Paysign, Inc.

Good afternoon. My name is Kevin. I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to Pace Lighting's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. After the speaker's remarks, there'll be a question and answer session. You can be placed into question queue at any time by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star 0. The comments on today's call regarding PaySign's financial results will be at a GAAP basis unless otherwise noted. PaySign's earnings release was disseminated to the SEC earlier today and can be found in the investor relations section of our website, PaySign.com, which includes reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to GAAP reported amounts. Additionally, as set forth in more detail in our earnings release, I'd like to remind everyone that today's call will include forward-looking statements regarding PaySign's future performance. Actual performance could differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Information about the factors that could affect future performance is summarized at the end of PaySign's earnings release and in our section, SEC, Recent SEC Filings. Lastly, a replay of this call will be available on August 12th until August 12th, 2026. Please see PaySign's first quarter 2026 earnings call announcement for details on how to access the replay. It's now my pleasure to turn the clock over Mr. Mark Newcomer, President and CEO.

Please go ahead. Thank you, Kevin. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for PaySign's first quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm Mark Newcomer, President and Chief Executive Officer. Joining me today is Jeff Baker, our Chief Financial Officer. Also on the call are Matt Turner, our President of Patient Affordability and and Matt Lanford, our Chief Payments Officer, both of whom will be available for Q&A following our prepared remarks. Earlier today, we announced our first quarter financial results, which marked the strongest start to a year in PaySign's history. Revenue grew 50.8% to $28 million, exceeding the high end of guidance we provided in March. Net income increased 110% to $5.4 million, and adjusted EBITDA increased 113% to $10.6 million. Most notably, operating margins increased 1,040 basis points, or 10.4% year-over-year, demonstrating the operating leverage inherent in our business as we scale across healthcare and financial ecosystems. We continue to see strong growth across the patient affordability business in the first quarter. Revenue grew 82% year-over-year to 15.7 million, and claim volume was approximately 49% higher than Q1 2025, driven by a combination of new programs launched over the past year, organic growth within the existing programs, and the continued ramp of our largest pharmaceutical clients. As expected, this rate reflects a larger and more established revenue base than a year ago. In Q1 alone, patient affordability generated nearly as much revenue as it did in the first half of 2025. During the quarter, our patient affordability business delivered more than $540 million in financial assistance to patients, a meaningful step up from approximately $320 million in the first quarter of last year. That growth reflects both the increased number of patients we are serving and the expanding role our business plays in supporting access to high-cost branded therapies. Our dynamic business rules technology continues to deliver substantial economic value to our pharmaceutical clients and the patients that rely upon their therapy. Demonstrating both the scale our platform now operates at and the differentiated value our technology provides in helping manufacturers navigate copay maximizer and accumulator programs. We launched four new programs in the first quarter, bringing total active programs to 135. As is typical for the industry, Q1 is the most operationally constrained period of the year as manufacturers, payers, and pharmacy partners work through plan year transitions, formulary changes, and deductible resets. Against that backdrop, our pipeline remains robust, and we are on track to exceed the 55 net program additions we launched in 2025. Strength of that pipeline reflects the trust pharmaceutical manufacturers continue to place in Paysign as a partner in helping patients access and afford the therapies they need. Taken together, the increase we are seeing in program count, claim volume, and benefit dollars deployed reinforce both the scalability of our platform and the durability of demand for our solutions. Last month, we attended the Assembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit ASX26 in Las Vegas. Sembia is the most important annual gathering in the specialty pharmaceutical industry and consistently one of the most productive pipeline generating events on our calendar. It is where the decision makers across pharmaceutical manufacturers, specialty pharmacies, hub providers, and payer partners come together in one place. And the conversations we had during those three days helped shape our commercial roadmap for the balance of the year. ASX 26 was no exception. We conducted more than 50 meetings over three days and closed new business while on site. The breadth and depth of these conversations, combined with the deals we secured in real time, reinforce our confidence in both the demand environment and the strength of our pipeline heading into the remainder of 2026. Turning to our plasma donor compensation business, in the first quarter, plasma contributed $11.7 million in revenue. a 25% increase over $9.4 million in Q1 2025. Our plasma business also remains a strong source of cash generation, facilitating investments in high-opportunity areas. Looking ahead, we expect continued revenue growth as existing centers fill excess capacity, much of which has been unlocked by recent advances in plasmapheresis hardware, bringing significant efficiencies to the plasmapheresis process. In response to that capacity gain several of our larger collectors have consolidated operations closing some lower performing centers. Historically, these closures have had minimal impact on our results as donors typically transition to nearby centers and we expect that same pattern to play out following our clients closure of 19 centers in early May. We exited the quarter with 573 centers, an increase of 89 centers over the previous year, but 22 less than the end of 2025, as several low-performing centers were either sold to collectors that do not utilize our services or closed. Again, we do not believe these closings will negatively affect our growth outlook, and we continue to pursue the remaining plasma collection companies that we do not currently service. In late April, we sponsored the International Plasma Protein Congress in Milan, Italy, where we engaged with plasma collectors, device manufacturers, and industry participants from the US, Europe, and Asia. The conference generated meaningful progress for our software-as-a-service suite of solutions, including the discussions with plasma collection companies across all three regions and with plasmapheresis device manufacturers regarding direct integration to our platform. Direct integration of our software with plasmapheresis device eliminates manual steps that can introduce human error in the collection process. It also streamlines implementation and reduces friction for collection centers when transitioning to our platform, creating a clear operational benefit. Beyond the U.S., we continue to view Europe and Asia as significant long-term opportunities for our SaaS solutions across the blood and plasma collection industries. In summary, the first quarter marked an outstanding start to 2026 and a meaningful inflection point for PaySign. We delivered record results across the business, and more importantly, validated the strategic direction we have set. Purpose-built platforms grounded in deep industry expertise, scaling with discipline as we grow. With strong momentum and patient affordability, a robust pipeline, and expanding opportunities both within and beyond healthcare, we are well positioned to drive sustained growth and create long-term value for shareholders, customers, and the individuals we ultimately serve. With that, I'll turn it over to Jeff for additional details on our first quarter financial results.

Thank you, Mark. Good afternoon, everyone. As Mark highlighted, our first quarter results reflect the continued momentum in our business, the growing financial impact of our patient affordability platform, and the inflection point we have reached as it relates to operating leverage. For the first quarter, total revenues increased 50.8% year-over-year to $28 million. Pharma industry revenue increased 81.9% year-over-year to $15.7 million, driven by 45 net pharma patient affordability programs launched during the past 12 months, and a corresponding increase in monthly management fees, setup fees, claim processing fees, and other billable services such as dynamic business rules and customer service contact center support. Process claims increased by approximately 49% compared to the first quarter of 2025. For the first time, pharma surpassed plasma to become our largest revenue contributor in the quarter, a milestone that reflects the strategic direction we have been executing against and the growing importance patient affordability plays in our business. Plasma revenue increased 24.9% year-over-year to $11.7 million. The average monthly revenue per center increased to $6,671 versus $6,517, and the average number of loads per center increased on a year-over-year basis for the first time since the industry experienced an inventory correction that began in 2024. As Mark noted, we exited the quarter with 573 centers below our guidance of 589. As one customer notified us, they had sold all their centers to a competing provider. These centers contributed approximately $650,000 in 2025 revenue and averaged less than $3,500 per month in revenue, which is below the corporate average of $6,671. Gross profit margin expanded to 65% from 62.9% in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting a greater mix of pharma revenue, which carries higher gross margins than our plasma business. Cost of revenues increased 42.2%, driven mainly by increased call center support expense associated with the growth in both our plasma and pharma businesses, and higher processing and commission costs, all of which grew well below our revenue growth of 50.8%, demonstrating the operating leverage inherent in our business. Total operating expenses were $11.6 million, an increase of 25.5% from $9.2 million in the first quarter of 2025, again, well below our revenue growth rate. Selling general and administrative expenses increased 20.5% to $8.9 million, which includes stock-based compensation of $1.3 million. Depreciation and amortization increased $835,000 due primarily to the amortization of intangible assets from our gamma acquisition and capitalization of new software development costs. A highlight of the quarter is overall operating leverage amidst strong revenue growth. Operating margin expanded to 23.8% from 13.4% in the first quarter of 2025, an improvement of over 1,000 basis points. Put another way, we converted approximately $9.4 million in incremental revenue into $4.2 million in operating income. Here are a few other important details for the quarter. Income before taxes increased to $7.5 million from $3.3 million in the first quarter of 2025. The company recorded an income tax provision of $2 million, resulting in an effective tax rate of 27.2%, compared to 20.5% in the first quarter of 2025. The higher rate reflects discrete item adjustments, primarily related to the increase in our stock price at March 31, 2026, compared to the same period last year, which reduced the tax benefit from stock-based compensation relative to the prior year period. Net income for the quarter totaled $5.4 million, or $0.09 per fully diluted share, and increased from $2.6 million, or $0.05 per fully diluted share, in the first quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes stock-based compensation and is used by management to evaluate core operating performance, increased $1. 113.4% to $10.6 million or 17 cents per fully diluted share versus $5 million or 9 cents per fully diluted share in the first quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 37.8% from 26.7% a year ago. The fully diluted share count used in calculating per share amounts was 61 million versus 55.1 million in the prior year period. We exited the quarter with $20.5 million in unrestricted cash and zero bank debt. Restricted cash increased $15 million to $159 million, primarily related to customer program deposits for our plasma and pharma customers and an increase in funds on card. Now turning to our outlook. Our first quarter results exceeded our guidance across every line of the income statement. Revenue of $28 million exceeded the high end of our $27 to $27.5 million guidance range. Operating margin of 23.8% finished above our guided range of 20 to 22%. And net margin of 19.4% exceeded the top of our 17 to 19% range. Based on our strong start to the year, we are increasingly confident in our ability to achieve the upper end of our 2026 guidance ranges. We continue to expect full year revenue of $106.5 to $110.5 million, representing 30% to 35% year-over-year growth, with gross profit margins between 60% and 62%. Net income is expected to be in the range of $13 million to $16 million or $0.21 to $0.26 per diluted share. And adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $30 million to $33 million or $0.49 to $0.53 per diluted share. As of today, we have 141 active patient affordability programs and expect to exit the quarter with 147 to 150 active programs. We also expect our active plasma center count to decline to 555 to 560 centers as a customer closed 19 underperforming centers in May. As in the past, we do not expect any financial impact from these closures as we expect cardholders from these underperforming centers to transition to other centers. As a reminder, there is seasonality in both our main businesses. Pharma revenues are typically highest in the first quarter as patient affordability claims peak with annual insurance deductible resets and then moderate throughout the balance of the year. Plasma revenues, by contrast, tend to be softest in the first quarter and build through the remainder of the year as donor activity normalizes following tax refund season. These seasonal dynamics are anticipated and fully reflected in our full-year guidance. Overall, our first quarter results validate the financial framework we laid out in March. And the operating leverage we're generating gives us confidence in our ability to continue delivering on the forecast we have outlined for 2026. With that, I would like to turn the call back over to Kevin for question and answers.

Thank you. We're now conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to be placed in the question queue, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to move your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing star one. Our first question is coming from Jacob Stefan from Lake Street Capital Markets. Your line is now live.

Hey, guys. Appreciate you taking the questions. Congrats on a nice quarter here. Um, Mark, you made a comment, uh, that in the beginning of the call, you said you expect to exceed 55 net program ads, uh, that you did in 2025. Uh, I, I guess, uh, for, for starters, what's kind of driving the confidence in this strength in the pipeline? Um, is there one, is there a one-time event out there that you're seeing, or, um, is this mostly, and it may be the part B, is this mostly new or existing customers, uh, that, that are additive in the back half of the year?

Hey, this is Matt Turner. So I think if you were to look at what the pipeline looks right now, there's a pretty good mix, probably around 50-50 when you look at the program count that we're talking about now, like going over 55, where half are going to be entirely new clients and the other half is going to be growth inside of existing clients. I don't think it's any – there's not one moment of inflection point. Last time we were on the call, we talked about kind of what inning we're in. And I think, you know, this is showing that what we've built on, you know, in the first inning, right, is coming true now. So we've got a larger client base. So we're going to continue to see new programs from those clients and then also selling never stops. So we're always trying to bring new clients onto the platform.

Got it. And, I mean, if I'm running the numbers, that kind of implies like 190 programs exiting 2026. I guess from a capacity standpoint, you know, do you guys feel like you have the extra bandwidth? I guess what's needed to fully add those programs?

I don't think there's anything else needed. I mean, we'll continue to hire people to support the business in and on the account management side. From an IT perspective, the systems are robust and well, you know, well positioned to handle the growth that we have this year and any years coming. So we've built systems that are high availability, high demand. The partners that we have in the space are all used to higher claim volumes like this. So we're confident that we have everything in place that we need to continue to scale the growth year after year.

Got it. And then maybe if we could just touch on some of the guidance commentary. I know you guys said you expect revenue to be roughly equal. Looking at kind of the plasma centers, obviously you're expecting a decline in Q2 here. I think that implies a pretty significant ramp in the back half for plasma revenue, if I'm catching that right.

No, we... Revenue for plasma should be up sequentially and continue to grow throughout the rest of the year. So the centers that we called out for the quarter that were sold were garbage centers, to be quite honest with you. And they were below our corporate averages. And then the centers that were consolidated or shut down, that uh company has other centers within the uh proximity of the ones that they close so what's going to happen is those cardholders are just going to move over but we've you know there's some there i put some comments out there to give you kind of a heads up i mean we saw average loads per center up for the first time since 2024 on a year-over-year basis So we talked about the inventory overhang that we experienced all throughout 2025, and we're seeing early indications that we're through that. Now, what you're seeing is some of the plasma companies trying to become more efficient. They're closing underperforming centers. We've run the numbers on those centers. They should have closed them a long time ago, to be honest with you, but matter of fact, we've gone through this before pretty much every year, and it doesn't impact the numbers. So we expect plasma to continue to grow throughout the year and hold to that 50-50 mix right now as we see it subject to change as we move forward.

Okay. Appreciate the color, guys. Congrats again.

Thanks, Jacob.

Thank you. Next question is coming from Gary Prestapino from Barrington Research. Your line is now live.

Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Jeff, you guys are throwing around a lot of numbers here. I want to make sure that I've got this right. By your press release, you say you have 135 pharma programs right now, correct?

No. Per the press release for the quarter, we exited the quarter with 135 programs. As I sit here today at 520, we have 141 active programs. By the end of the second quarter, I have told you that we will have between 147 to 150 active programs.

Okay. That's what I was confused about. And then for the plasma, you have 573, and you're going to be between 550 and 560? Right.

We were at 573 at the end of the quarter. And then we had a customer notify us that they were shutting centers on May the 5th, 19 centers. And then I said that we expect that in the second quarter, with between 555 and 560, because we have some other new centers opening in the pipeline.

Okay, that's helpful. I just wanted to make sure I got that right. So you talked a little bit, Mark, about your plasma platform and how you're integrating into these providers. What are the competitive advantages to an entity integrating into the platform, number one. How does that work in conjunction with the app that you've developed? And then are there any other players out there that have a platform with your technological capabilities?

If we look at our entire ecosystem of what we've built, you know, the platform with the various modules of the app, the CRM, the qualitative analysis and everything else. We do not see any other peers that are out there that have built anything like we've built. Some of the feedback we've gotten from the various conferences we've gone to is a game changer. The fact that all of the pieces of the software can communicate together and feed off one another is definitely a step up from what folks have had. If you look at it from a plasma center perspective, it provides less friction for what they have currently and allows for a center to really not only have less friction but just more ease of use and how they interact with the donors, engagement, all the way through. So it really, you know, it's really about less friction and just better capabilities. Okay.

Thank you. And then just a couple more and I'll jump off. I believe one of the individuals, and I forgot your name on this, is that You're talking about the former programs and about 50% are takeaways, 50% are new programs. Is that about how your new wins are putting out?

A bit of a difference there.

I mean, you're talking about, you know, he was asking questions about new clients versus existing clients, right? So we look at a client as being a manufacturer, the manufacturer may have 30 drugs, so if they've given us five last year and then they add on another two or three programs this year, so we're going to say that's existing client additions. That would be different than transitions versus launches. I don't really have a set number right now that I can tell you, hey, here's how we think that's going to line up because the pipeline is the pipeline, right? It's living and breathing. I think we will see a larger number of transitions Then we see new product launches this year. But that's, you know, that's where we're sitting right now, you know, in May. But at the end of the day, the outcome is still going to be the same where we're looking at, you know, hitting our guidance targets.

Okay. And then just last one is real quick and we'll let somebody else get on. It looks like you talked about the conversion of incremental revenue to incremental operating income. I'm measuring it differently. I'm looking at it as incremental adjusted EBITDA conversion, and it looked like that was close to 60% in the quarter, Jeff. And then if you look at your guidance going forward, you know, I'm just looking at my numbers, it drops down considerably over the next three quarters. Now, is that just a function of mix because you're going to get more plasma revenue in the mix versus patient affordability?

Correct. Exactly.

Okay.

Nope.

That's just it. There's no increase in spending for anything beyond just normal growth and stuff like that.

No, I mean, it's all baked into the guidance. So if you go down and go back through all the guidance that we laid out in the tabular format that's in the press release, nothing's changed. So it's really just mixed shift as we go throughout the year. Patient affordability should increase. go down a little bit as we have claims that go down, just like it did last year, offset by new programs that we add in. And then plasma will continue to grow, should continue to grow throughout the year, just like it did every year since we've been in the business. So the seasonal factors unchanged, but that will obviously cause a a little shift on the margin side. The comment that we're making about the margin, you know, for the purists out there who, you know, want to look at operating margin, including depreciation, amortization, stock comp, that's what the numbers were. But your numbers are absolutely correct when you look at adjusted EBITDA.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah, man. Thank you. As a reminder, that's star one to be placed in the question queue. Our next question is coming from John Eckman from . Your line is now live.

Hi. Can you hear me okay?

Yeah, John. We hear you.

Okay. Thank you. Congrats on the quarter. Pretty impressive.

Thank you.

Could you elaborate a little more on the SAS and the app? Is that live? Are you getting revenues now? Has it been approved by the FDA?

Currently, we're having discussions back and forth with the FDA, and that's really all I can say right now. We continue the process and looking forward to giving you guys updates as soon as we can.

Okay. So you're not generating revenues with it right now?

Currently, right now, no.

Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. And then... Can you comment a little bit, you said something about non-pharmaceutical programs on the payment side. Any further comments on that?

No, really what we're talking, I mean, you know, it's our mix of other business and plasma, but that's really what we have in relation to non-pharmaceutical business at this point. We do have targets that we're going after, but it's kind of premature to discuss those at this point in time. But, you know, hopefully we'll be discussing those in the near future.

Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Next question today is coming from Peter Heckman from DA Davidson. Your line is now live.

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. You have your – Net cash slowly creeping up, almost $21 million in the quarter. Do you have any material obligations beyond that? I think there's something like $5 or $6 million, perhaps, in future payments to the founders of Gamma. But beyond that, do you have any obligations on that cash? And if not, I guess, how are you thinking about allocating some of that cash over the next couple of years?

Hey, Pete. We don't have any obligations for cash payments other than the $6 million remaining to Gamma, which will be paid out annually on the next three anniversary dates in March. So right now, we're just holding on to cash. We'll continue to do that until we find a better use for those funds, but the company's never been in this good of a situation before where we've had such high cash levels, and we'll continue to build that out there for future. you know, either acquisitions or redistribution to shareholders or, you know, typically what you would do to, you know, to large cash balances.

Yep, yep. And I didn't see it in the press release and haven't seen the queue yet, but were there any share repurchases in the quarter?

There were not, not this quarter.

All right. I appreciate it.

My pleasure. Thank you. We've reached the end of our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further closing comments.

Thank you, Kevin. Thank you again for joining us today. We look forward to updating you on our continued progress next quarter. You all have a wonderful rest of your day.

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.