarded in the coming quarters from different agencies as part of the President's Golden Dome Executive Order, which specifically highlights non-kinetic missile defense capabilities as an area for development. With a mandate to build these systems in the United States, we believe we are well positioned to benefit from these efforts over the coming years, and we are hopeful that the coming quarters will provide additional details on the scope and timing of these initiatives. We've also continued to have success in the international markets for directed energy. We began shipping to a new international customer last quarter, and we have a growing pipeline of new global opportunities as allied nations look to accelerate direct energy programs for cost-effective counter UAS and other threats. Our laser sensing markets are also performing well. Our laser sensing products include missile guidance, proximity detection, range finding, and countermeasures, and we have been incorporated into several significant and long-running defense programs, all of which are poised to grow in 2026. During the third quarter, we signed a new $50 million contract for an existing long-running missile program that incorporates one of our laser sensing products. Enlite has been a long-term supplier into this program, which our customer expects to remain a key priority associated with the nation's munitions restocking efforts. Our historical performance on these programs and our early success on multiple classified programs has increased both the number of prospects and the size of our sensing pipeline. In addition, further opportunities under the Golden Gnome initiatives have emerged and could also become significant contributors to our growth in 2026 and beyond. Commercial revenue was slightly ahead of our expectations at $21.2 million on a sequential increase in microfabrication sales and relatively flat results in our industrial markets. We have been pleased with the stability of our microfabrication markets year to date, and have been encouraged by the growth in our advanced manufacturing products, where we see alignment with our aerospace and defense customers, and our technology remains differentiated. Let me now turn the call over to Joe to discuss our third quarter financial results.

Thank you, Scott. Our third quarter results were characterized by another quarter of strong execution. Healthy revenue growth, a favorable mix of business, and continued execution from our manufacturing and operations teams drove meaningful upside to our gross margin. That upside combined with operating expense discipline resulted in significant improvement to profitability and cash flow, demonstrating the leverage that's inherent in our model. Total revenue in the third quarter was $66.7 million, an increase of 19% compared to $56.1 million in the third quarter of 2024 and up 8% compared to the second quarter of 2025. Aerospace and defense revenue was a record $45.6 million in the quarter, up 50% year-over-year and 12% sequentially. A&D growth was driven by record aerospace and defense products revenue, which grew 71% year over year and 32% compared to last quarter. Development revenue of $19.1 million grew 28% year over year as we continue to execute on multiple directed energy programs. The quarter-over-quarter decline of 8% was the result of several smaller programs having been completed in the prior quarter. We expect A&D revenue to continue to grow sequentially in the fourth quarter. Third quarter revenue from our commercial markets, which includes industrial and microfabrication, was modestly ahead of our expectations at $21.2 million, a decrease of 18% year over year, but up slightly compared to the last quarter. Revenue from our microfabrication markets was in line with our expectations at $11.6 million, while revenue of $9.6 million from our industrial markets was slightly better than expected, as an increase in demand for our additive manufacturing products offset continued declines in cutting and welding. While we are pleased with the overall stability that we saw in our commercial markets in the third quarter, we do not believe that the overall demand picture has significantly changed from what we described in prior quarters. Total gross margin in the third quarter was 31.1% compared to 22.4% in the third quarter of 2024 and 29.9% last quarter. Product gross margin in the second quarter was a record 41% compared to 28.8% in the third quarter of 2024 and 38.5% last quarter. Third quarter products gross margin was positively impacted by a favorable customer and product mix driven by record revenue from our A&D markets and an overall increase in volume. Development gross margin was 6.4% compared to 4.7% in the same quarter a year ago and 13.1% last quarter. The sequential decrease in development gross margin was largely the result of some smaller higher margin programs that finished in the prior quarter and did not contribute to the third quarter results. Going forward, we expect development gross margin to remain in the 80% range. GAAP operating expenses were $28.1 million in the third quarter compared to $24.4 million in the third quarter of 2024 and $22.7 million in the second quarter of 2025. Included in our third quarter gap operating expenses were higher stock-based compensation expenses associated with previously announced performance shares and a restructuring charge of approximately $1.7 million as we further reduced our activities in China and in cutting and welding. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $17.5 million in the quarter, down from $18.3 million in the third quarter of 2024, and up from $16.8 million last quarter. We expect non-GAAP to remain in the $18 million range in the fourth quarter. GAAP net loss for the third quarter was $6.9 million, or 14 cents per share compared to a net loss of $10.3 million or 21 cents per share in the same quarter a year ago and a loss of $3.6 million or 7 cents per share in the second quarter of 2025. On a non-GAAP basis, net income for the third quarter was $4.3 million or 8 cents per diluted share compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $3.7 million or $0.08 per share in the third quarter of 2024 and non-GAAP net income of $2.9 million or $0.06 per diluted share last quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was a positive $7.1 million compared to a loss of approximately $1 million in the same quarter last year and a positive $5.6 million in the second quarter of 2025. We ended the third quarter with total cash, cash equivalent restricted cash, and investments of $116 million. We generated $5.2 million in cash flow from operations despite continuing to invest in working capital ahead of growth, and we were free of cash flow positive in the quarter. Turning to guidance. Based on the information available today, we expect revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025 to be in the range of $72 million to $78 million. The midpoint of $75 million includes approximately $55 million of product revenue and $20 million of development revenue. We expect sequential growth in A&D in the fourth quarter, and we expect full-year 2025 A&D revenue growth to exceed our prior outlook for A&D growth of at least 40% year-over-year. Overall gross margin in the fourth quarter is expected to be in the range of 27% to 32%, with product gross margin in the range of 34% to 39%, and development gross margin of approximately 8%. As we've mentioned previously, as a vertically integrated manufacturing business, gross margin is largely dependent on production volumes and absorption of fixed manufacturing costs. Finally, we expect adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2025 to be in the range of $6 million to $11 million. With that, I will turn over the call to operator for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please raise your hand now. If you have dialed in to today's call, please press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Greg Palm with Craig Hallam. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions and congrats on the results. I was wondering first if you could just address I mean, based on the results, I mean, is there a chance that you're, you know, pulling ahead the completion date here? I know you talked about completion in 2026, but I'm curious if that timeline has changed at all just based on the volumes that you're able to complete.

Hey, Greg. Scott here. Thanks for the question. No, we're on track is the bottom line. We will announce progress results when we are able to do so, but we're on track for 2026.

And then as it relates to product, so you've gotten revenue up quite a bit sequentially, but gross margins down. I know you're coming off of a pretty tough compare, I guess, sequentially when you put up 40 plus percent product gross margins. But just can you give us a little bit more color what's going on? It doesn't sound like VIX is going to change all that much.

Yeah, no, Greg, thanks for the question. As we've talked about in the past, you can have some pretty – what seems like are pretty big swings from a gross margin perspective when you're still talking about revenues at the levels that we are at. Really not much in terms of Q3 to Q4. on the gross margin guide probably 150 or 200 bits of it is related to actually freight and duties right as we've had um you know the higher cost of materials that are gonna um you know we're now going to start to feel in q4 And then the rest is really just mixed within each of our end markets. The mix within defense, the mix within commercial can change in any given quarter. And then there's just a handful of other items that as we forecast in any given quarter that are there, but Generally speaking, you know, we're pleased that gross margin has expanded and it remains really a function of three things. Higher volume, mix where we are, and then just, you know, overall how we're leveraging the factory. So, you know, we're pretty happy with where we were in Q3 and not much to think about for us in Q4.

Sure. Okay. All right. Congrats again on the progress.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Ruben Roy with Stiefel. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. This is Ed saying on for Ruben Roy. First off, congrats. You know, you guys are past your break-even point, which I think was $55 to $60 million and turning profitable. Congrats on that. Thank you. you know, uh, healthy too. I think if I do the math is you said it earlier, $171 million contract with, uh, three year estimated timeline, you know, so annualized that's about $57 million ceiling per year, um, which, uh, is about 14 million dollars lower than what you're operating on on a trailing 12-month basis within aerospace and defense products. So two questions there and then I have follow-up. Seems like a fixed firm price contract with the moves you're making on amplifiers Can you give us some sense of how much incremental margin benefit you're seeing from that this quarter and expect to see maybe through the course of next year as you're ramping down on that contract? And the second part to this is as that contract ramps down, do you see you know, sensing tied to Golden Dome and the classified programs and maybe international sales more than offset that LC2 contract revenue loss, which I imagine will be probably, you know, starting second half of 26.

Okay, so there's a lot there. So help me if I don't. If I don't get it all right, I can follow up. I would say the Health C2 contract first, it's a good way to look at it, right? It's a $171 million contract, but it's not going to... is ramping down. So we are at the very end stages of delivering that product to the customer. So that's not really contributing meaningfully at all to revenue this quarter, nor will it contribute to revenue going forward. The advanced development segment of our business includes

all of the development revenue that we do, including health and other programs.

And while not all of the programs that we are working on that are classified as advanced development go into, will ultimately end up as programs of record, it is a good indicator that the activities that we have in directed energy and in laser sensing are putting us in a good position so that when those programs do transition or there are new programs where there are opportunities to become a program of records that we're well positioned to capture them, but you can't draw a line directly from our advanced development

Please go ahead.

Can you maybe unmute?

Mr. Cutie, please use the unmute.

Apologies. So the question I had is just relating to the previous question. If Health C2 does wind down in the second half of the year, you talked about a pretty full pipeline of When would you have to see new orders come in? to be able to offset some of the hole that we could see from having completed LC2. In other words, do you anticipate orders coming in in the next couple of quarters that would allow you to fill a potential hole related to LC2 in the back effort?

a handful of new programs will determine how much we grow in 2026.

You also, maybe just clarify, I just maybe misheard. On the laser sensing contract that you alluded to, is this a follow-on piece of business?

Yes, is the short answer. It's an ongoing program of record that we have been supporting for over a decade.

Okay. So, Scott, this basically just extends that. Okay. And then one final question. I know all of the questions have been around the A&D business, but it's interesting to see, I guess, what, a second quarter of sequential improvement in the microfabrication area?

You're characterizing it as stabilized.

During the quarter, it's a really long tail of customers, and the last couple of quarters, we've seen some stabilization in that business. It's difficult to point to one or even two things that are driving that business, but we're pleased to see stabilization there. Similarly, on the industrial side of our business, the quarters have been, frankly, a little bit better than we had expected, which is a welcome development for us. But what we'll say is our overall view of the commercial business as we go into 2026 is the same as we've been saying now for a couple of quarters. That business is expected to, again, decline in 2026. Okay.

And just with respect to microfabrication, seasonality, I see in Q1.

Yeah, Jim, you're absolutely right.

That is probably the most seasonal of our businesses. And in the last couple of quarters, we've seen that plus or minus $10 million of revenue. I think that a good range for us is probably $8 to $12 million. We don't have better visibility than that. And obviously, you know, China micro fat business has, you know, declined precipitously over the last couple of years. And we've seen continued sequential designs, declines in that business as well.

Thank you. Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Keith with North

Apologies.

With North Coast Research, apologies. Your line is open.

Great. Thank you. Appreciate it. And congratulations on a great quarter, guys. I think I heard you guys say the amplifier transition continues to progress. Is that correct and true?

Once that's complete, complete per se.

I think what is going to be complete is the amplifiers that are delivered into one particular program, which is Healthy2, and that will happen over the course of 2026. Generally speaking, we have a lot of programs into which we are delivering amplifiers domestically. And as we've said the last couple of quarters, there's also opportunities for us that we are working on with a host of allies internationally. we expect our amplifier business to continue to grow. And so that is one of the reasons that you are starting to see some of the margin expansion is due to the fact that we are selling higher volumes of amplifiers. And at the same time, you know, we're working hard to take what is a really difficult, you know, product that is pushing the

you know, the limitations of physics and make it more manufacturable. So I think over time.

Charges, you know, in China, cutting and welding, is that more to right size these businesses based on your expectations going forward? Or what's the reason behind that?

Yeah, that's exactly what it is, right? I mean, we were operating in Shanghai for a very long time, not an easy transition to move assembly of our lasers from Shanghai to Fabrinet and to the U.S., and so there's lots of ongoing support activities that are required to do that. And so you're seeing some of that in that restructuring charge. And then there's also a bit of expectation that the cutting and welding businesses are going to continue to decline. And so we want to make sure that we are right-sizing our investments for our expectations of those markets going forward.

Appreciate it. And then I'm not sure if this is a true statement or not, but is there an opportunity for you guys in the counter drone technology space?

Beyond counter drones.

Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you guys.

Appreciate it.

And reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please raise your hand now. If you have dialed into today's call, please press star 9 to raise your hand, and then star 6 to unmute. We have a follow-up question from Greg Palm with Craig Hallam. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks. All right. You said something that I thought was pretty important in terms of programs next year that could offset or that could make up the absence of Helsinki 2. So I just want to make sure we're clear. Are those programs that have been booked or is that still on the pipeline?

Those are programs that have been booked, Greg.

One of them was supposed to go to LRIP by the end of this year. Is that still the case? Has that begun and what's the status of the second one?

Good. So let's see, your first question is the work for 26 that is key that we're highlighting is in both directed energy and in sensing first.

Let's see, your second question was around...

Yeah, the two major sensing programs that you, the confidential ones that we've been talking about for the past, well, multiple quarters.

Yeah, the summary is they're both progressing. I want to be pretty sensitive to the specifics of the timeline, but they're both progressing and it supports the outlook that we're providing generally in the business.

Okay, but to be clear, going back to the business. Yeah, Greg, so let me parse it a little bit more finely for you.

So there are programs that we are on today that are not Health C2 that we expect to continue to grow. There are new programs that we won, right, that will plug the hole that we will see as Health C2 trails off. Those are both directed energy and laser sensing. And then there are other very high probability of win and go programs that we expect in 2026 that will drive growth in defense beyond what it is today. Hopefully that helps.

Yeah. All right. You got it. job on the quarter.

I'd like to maybe talk a little bit when I've spent some time in D.C. the last few weeks and it just seems like there's a lot of opportunities around directed energy. Could you maybe give us a thought on the pipeline both domestically and globally and then maybe talk about your capacity because it seems like demand is pretty vibrant right now.

Yeah, that's right, Brian. I've spent a lot of time in D.C. also, and I think there is a lot of new work that's going on.

It's a little frustrating, obviously, with the details around the shutdown and some of the details, but at the senior level, we are seeing very good engagement across all levels, whether it be from the Pentagon, the services and really across the breadth of direct energy from the lower power systems through the higher power systems. So we are seeing, you know, continued of the demonstrations, the success of Iron Beam out of the UK. We've seen success out of Dragonfire. And there have been other international efforts that both are opportunities for us as we engage internationally, but they also have played a role in reinforcing what's going on in the U.S. So high level, yeah, direct energy remains a very important area for us in addition to sensitive energy.

Okay, fantastic. Is there any thoughts on the urgency with some of the things that are happening in Europe? Do you see more rapid adoption there over the next few quarters, particularly with the government shutdown? Or it seems like the domestic market has accelerated a lot when I talk to a lot of the customers and look at some of their demand outputs over the next year or so.

Yeah, I think that's right. And I think in the coming weeks, you'll learn more about the acquisition to more rapidly implement some of these systems.

So I think we will see some of that. I think there is urgency around the world, actually, to get the technology implemented in new ways.

Fantastic. Thanks for taking my questions, guys. Thanks, Brian.

Your next question comes from the line of Troy Jensen. Mr. Jensen, please press star 621.

Sorry, guys, can you hear me?

Yeah, yeah, go ahead, Troy.

All right, yeah, sorry about that. Hey, so first of all, congrats to another great print for you guys. Just a quick question, I know you're getting lots of questions on the development revenues here, but can you just give us the number of customers that are in your development product line or revenue line?

We're probably working in total on a dozen, just plus or minus, going through your prepared remarks, Scott, it kind of felt like you were up-ticking on that.

I guess, you know, most of the strength in A&D over this past year or so has been on the directed energy side, but would that be a true statement? Do you feel like you're up-ticking, or are these contracts just kind of sustaining the strength?

On the sensing side, Troy, you mean?

Yeah, sensing specifically.

Yeah. Yes, I think you read that correctly. I think that...

Direct energy, there's a greater awareness of the set of applications in direct energy and what's going on. Sensing it gets a little more challenging to describe it. how lasers are, I would say, supplementing, augmenting radar and other systems. But that is a very important area and listed as one of the critical technologies by the Pentagon and one that we're very well positioned for.

Awesome. All right, guys. Well, that's all I got. Keep up the good work.

Thank you. Thanks, Trent. We have a follow-up question.

And of course it is, you know, my mistake there, but the jump up in revenue really looks like it's coming from your products within A&D. And I know you got an advanced debt to 25 mil next quarter. So, you know, I'm assuming that's either, I'm assuming that's mostly healthy, but can you maybe talk through the A&D product side and just help us understand what drove this jump this quarter. I think someone asked whether it was government shutdown or are you expecting this to sort of sequentially improve?

Yeah, we are expecting A&D products to continue to improve. When we sell, so we sell a variety of of products that are booked as in the products segment of our financial statements. Amplifiers that we sell into the Health C2 program, which is a cost plus development program, those amplifiers are reflected in our revenue as product revenue. There are also laser sensing products that are being sold that are A&E product revenue.

And so.

Mark Keddie for closing remarks.

Thanks everyone for joining us this afternoon. And as always, thank you for your continued interest in Enlight. We will be participating in a number of conferences over the next several months. So we look forward to speaking with everybody as we continue to go through the quarter. And thank you again for joining us today.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending.