Heico Corporation

Welcome to the HICO Corporation fourth quarter 2025 financial results call. My name is Samara, and I will be your operator for today's call. Certain statements in this conference call will constitute forward-looking statements which are subject to risks, uncertainties, and contingencies. HICO's actual results may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by those forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include, among others, the severity, magnitude, and duration of public health threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, our liquidity, and the amount and timing of cash generation, lower commercial air travel, airline fleet changes, or airline purchasing decisions, which could cause lower demand for goods and services, product specification costs and requirements, which could cause an increase in our cost to complete contracts, governmental and regulatory demands, export policies and restrictions, reductions in defense, space, or homeland security spending by U.S. and or foreign customers, or competition from existing and new competitors, which could reduce our sales. Our ability to introduce new products and services at profitable pricing levels, which could reduce our sales or sales growth. Product development or manufacturing difficulties, which could increase our product development and manufacturing costs and delay sales. Cybersecurity events or other disruptions of our information technology systems could adversely affect our business. And our ability to make acquisitions, including obtaining any applicable domestic and or foreign governmental approvals and achieve operating synergies from required businesses. Customer credit risk. interest, foreign currency exchange, and income tax rates, and economic conditions, including the effects of inflation within and outside of the aviation, defense, space, medical, telecommunications, and electronics industries, which could negatively impact our costs and revenues. Parties listening to this call are encouraged to review all of HICO's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to filings on Form 10-K, Form 10Q and Form 8K. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law. I now turn the call over to Victor Mendelson, HICO's Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. Victor Mendelson, HICO's Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. Victor Mendelson, HICO's Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. Victor Mendelson, HICO's Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. Victor Mendelson, HICO's Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. Victor Mendelson, HICO's Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. Victor Mendelson, HICO's Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer.

Victor Mendelson, HICO's Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. Victor Mendelson, HICO's Co-Chair Thank you for joining us, and we welcome you to HICO's fourth quarter fiscal 25 earnings announcement teleconference. As you heard, I'm Victor Mendelson, HICO's co-chairman and co-CEO. I am joined here this morning by Eric Mendelson, HICO's other co-chairman and co-CEO, and Carlos Macal, our executive vice president and CFO. As we start this call, Eric and I would like to take a moment to remember our father and Larry Mendelson, whom you all know was Long High Coast Chairman and CEO. As sons, we were beyond blessed to have a unique and loving father who instilled in us from our earliest days values and life methods based on fairness, on excellence, on quality, and as our father used to say, just doing the right thing. Of course, these values and life methods apply in business, too. And as a businessman, he knew how much these matter, along with a fixation on real earnings. That is to say, cash flow. Many of you on this call will remember his unrelenting emphasis on cash flow, not artificial gap metrics. Although he always lived by those gap metrics and enforced them, he knew what really mattered. Eric and I were also blessed to have been partners with our father from well before the three of us became Heiko's largest shareholders and mounted our effort to take over management. By the way, in a few weeks, we'll mark the 36th anniversary of our taking over here. Working with him to build Heiko day in and day out was a pleasure and an honor that few get to experience. And I can say that through his example, not only were Eric and I imbued with these values these life methods and his business approach. But more important, all of Heiko. All of Heiko became so imbued. That was his succession plan and was nearly always, as was nearly always the case with our father. It worked perfectly. Our father was profoundly proud of Heiko. He was also one of the greatest optimists we ever knew. And in his closing days, even after nearly 36 remarkable Heiko years, he was more optimistic than ever about this company's prospects. I can tell you that me and the Heiko team share that optimism. I can also say how grateful we are for all that we learned from him. Thank you for indulging us for a few moments there. Before turning to our fourth quarter fiscal 25 record-setting results, which you know kept another exceptional year for Heiko, we recognize our team members' extraordinary efforts. Our team members' dedication to our customers and our endeavors across the organization were the reason for our very strong results this quarter and this year, leaving us quite optimistic about Heiko's future. We and Heiko's board thank you for all you have done in 2025. and before and we look forward to an even more prosperous 2026. So, taking a moment to summarize our record results during the fourth quarter of fiscal 25, we note first that consolidated net income increased 35% to a record $188.3 million or $1.33 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of fiscal 25. up from $139.7 million, or 99 cents, per diluted share in the fourth quarter fiscal 24. Consolidated operating income and net sales in the fourth quarter fiscal 25 represent record results for HICO, which improved by 28% and 19% respectively as compared to the fourth quarter fiscal 24. The flight support group said all time. Quarterly net sales and operating income records in the fourth quarter of fiscal 25, improving 21% and 30% respectively over the fourth quarter of fiscal 24. The increases principally reflect strong 16% – strong would be an understatement, but 16% organic growth stemming from increased demand across all of the group's product lines, as well as the impact from our profitable fiscal 25 and 24 acquisitions. The Electronic Technologies Group also set all-time quarterly net sales and operating income records in the fourth quarter fiscal 25, improving 14% and 10% respectively over the fourth quarter fiscal 24. These increases principally reflect strong organic growth for most of the group's products and the impact from our profitable fiscal 25 and 24 acquisitions. Consolidated EBITDA increased 26% to $331.4 million in the fourth quarter fiscal 25, up from $264 million in the fourth quarter fiscal 24. And our net debt to EBITDA ratio improved to 1.6 as of October 31st, 25, down from 2.06 on October 31st, 24. Cash flow provided by operating activities increased 44%. to $295.3 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 25, up from $205.6 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 24. Yesterday, HICO's Board of Directors declared a semiannual $0.12 per share cash dividend on both classes of HICO stock payable in January 2026, representing our 95th consecutive dividend and reflecting the board's ongoing confidence in our company's strong cash flow generation. We completed five acquisitions in fiscal 25, three in the electronic technologies group and two in the flight support group, further enhancing our sales, our earnings, and our cash flow. Each of our flight support and electronic technologies groups recently entered into agreements to acquire two separate and unrelated businesses, one of which, Ethos, was just announced earlier this week. As of now, we anticipate both should close in the first quarter of calendar 26, though they are, of course, subject to customary closing conditions, including, among others, antitrust clearance and the sellers complying with typical representations and covenants. So, we can't be certain of actual timing or actual closing. We expect these acquisitions would be accreted to HICO's earnings within the year of each transaction's closing. I now turn the call over to Eric Mendelsohn to discuss our Flight Support and Electronic Technology Group's fourth quarter results in greater detail. Eric. Thank you, Victor. Before we turn to the results, I want to pause and recognize the remarkable performance of HICO's team members. What we are reporting today is the product of extraordinary talent, relentless execution, and a culture developed over decades that consistently turns ambitious objectives into real outcomes. Time and again, they have demonstrated the ability to rise to the challenges, adapt, and deliver at the highest level. Their commitment, collaboration, determination, and creative approach are the foundation of these results and make them especially rewarding. We are all sure that our dad is looking down on us today as we report these outstanding results and we closed our 36th year with Heiko. As Victor said so eloquently a few moments ago, we are both so grateful for all that we learned from our dad and from all the time that we had with him. Now moving on to the results. The flight support group's net sales increased 21% to a record $834.4 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 25, up from $691.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 24. The net sales increase reflects strong organic growth of 16% and the impact from our fiscal 24 and 25 acquisitions. The net sales growth reflects increased demand across all of our product lines. Hyco's operations continue to exceed our expectations, underscoring our highly successful combination with WinCorp. Customers increasingly recognize the value of our expanded aftermarket parts and repair and overhaul offerings, which has driven strong growth opportunities and continued success across the company. The flight support group's defense business remains a compelling opportunity, particularly as both the U.S. administration and our foreign allies emphasize defense readiness and cost efficiency. HEICO is extremely well positioned to support these priorities by delivering high-quality, lower-cost alternative aircraft parts that help reduce costs for the government and taxpayers while expanding our addressable markets. Our missile defense manufacturing business is also experiencing very significant growth, fueled by rising demand from the United States and our allies. We have substantial orders and backlogs to support the continued expansion of this business, and we are committed to providing cost-effective solutions in industry-leading quality to our U.S. military and our foreign allies. The Flight Support Group's operating income increased 30 percent to a record $201 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 25, up from $154.5 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 24. The operating income increase reflects the previously mentioned net sales growth, an improved profit margin, and SG&A expense efficiencies realized from the net sales growth. The improved profit margin principally reflects net sales growth within our repair and overhaul parts and services product line and a more favorable product mix within our specialty products product line. The VICE support group's operating margin improved to 24.1% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 25, up from 22.3% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 24. The increased operating margin principally reflects the previously mentioned improved gross profit margin. Since acquisition-related intangible amortization expense consumed approximately 250 basis points of our operating margin in the fourth quarter of fiscal 25, the flight support group's cash margin which is before amortization, or what we also call EBIT-A, was approximately 26.6%, which has been consistently excellent and is 160 basis points higher than the comparable flight support group cash margin of 25.0% in the fourth quarter of 24. As I have previously discussed, We are laser-focused on cash generation at each of our businesses. I am very happy with the continued expansion of our cash margins and believe the decentralized operating structure has permitted us to expand these margins while simultaneously delivering high-quality products and services to our customers at substantial cost savings with lightning-quick turnaround times. Now I will discuss the fourth quarter results of the electronic technologies group. The electronic technologies group's net sales increased 14% to a record $384.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 25, up from $336.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 24. The net sales increase reflects strong organic growth of 7% and the impact from our fiscal 25 and 24 acquisitions. The organic net sales growth is mainly attributable to increased demand for our other electronics, defense, aerospace, and space products. The electronic technology group's operating income increased 10% to a record $89.6 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 25, up from $81.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 24. The operating income increase principally reflects the previously mentioned net sales growth and an improved gross profit margin partially offset by higher SG&A expenses, mainly reflecting increased share-based compensation expense. The improved gross profit margin principally reflects a more favorable mix of our medical and other electronics products. The electronic technology group's operating margin was 23.3% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 25, as compared to 24.3% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 24. The operating margin change principally reflects an increase in SG&A expenses as a percentage of net sales, primarily from the previously mentioned higher share-based compensation expense, partially offset by the previously mentioned improved gross profit margin. before acquisition-related intangible amortization expense. Our operating margin was a very healthy 27.3% as intangible amortization consumed around 400 basis points of our operating margin. This is how we judge our business as that most closely correlates to cash. On a true operating basis, these are excellent margins, and we are very pleased with them. And now I turn the call back to Victor Mendelson to discuss our outlook. Thank you, Eric. Looking ahead to fiscal 26, we anticipate net sales growth across both the flight support group and the electronic technologies group, driven by organic growth from increased demand for the majority of our products, as well as growth for our recent acquisitions. We'll continue to pursue selective acquisition opportunities that complement this growth, and our disciplined financial management remains dedicated to creating long-term shareholder value through a balanced combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions while maintaining financial resilience and flexibility. Acquisition activity, of course, continues to be robust across both operating segments. supported by a healthy pipeline of potential acquisition opportunities currently under evaluation. And as such, we remain focused on identifying high-quality businesses that complement HICO's existing operations and, of course, further strengthen our strategic positioning. Consistent with our long-standing acquisition philosophy, we will only pursue acquisitions and opportunities that meet our strict financial and strategic criteria that are accretive and have the potential to generate durable long-term value for HICO and for our shareholders. So thank you very much for attending our call. Those are our prepared remarks, and we ask Samara, the operator, to please open the line for questions.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, press star one to ask a question and we'll pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. And we'll take our first question from Larry Solo with CJS Securities.

Great. Good morning, and I appreciate the comments on Larry, and I'm sure he's smiling down on the real strong free cash flow this quarter, so congrats on that.

Thank you, Larry. Absolutely. First question, Eric, I guess to you, just on the growth as we look at it, Yeah, FSG.

I think we used to view you as sort of a high single, low double-digit grower, and growth's been mid-teens plus on the core business for about five-plus years. Maybe the first couple were COVID recovery, but just trying to, you know, as we look at it, it feels like all the positives continue to align, you know, in your direction.

But can you just help us just kind of bucket what these drivers – clearly the market's growing nicely, but – I don't know if growth has accelerated above historical levels where we are today, but is it just your expanded parts offering? Is it a market share? Is it just more acceptance of your parts? Just trying to, if you could just bucket, you know, those multiple positives that have been driving your business. Sure, Larry, I'd be happy to do that. And thank you very much for your kind comments. Yes, for sure. Dan would be very, very happy with these results. I'm sure he is. Absolutely. So you're right. The organic growth has been tremendous. And, frankly, it's even surprised us and me. I've always been optimistic and I've always thought that we would continue to outgrow the market, but we continue to do so in a much more meaningful way. You're right. Why is that? I think it's a number of things. Number one, of course, we want to be grateful for the rising tide environment in the industry. That's been terrific and that's been very strong for us. I think the other thing that's been really good is the value proposition that HICO offers our customers. You know, the thing that perhaps I'm most proud about is that we've had 16% organic growth in this quarter and another 5% acquired on top of that for a total of 21% sales growth, but operating income increased 30%. And at the same time, our customers are incredibly happy in getting huge value from us. So we've been able to, you know, drive operating income, if you will, primarily off of the organic sales growth. And our customers are still very happy. So I think that speaks to a tremendous sales opportunity that we have really in all of our businesses, whether it's in the PMA parts, repair, distribution, specialty manufacturing, defense, the same. And I'm talking over on the flight support group side. And then, of course, on the E2G side, more growth opportunity there. But I really think it's the value proposition that we offer combined with our decentralized and very entrepreneurial structure. You know, I get emails before, you know, after we announce the earnings from a number of different people within Heiko, and basically thanking me for the incredible results. And I turn around and say, no, yes, we've been very good on capital allocation, but they're the ones who really deliver these results. We're just reporting the results that they deliver. And it's as a result of being very intimate with their product lines, understanding their customers, the whole competitive dynamic. So I think that as there are more aircraft out there and there's increased demand in both commercial aircraft as well as defense products and, you know, missile interceptors, I think that we are just incredibly well positioned. So, look, the organic growth has surprised me. That's one of the reasons why we don't give guidance because we don't know where it's going to be. We just know at Heiko that we've got 11,000 people come to work every day, put their heads down, and work as hard as they possibly can, and frankly, the results are the results. But I do think that the value proposition is tremendous. I guess lastly, one of the other things that I think we've seen over the last number of years is that other manufacturers are increasing their prices substantially. And I think that just further supports the hypo value proposition. So I think we're just in a great place right now. No, no, I appreciate all that call.

No, that was great. Victor, how about, you know, a question for you. I think you obviously had a little sluggishness last year, but a good year this year. It feels like most of your end markets, or not all of them now, are kind of pointing up and to the right, obviously led by defense.

I know the National Defense Authorization Act, which was just passed recently, feels like that was positive.

So, you know, any just general thoughts on, you know, State of the Union on your outlook? Yeah, you know, we're projecting growth next year in ETG. As I always do, I guide people to look for, on an organic basis, mid to low single digits organic growth. If we do better, that's great. You know, we'll see where everything shakes out a year from now and over the quarters, but... We feel very good about our businesses. We did our budget reviews, our subsidiary annual reviews. And as a rule of thumb, our companies are feeling good. Not every company is going to march ahead next year in the way we'd like to see, but overall, very close. Great. All right. Great. I appreciate it. Thanks for the call. Thank you.

We'll take our next question from Ron Epstein with Bank of America.

Hey, guys. Good morning. And again, you know, my condolences about your father.

On the quarter itself, let's do a couple quick things.

How are things looking for, you know, M&A as we go into the time of 26? Very, very strong. I mean, we're working on a lot of opportunities. I would say each quarter we seem to feel like it can't get any busier. Our pipeline is busier and busier, but that's exactly what happened in this past quarter and actually in recent weeks since the quarter ended. So we've got a lot we're working on, a lot that we're looking at. Of course, as you know, Ron, it doesn't happen until it closes. There's a lot of work, a lot of diligence. We're extraordinarily discerning in what we'll buy, but we're fortunate in that we are known as a great home for sellers, particularly entrepreneur, founder, managers, and others who are really going to take care of the businesses, not only honor the legacy, but keep the entrepreneurial environment. So there's a lot of opportunity for us. We'll see what we're able to mine out, but we're Consciously optimistic. And, Ron, I would also just add to that. So we started really our acquisition program in earnest about 27 years ago. And we really have, you know, acquired, I don't know, 110 companies. And we really have a track record. You know, it's not just one, two, three, five, ten-year track record. It's a very, very long track record in DNA, which is embedded in the company. So when we talk to sellers, I think we're viewed in a very, very different light, and as a result, we've got just a tremendous – we've got a lot of bandwidth, and we also have a lot of different sellers who really view us as the buyer of choice. So I think we're in a really good position there.

Got it. How comfortable are you guys leveraged enough to do a deal given the balance sheet's so strong?

Hey, Ron, this is Carlos. So I would say, similar to history, we're not afraid of leverage. For the right transaction, for the right deal for our shareholders, we would take on additional leverage. I don't think that our company, the culture and the way we do business would suggest we'd like to have permanent leverage in the five or six range. But if we had to spike up four, five, six times to do a deal. And I felt comfortable that within 12, 18, 24 months, if you get that leverage back down to a manageable number, we would certainly do that if it was good for our shareholders. I think as a sort of status quo, we like leverage to be somewhere around two times. That's a comfortable spot for us. Right now, our permanent a permanent debt, if you would, or our bonds are sitting at about one turn of EBITDA, that's very comfortable. I think we could probably carry two turns of, you know, of debt in permanent, you know, sort of financing posture and be very comfortable with the cash generation that we have.

Got it, got it, got it. And then just one last one for me. How's it working? You guys had mentioned last year about doing, you know, PMA parts for defense. How's that going? Is there any progress on that front? Ron, this is Eric. So, yes, there has been progress on that front. But as we always say, it was really going to be more of a medium-term project. You know, as you know, it takes a little bit of time for the government to do all the stuff that they've got to do. But we think that there's a very, very big opportunity there for us, and we're quite excited about it.

Got it. Great. Thank you all.

Thanks, Ron.

Thank you, Ron.

We'll take our next question from Peter Arment with Aird.

Yeah, good morning, Eric, Victor, Carlos. Nice results. Eric, you talked a lot about a little bit about defense and missile defense and how It's about, if I remember correctly, defense and space is roughly about a quarter of the FSG segment. Do you see that mix changing much just given all the growth you're highlighting?

I think actually it's going to probably remain pretty consistent because we have so much growth over on the commercial side that they're doing a great job keeping up with the huge growth over on defense. So I think it's probably going to be, you know, somewhat consistent going forward. But I do think that there are massive opportunities for us over on the defense side. And as these, you know, as our customers become more familiar with our broad capabilities, and by the way, not only our longtime, you know, large defense customers who we continue to support and have a great relationship with, but also the defense tech community. we're doing a lot of work for those guys as well and delivering huge value. We've got design capability, manufacturing capability across a very wide array of products. We're able to solve all sorts of complex problems for them. And so I think that that's just going to continue to be a big, big opportunity for us along with the launch business. We've grown, you know, we don't, We're very careful at Heiko. We don't talk about specific programs, specific customers, because, frankly, we don't want to give a roadmap to our competitors on what we're doing. And we say, you know, just look at our results. But I can tell you that there have been, you know, very well-known companies coming into Heiko, into our specialty products group, into our other manufacturing businesses, asking to help solve, you know, some of this country's major, major problems. And we really, I'm super proud of our team. So I think there's a big opportunity there. Appreciate the call.

And maybe, Eric and Victor, you can both comment on maybe Golden Dome, just how you see Heiko's business kind of positioned.

Obviously, there's been a lot in the classified circles and behind the scenes, not much public. You know, how do you view the opportunity set for Heiko? Thanks.

This is Victor. It's a good question. Obviously, we're excited by it. You know, Golden Dome consists of a number of existing programs, and from what we understand, because it's not, I think, intentionally so, it's not entirely publicly defined, or maybe not entirely that we can discuss on a public call, but you have the existing programs on which we have great presence and have had for years, some of which Eric is alluding to in his comments, but the same in both, by the way, both ETG and FSG within the business. And then there's a lot of reconnaissance, surveillance, tracking that's being added to it and networking it together. And a number of our businesses have been told that some of the things they're working on, some of the development contracts they've been getting are related to that. Without being able to go into the specifics on each one of those programs, of course, and the subsidiaries, you know, we'll take our customers at their word. There is no order that comes in at the top that says Golden Dome Department, right? So we'll have to judge as we go down the road how much it'll be. But it's definitely additive, and we're definitely excited about it. And we, of course, think it's the right thing to do for the country, given the success, for example, of Iron Dome. and a number of our companies have components on a number of the Iron Dome constituent parts. Terrific. Thanks again, guys. Happy holidays. Thank you.

And we'll take our next question from Ken Herler with RBC Capital Markets.

Good morning and very nice results. Maybe Eric, just to start, you've grown FSG margins pretty substantially, about 300 basis points from 21 to 20, or 22 to 25. I can appreciate part of that's been mixed with Wancor. You've also seen some opportunities on pricing in other areas. How do we think about FSG margins into fiscal 26 and beyond? And is there any reason We don't see continued pace of improvement.

Hey, Ken. So, thank you for your question. And, yeah, I would, you know, while we don't give guidance, you know, you're right. We've grown margins substantially. And at the same time, you know, the thing that I'm really proud about is we've kept our customers very happy at that, you know, while doing that simultaneously. I do think there's continued margin opportunity. For us, continued margin expansion is we have, you know, basically greater absorption of our, what I'll call our fixed costs, whether it's in coffee sales or SG&A. I do think that we've got additional leverage there. We've made a number of significant investments over the last number of years to broaden our manufacturing and design and distribution capabilities. And so I think we'll continue to see, you know, improved margins there. It's hard for me to guess what that is because the truth is that I really don't know. You know, as I mentioned, I think, before, we get, you know, we've got this great decentralized organization and they all submit budgets, which tend to be on the, let's just say, the very conservative side. So it's very hard for me to to predict going forward what it's going to be. But I just know that at the end of the day, they end up outperforming. So I think Carlos may have some additional thoughts on that.

You're hiking the football, Tommy? I am. Hey, Ken. So here's the deal. I continue to believe that the FSG is going to play between 23.5% and 24.5% gap operating margins. And the reason that I have kind of a wide sort of, vector there is because we have noticed and talked about some mix impacts on the margin, particularly specialty products and repair and overhaul. So you know, historically, the FST margin store has always been about volume. So until that mix sort of settles down a little bit, it's kind of hard to tighten that up. But I think you could expect between those those ranges, and you know, hopefully, it'll be towards the high end of that. And, and there'll be reasons that are you know, quarter specific if we're not, but I think that's the range you should expect.

Well, that's helpful, Carlos. Thank you. And if I could, Eric, just one other question. It seems like each time this year we have a debate around better deliveries out of Boeing and Airbus and the implications of what that could mean for aftermarket spending. Can you just comment on what you're seeing at airlines today as they think about 2026 around aircraft retirements? Obviously, fuel prices are low. continued use of legacy or older assets. Just what's your view on aftermarket fundamentals into 2026?

Yeah, it's a great question. And look, we've got the utmost respect for Boeing and Airbus. And we think that, you know, as well, of course, Embraer. And we think that they're going to get a lot of the supply chain issues worked out. These are phenomenal companies that put out you know, the best products, unbelievable products, and the world really needs them, and they will get all their situation worked out. So then the question is, what happens to the rest of the aftermarket there on the order aircraft? And we think that the order aircraft will continue to be in very good demand. You can see what the retirement rates have been. And again, you've got this older fleet that is a very large fleet, which is continuing to age one year per year and consume a massive amount of parts. So we think that we're in very good position. Again, we're long-term investors, if you will, citizens, residents in this stock. And so if there's a dip, you know, things move up and down a little bit, it doesn't change our view on it. So for us, we don't really look at, if you will, the quarter-to-quarter and sort of the micro moves. We're looking out saying, you know, the airlines recognize that there's this massive need coming down the road. They need more suppliers. We're there to fill that opportunity on both sides. the independent side as well as the OEM-aligned side. It's whatever our customers want. And so, I think we're in good position, but it should remain quite strong to answer your question. Good. Thanks, Eric. Happy holidays, everybody. Thanks, and you too.

And we'll take our next question from the Sheila Kayalu with Jefferies.

Good morning, guys, and thank you so much for the time. Maybe I could start, and I want to give you guys condolences on Larry because I think we're also lucky to have known him and he's impacted all of our lives in some way. Thank you. Maybe going back to the performance for 25, it's been stellar the quarter as well. Eric, I wanted to ask you, I know everybody's harped on FST growth and just because it's accelerated in the quarter, if you could give us any detail on maybe the parts of the business that you think will outperform as we head into fiscal 26. And also you've announced some pretty neat transactions like Ethos Energy recently and another transaction. So can you talk about how those fit into the broader, both one core and the broader FSG?

Sure. I would be happy to. And Sheila, thank you also for the very nice comments about that. And he always I respected you and your fellow analysts and really enjoyed this time very much with you all. And so thank you for that. As far as for the subsectors within flight support that are going to outperform, I mean, I'm sorry to sound like a broken record, but I think it's really across the board. It's in everything that we're doing. We're seeing... strength across the board. So I wouldn't say that there's one area in particular, we are very excited, you bring up ethos. And we're very excited about that, because they're strong in the IGP market. And of course, you've got all these industrial gas turbines, of which some are air derivatives, supporting the AI power demand. And there's a, you know, as you know, there's a massive amount of power that has to be created And these IGTs are, you know, industrial gas servants are expected to play a major role there. So we think that we're in very, very good position to help ethos continue to support their, you know, their program. And we think that there's, you know, just a tremendous amount of opportunity. We like the people very much. They have three different facilities. It's a very decentralized environment. organization, very entrepreneurial. I think there is going to be a big increase in demand on the various components that they overhaul. And we think that it's just a great addition to WinCore. WinCore has been, you know, as Heiko has been, WinCore has been very successful in their markets. And we allocate out the acquisitions according to bandwidth and who's got, you know, time and the capacity to be able to take on these acquisitions. But we're really happy that one quarter has got the talent and the technical ability to help drive that business forward. And we think that there'll be very good performance out of it.

Can you, Eric, thank you for that color. Can you maybe also talk about the axle on fuel containment business? Does that work with Robertson? How do you think about how that'll fit into the framework and Can we think about annual revenues in the 125 million range for that one?

Well, so this is Victor. The business is separate from Robertson. It's a supplier to Robertson. So Robertson has been a customer. I think working together, they can bring additional benefits to our customers and to the marketplace and make things, in fact, even more competitive for our customers. there's opportunity there. You know, in terms, we didn't break out the revenue from the business, so I'm being careful, of course, on that. And, of course, when it closes, of course, if it closes, right, no deal is ever certain. But, you know, that timing issues and approvals and things like that that we've got to go through will will also influence the amount of revenue that we recognize in fiscal 26.

Got it. Sure. Sorry, Victor. I forgot Robertson was in the ATT. Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll take our next question from John Golden with Citigroup.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to, I completely appreciate that we've gone away from, you know, annual guidance a long time ago in FICO. But at the same time, every few years, you guys reiterate that 15 to 20% net income growth kind of multi-year target. And we've had a couple years of amazing net income growth.

And I just kind of, you know, offer the observation that consensus expectations are for a very sharp deceleration over the next few years.

And I just wanted to kind of revisit this idea, take the temperature. How do you feel about 15 to 20% as sort of a multi-year growth number from here, a target? And is there anything that you're seeing that suggests a sharp deceleration in growth rates as likely?

So, John, first of all, thank you very much for your question. This is Eric. I'd be happy to answer that. As you know, the 15% to 20% has always been an aspirational number. The company is designed in a decentralized way, but rolling up into groups, so we can harness the individual and entrepreneurial efforts of our people in the businesses and combine them with technology, market access, capital that the larger groups bring. So I can tell you that all of the subsidiaries have organic growth targets that are consistent with the numbers that you mentioned. And we believe that on the acquisition side, we are in a very good position and continue to be the buyer of choice. You know, the important, obviously the important metric for us is EBITDA. which is really operating income plus intangibles amortization due to purchase accounting, because that's really, you know, a made-up number, if you will. But I think in terms of growing our EBITDA, you know, nothing has changed going forward. Obviously, as you get bigger, you know, it may become more difficult. But, of course, as we've gotten bigger, we've hit the numbers, and it's become easier. So all I can tell you is we remain very focused, and I think we're in a good position going forward. As far as giving guidance, for us to give guidance, as I've mentioned, it's very difficult because our subsidiaries tend to give very conservative guidance to us, and then we have to add a number on top of that, and who knows what that number is going to be. But I can tell you, Victor and I spend a lot of time out in the field with our businesses. We're aware of all the technology they're developing. You know, Carlos is out there as well. And I think, you know, the future is going to be very good for us, and we're going to continue to outgrow the market. So nothing has changed with our focus on outgrowing the market. Okay. Right.

So, despite a few great years, you know, above that range, it sounds like you don't see it likely that we're below that range for a number of years going forward. It sounds like, you know, the algorithm is still intact as far as you can tell.

Well, you know, as I mentioned, look, those numbers are aspirational numbers. I think 15% is a great aspirational number. You know, we're working very hard to make that happen. Again, we don't provide guidance, so I want to be very careful what I say. But we are, you know, everything here at HICO is structured to continue this growth.

Hey, John, this is Carlos. Let me refer you to history here. You know, we've done for 35 years, compounded our bottom line at 18%. So we've proven that we can do it. You know, every year we sit down, we do our budgets, we look at the performance, the atmospherics, and the markets, and we shoot for 15% to 20% bottom line growth. And, you know, we're capable of doing that. As Eric mentioned, as we grow larger, it becomes more challenging. But as we look out over the next three to five years, I don't see anything impeding those aspirational goals. That's what we target as a group, as a board, and as a company to grow. So I think that's all intact.

And also, I would just add to what Carlos said. When you look at our leverage at roughly 1.5 times, I mean, we've got, you know, tremendous ability to make acquisitions. I mean, when you generate, what was the number, $934 million from operations. I mean, you know, the cash is really very, very strong. And we're able then to take that cash and go buy other entrepreneurial businesses where people want to be part of HICO. So... You know, there was no change to our program.

Very clear. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Nice job.

And we'll take our next question from Noah with Goldman Sachs.

Hey, guys. Good morning. Can you hear me okay? We can. Good morning, Noah. Great. Yes, good morning. Those were nice comments about your father. It was great to be able to work with him.

Thank you.

Just staying on these FSG margins a bit, Carlos, you talked about mix. I guess when we look at the incremental being better in 25 than 24, are you able to parse out the pieces of that? How much of it was that mix? And can you tell us what those mix items are and what you expect them to do next year? And how much of it was any change in pricing philosophy?

So the price part of that, you know, we probably get two or three points for the price in our dollars every year. You know, we're basically covering our labor inflation. I mean, raw materials for us is a lower piece of the overall bill of materials. So The concerns we have around here really are labor inflation, and we seem to be getting enough price out of our customers to cover that and still provide them with great value and make them feel like the value proposition is huge with HICO to do business with us. The components of the mix, so I would say this. You know, we've noticed a nice increase in the gross margin with our repair and overhaul business, and most of that has been attributed to heavier PMA and DER repairs that we've been doing this year. I would say the next shift there has been a little bit more favorable towards the PMA and DER. We've also expanded our avionics repairs quite a bit this year. So those components there have had a positive lift in the gross margin and repair and overhaul, which is translated into the overall segment margin. I'd also say that within specialty products, You know, the core of that business, if you spun the clock back five or six years or so ago, it was really a commercial OE play pre-COVID, let's say. It was all about seats and thermal blankets and insulation and things like that. What we've noticed post-COVID is a real uptick, and Eric's talked about it earlier, in the defense business we have there, whether it's missile hardware, whether it's drone technology, drone hardware and things like that, structural pieces that we're making. And that shift towards more of a heavier defense play within specialty products rather than the commercial. It's had a little bit of an improvement on the margins. So I think those two things have helped. And then, of course, our parts business has been off the charts. It's been growing at a tremendous pace, outgrowing the other verticals. And as that business continues to outperform, It absorbs a lot of the fixed cost that Eric's talked about earlier. It does have a little bit of, I guess, an efficiency play within our SG&A and our fixed cost fund. So those are really the key contributors to the FSG. Most of that is very durable, Noah. You know, I mentioned earlier on the margins, you know, I kind of said 23.5, 24.5. It's kind of a wide spread on my expectation, but it is because the mix can play you know, heavier light and then you want particular quarters. So I'll be able to narrow that down as we get further into next year and the year after and then see how the, you know, the mixed footprint plays out. But no, it's all good positive. I think it's very durable margin improvements. And as we continue to grow, I think we can eke out, you know, small improvements just on our leverage and our fixed costs, 20, 30 bps a year, something like that. So all positive. I don't see anything that's like on time or not durable.

Okay, that's a really helpful color. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, obviously you want to have some conservatism in what you're saying about the forward, but the operating margin is still pretty far below the gross margin, so just all else equal, if you're growing volumes, you would have your normal incrementals and be able to just expand margins over time. Obviously, it's not always all else equal, but okay.

You got it.

Can you size how much revenue you generate from missile and missile defense?

Well, we don't size it. We don't size it. If you look in our public filings, you'll see that within the FSG, you know, we do break out specialty products in our defense business. You can see how that business has grown, but we, for competitive reasons, don't size it.

Okay. And then how do you expect capital deployed? towards acquisitions in 26 to compare to 25, price-wise?

I mean, Eric and Victor like to buy the shiny object and get their hands on, so I expect that we'll continue. I don't believe that. But look, we're not capital constrained, Noah, and we have a tremendous opportunity set in front of us. You know, we're able to be very selective at this point in time, on what we can play capital on, which is a good thing. And the basket of opportunities is as big as it's ever been. So I think, you know, we probably should have a repeat of what we did last year into 26 would be my hope and my expectation. But, again, you never know. And remember, we are guided by, you know, we want to go 15% to 20% bottom line. It is a controlled growth strategy. So, you know, that guides us. but we do not walk away from extraordinarily good opportunities for our shareholders. So, you know, in the event that we outgrow that metric, it's because we had great opportunities in the acquisition front that we just couldn't pass on, right? And so that will also guide are thinking on how we deploy the capital.

And, Noah, just also to add a little bit of color to why we're so optimistic on the acquisition front, I mean, if you look, we're leveraged at 1.5 times. So we've got, you know, we're under leverage. 1.6. 1.6. So we're under leverage. We've got plenty of firepower. Our businesses generate a lot of cash. You know, just putting that cash to work is a big task. We've done 110, you know, our commercial, we've done 110 acquisitions. We are experienced. We know what's important. We know how to motivate people. We've got dozens of entrepreneurs for sellers to speak with to explain why Heiko is the best home that they could possibly imagine. And, frankly, we've got an incredible acquisitions team, which is out there pounding the pavement, working really hard, making sure that we're in every process and we're constantly talking to people. And we're talking to them years in advance of when they want to possibly sell their company. You know, somebody may be interested in a liquidity event 10 years from now. That's no problem because there are so many points of contact at Heiko where we can start working with them. and connecting them to the HICO system and help their businesses, help our businesses. And when they're ready, they're ready. So I think we're in great, really great position there. And if you look, so many of the businesses that we buy were not available to sell for other people, you know, to other people. They were not interested in selling. They were only interested in selling to HICO. And actually, Gables Engineering is a perfect example of that, where this business was sought after by so many people in the industry, and they only spoke to Heiko. Of course, they got a very full price, but they only spoke to Heiko, and they wanted to make sure that they were able to continue their growth, and Heiko is able to do that.

I appreciate all the detail. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks, Noah.

We'll take our next question from Tony Bancroft with Gabelli Funds.

Good morning, gentlemen, and obviously pass along my condolences to Mr. Mendelson. He really was the best of the best, and he's going to be sorely missed here at Gabelli. You know, with the ethos acquisition like you discussed, you know, it's sort of in one way it's sort of going outside your scope of traditional M&A, but another way obviously is a lot of adjacencies. You know, with the backdrop of not a strong growth looking into going forward, is there maybe sort of a new world order or a new outlook on where you would go across aerospace in the sense or maybe other areas of high growth? Maybe you could talk about, you know, there's so many opportunities out there, and as a defense budget, you're seeing a strength there. Maybe you could talk about anything that could be outside your typical adjacencies.

Sure. Tony, so first of all, thank you very much for your nice comments about that. And he always enjoyed his time with you and Mario and held you in the highest regard, both of you. And, you know, as far as ethos, we really like the IGT area. We've been in the IGT area through a number of our businesses for a number of years, for decades. And we like growing, as we say, into adjacent white space. where we understand the technology, whether it's the engineering or the operations of the turbine, whether it's the manufacturing or the repair technology distribution, we think that there's a lot of points of commonality. Some of them are aero derivatives, so they're very, very similar to the aero side, but other ones are pure industrial gas turbines, very, very large machines, and we think that we understand that space quite well. There's going to be a lot of tailwinds for a long period of time. We think we can add a lot of value. You know, our initial approach there is to go into that market with a very much OEM aligned strategy and, you know, try to continue to develop and grow that. But we think it's just another very good business for us to enter. And, Tony, this is Victor. Adding to that, that's really been our history. If you look back over time, when we started out and we took over HICO, it essentially had one product, right, the combustion chamber and the JTAP engine, the PMA part. That was it for the most part. And it did some machining and milling. And over the years, we've stepped very carefully, but I think very intentionally, and successfully into, as Eric would say, these white space adjacencies, and it's worked out very nicely. So our product offering today is vastly expanded. It doesn't look anything like it used to, but it's happened over time. The saying about boiling the frog is, in a sense, applicable here, that we just do this carefully, slowly, a lot of singles and doubles, no bet-the-company situations, but we just keep at it. And so I would expect we'll continue doing that. We don't have any other specifics or data that we can share at this point on exactly where we're going, but you can rest assured that they will be sensible and they will be somehow connected to what we're already doing. That's great.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Thanks, Ken.

And we'll take our next question from Jonathan Seekman with Steve Olson.

Good morning. Golden says again to your family and company, for your father and chairman, we look forward to you keeping the legacy alive by preserving the culture.

Thank you. And John, we've known you a long time. He always admired you, dealt with you in your fidelity, and we appreciate your confidence in your comments.

So I wanted to ask Eric, you've constantly characterized PMA for military as its medium-term opportunity. But there's been lots of executive orders and directives. And we had, in particular, a pretty spirited opening statement at AUSA by the Secretary of Army specifically about parks. So, just can you give us a sense of what's really changing? Is the opportunity for you being pulled forward? And then, maybe talk about the difference between qualifying a PMA park For a military aircraft relative to a commercial, is it longer or more complicated? Thank you very much.

So, you know, look, the U.S. operates a lot of commercial derivative aircraft, and a lot of these parts and repairs have been approved by the FAA. And there's no reason the government shouldn't be taking advantage of them. So we think, you know, sort of big picture, that's where the opportunity exists. As you know, the gap between what comes out, as they say, with the senior people in the quote-unquote building versus what ends up getting done sometimes can take a fair amount of time. And I think this administration is very focused on getting that done. We have to get that done. And so that's why we're very bullish on the opportunity. I hate to provide, you know, super detail into what we're working on because we do have competitors in everything we do, and I don't like giving them a roadmap. But we do think that there's very good, you know, there continues to be very, very good opportunity. And, you know, now it's up to the government to really execute on that. And I think that as they execute – you know, the opportunity will be very rewarding for HICO.

Thank you. Good luck with the new year. Thank you. Thank you.

And we'll take our next question from Scott Dishol with Deutsche Bank.

Hey, good morning. Carlos, just to clarify your response to Noah's question, Are the specialty products gross margins generally higher or lower than the gross margins in the other submarkets with FSG?

To answer your question, we don't get into vertical margin profiles. I would say that, you know, obviously we've said over the years, obviously our PMA business is our highest margin business, but the other verticals in the FSG all float around the average margin of the segment. So, you know, that's about the best I could do for you.

Okay. Eric, if we were to think about the largest and most established customers for FSG's PMA and repair solutions, firms like United, Delta, or Lufthansa, are those customers generally running flat out in terms of buying essentially everything from FSG that they can, or is there still a lot of white space with those existing big customers for FSG to be doing even more for them?

Yeah, I mean, without commenting on, you know, who the largest customers are, the, you know, they're buying a lot of our products, but there still remains tremendous potential in each of them. And you may ask, well, why is that? You know, why is it if they're such big customers and they're buying, you know, most of your product or a lot of your product, why don't they buy all of your product? And I agree with you, that's very frustrating and something that we talk about all the time. Sometimes they have an arrangement, a contract with somebody else. You know, other times it's, you know, the time, the inertia that it takes to get these parts approved within the organizations. But I can tell you that we continue to have very big opportunities in many areas, and we are conquering those opportunities quarter by quarter. You know, I continue to learn of the great wins with major airlines and products, you know, whether they're parts or repair services that they had not done with us in the past. So that's why I remain very bullish.

Thank you very much.

Thanks.

We'll take our next question from Scott Mikus with Milius Research.

Eric Victor, condolences. Thank you. Thank you very much. I wanted to ask, so you operate a decentralized operating structure with many disparate operating units. When it comes to pursuing new business opportunities, whether it be for Golden Zone or other programs, Do you ever find situations where your operating units are competing against each other for the same work package? Do you force them to collaborate or do you let them pursue those business opportunities independently just to give the overall organization as many shots on goal as you can get? Just your thoughts on that.

Sure. It's extremely rare that we find our businesses in competitive situations. It's far more common. that they actually have cooperative situations. They can help each other out, or sometimes they'll go to a customer together, occasionally with a package or something like that. We don't, as a rule of thumb, police our businesses. We don't tell them what they can sell or they should sell. We encourage them to work together, and they're very practical, and they do, and I think they find a way to rationalize things where they should. They're always, I'll tell you the truth, always most focused on finding the most cost-effective solutions for our customers because that's what we're known for and the best solution for the customer. So I have seen it in the rare case where there is something that's a dual offering that they're just happy to let the customer make the decision, and what we don't do is curtail dual offerings. We're very careful to not do that. Right. And we also, you know, I can tell you in some of our businesses whereby we have multiple locations, customers may want to deal with the location of the business that's physically closest to them because it's more convenient, and they may get, you know, competing offers from, you know, different HICO businesses, and we're fine with them deciding where they want to send the business. I mean, we want to make the customer happy. And likewise, if the customer wants an independent solution with PMA or DER, we do that. If they want an OEM solution, we do that too. So we're really agnostic. We want to make sure that We're serving the customer in, you know, whatever way they want to be served. And we think that it works out quite well to have multiple businesses in the space, you know, constantly striving for lower costs, better turnaround, better quality. And that's what makes ICO such a strong competitor out there.

Okay. I'll stick with one question, but I wanted to wish you and your families success. Happy holidays, and Victor, a happy belated birthday as well. Thank you, Scott.

I appreciate it, and we wish you happy holidays as well. I'm going to have to find your birthday. Wish you the same. Thank you.

And we'll take our next question from Gavin Parsons with UBS.

Thanks, guys. Good morning.

Maybe sort of along those similar lines, how integrated are the HICO and one core part and repair catalogs, and how long can that be a growth tailwind from cross-selling? Well, they are, you know, we offer a lot of different products across the businesses. There is some overlap, and it's, you know, whatever the customer wants. If they want to buy it from one business or the other, that's fine. If they want to work new development projects with one business or the other, that's fine. You know, as I've said, there's, you know, I always use the analogy, there are many different types of food out there, and, you know, some people may want Italian food or American food or French food, whatever, and, you know, at Heichel, we really don't care as long as we're selling them the product. So I think that there are a lot of additional opportunities to work together, but we've already really taken advantage of those and we've really helped the various businesses forward. And I think you can see in the results it's really worked out quite well.

Great. Thanks. Also love a diverse diet.

Thank you. Thank you.

And we'll take our next question from Alexandra Nandri with Truist Securities.

Hi, this is Alexandra Nandri. I'm Michael Tremoli with Truist Securities, and thanks for taking my question. In terms of your P&A portfolio, what is the exposure like in terms of new engines, including the LEAP, GTF, GNX? And do you see that as an opportunity, including first-time shop visits on the PMA fund?

Yeah, so we normally don't get into details about, you know, specific product types or competitors. But in general, I can tell you that when an engine is new, you know, it tends to be under warranty, and that's not a big opportunity for us over on the PMA side. It may be more so over on the repair side. And it's as those platforms age and customers want alternatives, that that's when it sort of comes into focus with us. So I would just sort of leave it at that. But I can tell you that our technology that we use to be able to engineer parts is consistent across, you know, all engines, all components, and we're very confident about our ability to technically develop, you know, the current generation and next generation. It's as far as we concerned, all within our wheelhouse.

Great. That makes sense. Can you provide any additional color on general trends in EPG, given the portfolio being well-suited for space and defense tech, including next-gen systems, and where do you see bookings going?

Yeah, so this is Victor. I think that the trends that we talked about a little bit earlier in the call and the optimism for our various markets is intact, and for some of the reasons that you mentioned. By the way, not all of every market is good, and not all of every market offers opportunities. So in space, there's a lot of opportunity, but there's a lot of profitless opportunity there, and I think we've been pretty good at avoiding those situations and really going where we can add particular value to our customers and get recognized or be recognized for that in terms of profitability and market position and so on. And the same applies in defense. There's opportunity, which we take advantage of in the more established segments of the market, as well as some of the newcomers in the defense tech sector. So we sell to both and are proud to do so. And we also believe that the market will continue to evolve such that there will be very important places for both, that one won't necessarily just replace the other. So it's important for us, in a sense, to be everywhere. And I think our businesses, not I think, I know our businesses have been particularly successful at doing that for a long time. One other note on defense. As we look at the government's focus on cost and we look at the government's focus on speed, and particularly somebody earlier in the call mentioned the comments from the Army Secretary. HEICO has always been based on speed. We're not a cost plus fixed fee company, overwhelmingly. We have very little, tiny amount of revenue in the cost plus fixed fee column. It's all on our dime. We developed it. It may be developed to specification. It may be developed to something else, but we develop it on our dime and sell it, and it's based on doing it and doing it quickly and responding very quickly to our customers. So, we are used to doing that and we are extremely well situated for the environment should it evolve to more of that.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

We'll take our next question from Gautam Khanna with TD Cowan.

Hey, thanks. Good morning. My condolences. Larry was a fantastic, kind of a legend in the industry. Always very generous at this time.

Thank you, Gavin.

I just had a couple quick ones. One, you know, I remember asking Larry probably like seven years ago on another call how we viewed the Class A stock and just what the – if there's ever going to be a desire to remove it and just get, you know, the common – what are your opinions on that?

At the moment, I believe it's status quo. We've talked about the issues over time with that and, of course – the idea of collapsing them requires an exchange value. And were we to do that at one-to-one, then we'd have perhaps upset common holders. And if we did that at current market prices, we'd have upset Class A holders. And as you know, the two classes are identical in all respects except for voting. So identical, the dividends, the economic benefits, the share of earnings, everything. So they really belong ultimately at the same price. There have been times over the years where they've converged. We do believe at some point they will converge and that the Class A is really sort of a screaming value. And, in fact, you may notice that when we recently bought shares, our directors purchased shares every year equal to a certain portion of their retainer. And when they bought the shares, they all bought, I think, all bought Class A shares. common shares. So that really is a screaming value. And I think over time, the rational market will recognize that and push them together.

Gotcha. Okay. I wanted to ask also just in terms of demand by region, other companies in the sector have said like China may have bought spare parts, you know, pulled forward some purchases. Have you seen any sort of trends that would suggest anything to that, of pre-buying or of the PMA parts?

No, we, you know, we see strength in all of our areas. So I would not say that we've seen that, you know, it can be lumpy a little bit because, you know, people may buy parts a couple times a year for each part number and therefore it can be a little lumpy. But no, I wouldn't say that we've seen any region particularly stronger than the others.

Okay. And then just my last one, in terms of pipeline of new PMA parts that are going to be introduced, typically you guys have given a range, you know, could be as many as 500 in a given year.

What does the pipeline look like for 26 in terms of what you're introducing to the market?

I would say it's consistent with what we've done historically. Really, no change there. We're very happy with the number of parts that we've come out with. You know, we've been at a similar, you know, number for a number of years. It went up when we bought Windcor. But, you know, I think you can see from the numbers that I think our decision has been quite good in that regard. And so, I wouldn't see any substantive change.

All right. Thanks a lot, guys, and happy holidays. Thank you.

And we'll take our next question from Cashin Keeler with BMP.

Hey, guys. This is Cashin on behalf of Matt today. I guess just going off that last question, just wanted to ask on PMA, How supportive has the FAA been regarding parts approvals there? It seems like everything related to FAA approvals, whether it be interiors or new active crafts, has just taken longer. So has that had any impact on your pipeline of new parts?

No, we've got a great relationship with the FAA, and, you know, we interface with them in, you know, many different ways. And I would say it's really business as usual for us. No change there. All is progressing very well for us.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

And we'll take our next question from with Wolf Research.

Hey, good morning. Thank you, guys. Victor, maybe for you, maybe I missed this, but could you give me end market growth within ETG for the quarter? I don't know, defense versus electronics. We did not break that out, probably. Okay. All right, I'll take a look in the 10K. Maybe, Carlos, for you, CapEx, you guys aren't one to really spend, but you spent a little bit more in the fourth quarter. Anything you can sort of point to with that extra spending went to?

No, I think it was sort of business as usual where we had – Around year-end, you wind up getting projects accelerated sometimes because you get year-end deals as the calendar year closes out. So we still spend around, I think, 1.5%, maybe 1.6% of our revenues on CapEx. That's about where we've been historically on the calendar expense side. And I think as we look into 26, it should be in a similar range, 1.5%, 1.6% revenues or something like that.

All right, thank you very much. Thank you.

At this time, I will turn the conference back to the management team for any additional or closing remarks.

Thank you very much, Samara. We appreciate your coverage of the call for us. We wish everybody on the call a wonderful holiday season, and we thank you for listening today, and we look forward to talking with you on the next call, or if not sooner. Thank you very much.

And this concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.