Operator: Good morning, welcome to the Ocean Power Technologies fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2026 earnings conference call. A webcast of this call is also available and can be accessed by a link on the company's website at www.oceanpowertechnologies.com. This conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay shortly after its completion. On the call today are Dr. Philipp Stratmann, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Bob Powers, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following the prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Now I am pleased to introduce Bob Powers. Please go ahead.
Bob Powers: Thank you, good morning. Last evening, post-market close, we issued our earnings press release for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended April 30th, 2026. Our public filings are available on the SEC website and within the investor relations section of the OPT website. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements that are within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may include financial projections or other statements of thecompany's plans, objectives, expectations, or intentions. These statements are based on assumptions made by management regarding future circumstances and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Additional information about these risks can be found in the company's SEC filings. The company disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements made on this call. Finally, we've posted an updated investor presentation on our IR website. With that, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Dr. Philipp Stratmann.
Philipp Stratmann: Good morning, everyone, thank you for joining us. When viewed individually, today's announcements represent a series of important milestones. When viewed together, however, they tell a much more significant story about the evolution of Ocean Power Technologies. Fiscal 2026 was a defining year for the company. Over the past 12 months, we continued executing a strategy that has broadened our capabilities, expanded the markets we serve, and strengthened the operational foundation on which we intend to build the business over the coming years. During the year, we secured the largest deployment and recurring revenue contract in the company's history, built record backlog, expanded our international presence, continued integrating our technologies into operational maritime security missions, and today, announced both the acquisition of strategic subsea technology assets and the appointment of Rear Admiral Joe DiGuardo as acting chairman of our board. While each of these developments is significant in its own right, together, they demonstrate a company that is increasingly moving beyond individual products toward delivering integrated operational capability. For much of our history, OPT was recognized primarily for developing innovative maritime technologies. Today, our customers increasingly require something broader. They're looking for resilient operational infrastructure that enables long-duration maritime missions through the integration of autonomous systems, intelligent sensing, communications, Al-enabled software, and reliable offshore power. Our strategy has been to assemble those capabilities into a common operational infrastructure that supports increasingly complex missions across the maritime domain. That strategy is being driven by changes we see across our markets. Governments are investing heavily in maritime domain awareness and autonomous capability. Critical offshore infrastructure requires continuous monitoring and resilient communications. Commercial operators continue to pursue safer, more efficient offshore operations through increased autonomy and digitalization. Across each of these markets, customers are increasingly looking for integrated operational capability rather than individual products. We believe that shift plays directly to our strength. Our Coast Guard deployment is an excellent example of that evolution. Beyond becoming the largest deployment and recurring revenue contract in the company's history, it demonstrates that our technologies can support an active maritime security mission alongside premier defense partners. More importantly, it validates the role that operational infrastructure can play in enabling persistent maritime awareness and long-duration operations rather than simply deploying another platform. The same trend is evident internationally. During fiscal 2026, we expanded our activities across Europe, continued developing opportunities in the Middle East, and strengthened relationships with allied governments and strategic partners. Whether supporting defense customers, offshore energy operators, or scientific organizations, we continue to see increasing demand for technologies that provide persistent awareness, resilient communications, and autonomous capability across the maritime domain. Importantly, our strategy is not built around a single end market. The same operational infrastructure supporting maritime security missions also addresses requirements across offshore energy, marine research, environmental monitoring, and critical offshore infrastructure. Rather than developing separate technology stacks for different industries, we continue to invest in a common architecture that can be configured to support a broad range of customer missions. We believe that approach strengthens our competitive position while allowing us to leverage our investments across a significantly broader addressable market. Today's acquisition is another logical step in that strategy. By extending our capabilities from the ocean surface toward the seabed, we are broadening the operational infrastructure we can provide to customers. As maritime operations become increasingly integrated across the surface and subsea domains, we believe customers will place greater value on infrastructure that enables long-duration operations across the full maritime environment. Turning briefly to our financial results, fiscal 2026 reflected continued investment in the capabilities required to support larger customer programs and a growing recurring revenue business. We concluded the year with record backlog of approximately $19.8 million, an increase of 58% over the prior year, while continuing to expand our qualified sales pipeline. During the year, we also invested in engineering, manufacturing, software deployment capability, and operational readiness to support increasingly sophisticated customer requirements. Those investments position the company to execute larger programs, support long-term customer relationships, and continue expanding our presence across both defense and commercial markets. Before concluding, I would like to recognize Terence Cryan for his 14 years of service on the board of directors, including 12 years of service as Chairman of the Board. Terence helped guide Ocean Power Technologies through an important period in the company's history, and on behalf of the board and the entire organization, I thank him for his leadership and commitment. I also welcome Rear Admiral Joseph DiGuardo as Acting Chairman. Diga's operational leadership and national security experience align closely with the direction of the company and the customers we increasingly serve. His appointment reflects the continued evolution of Ocean Power Technologies as we strengthen our position supporting defense, security, and critical maritime infrastructure. As many of you have also seen, we have asked shareholders to authorize a reverse stock split. The board believes maintaining our NYSE American listing and preserving long-term access to the capital markets are important as we continue executing our strategy and positioning the company for future growth. We view this as a prudent corporate action that supports the next stage of the company's development and our ability to pursue the opportunities ahead. Looking ahead, fiscal 2027 is about execution. We've broadened our capabilities, strengthened our market position, and established a stronger operational foundation. Our priorities are straightforward. Successfully deliver the programs we have won, convert record backlog into revenue, expand recurring services, continue growing internationally, broaden both our defense and commercial customer base, and continue strengthening the operational infrastructure that enables our customers to operate across the maritime domain. We believe the work accomplished during fiscal 2026 has positioned OPT differently than at any point in our history. The strategy is established, the opportunities before us continue to expand, and our focus now is on disciplined execution and creating long-term value for our customers and shareholders. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bob to review our financial results in greater detail.
Bob Powers: Thank you, Philipp. Before reviewing our financial results, I'd like to provide some context for the year. Fiscal 2026 was a year of strategic investment and operational execution. Our reported financial results reflect the timing of customer deployments, investments to support long-term growth, and certain strategic contracts accepted at lower margins to establish important customer relationships and position the company for larger, higher-margin opportunities. During the year, we also continued investing in our workforce and strategic capabilities. With that context, I'll begin with backlog, which we believe provides one of the clearest indicators of future revenue. As Philipp mentioned, backlog increased 58% during fiscal 2026 to $19.8 million, compared to $12.5 million at the end of the prior fiscal year. This growth reflects continued conversion of opportunities across defense, government security, offshore energy, and commercial markets, providing increased visibility into future revenue. Our sales pipeline remains strong at $142.3 million at year-end, compared to $137.5 million a year ago. We continue to see encouraging customer engagement across our core markets and believe our pipeline remains well-positioned to support future growth. Revenue for fiscal 2026 was $4.1 million, compared to $5.9 million last year, primarily reflecting the timing of customer deployments and revenue recognition. While this affected year-over-year comparisons, we believe backlog provides a more meaningful indicator of future revenue generation than period-to-period revenue fluctuations. Gross loss for fiscal 2026 was $8.1 million, compared to gross profit of $1.7 million in the prior year. Results primarily reflect project mix and certain strategic contracts accepted at lower margins to support long-term customer relationships and future growth opportunities. Operating expenses were $31.7 million, compared to $23.3 million in fiscal 2025, primarily reflecting increased stock-based compensation and additional headcount supporting the company's strategic growth initiatives. Approximately $9.5 million of operating expenses during the year consisted of non-cash stock-based compensation. Net loss for fiscal 2026 was $43.7 million, compared to $21.5 million in the prior year, reflecting the factors I just mentioned. Turning to liquidity, combined cash, unrestricted cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaled $8.7 million on April 30th, 2026, compared to $6.7 million at the beginning of the fiscal year. Net cash used in operating activities for fiscal 2026 was approximately $22.7 million, compared to $18.6 million in fiscal 2025. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Philipp.
Philipp Stratmann: Thank you, Bob. As we look ahead, we believe the momentum established during fiscal 2026 provides a strong foundation for continued progress. Our focus entering fiscal 2027 is straightforward: execute on growing backlog, continue converting our pipeline into contract awards, expand recurring revenue opportunities, deepen relationships with government and commercial customers, and continue advancing our Al-enabled maritime autonomy platform. We believe increasing global demand for maritime domain awareness, critical infrastructure protection, and autonomous offshore operations creates a substantial long-term opportunity for OPT. Fiscal 2026 demonstrated that our strategy is gaining traction as we convert innovative technology into operational deployments, recurring customer programs, and strategic partnerships. While there remains significant work ahead, we are confident that the foundation we've established positions OPT to pursue sustainable long-term growth and create value for our shareholders. Thank you for joining us this morning, and we look forward to taking your questions.
Operator: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Again, that is star one to ask a question. Our first question will come from Sameer Joshi with H.C. Wainwright.
Sameer Joshi: Good morning, Philipp, Bob. Thanks for taking my questions. Congrats on a strong finish to the year. As far as your sales pipeline goes, will you help us understand what portion of this pipeline is coming from Anduril-related deployments and what is the historical conversion rate from pipeline to backlog?
Philipp Stratmann: Hey, Sameer. Thanks for being on. Appreciate the question. I think it's fair to say that if you look at the pipeline overall and apply an approximate split, about 50% of our pipeline is defense and national security-related efforts, and around the other 50% is commercial. A lot of the commercial work is energy infrastructure related, domestic and overseas. Specifically on this contract, I think it's important, I think your question was specific, what of it is Anduril related, if I recall your question correctly?
Sameer Joshi: Yeah.
Philipp Stratmann: We're partnering with Anduril on the U.S. Coast Guard project, but we're not a subcontractor to Anduril on the U.S. Coast Guard project. I think it's an important distinction to make, and I think it highlights the strength of the solution offering that we bring, which enables us to partner with companies like Anduril. We're very grateful for the work that we're doing with them and some of the integration work we have done from our sensor and data fusion into their operating systems. We announced publicly about $6.5 million of our pipeline is related to the U.S. Coast Guard project.
Sameer Joshi: Got it. Then I think second part of my question was, historically, what is the conversion rate for a pipeline to become backlog? Or maybe I will ask it differently. Does the pipeline include only prospective opportunities that have been identified or contracts that you may be actively bidding on?
Philipp Stratmann: Yes. That's great. I think we're pretty strict in the way we define internally qualified pipeline. Qualified pipeline is not a TAM or SAM type of flag. It is only customers where we are having detailed discussions about actual projects, and in many instances, are already bidding and discussing projects and exchanging proposals. I couldn't give you a detailed metric on what the conversion rate is, it is definitely fair to say that this is all for real projects where there are ongoing live discussions. Our sales team and our sales leadership and myself oftentimes included, are in ongoing back and forth negotiations.
Sameer Joshi: Understood. Just moving on to cash burn and balance sheet. I see that the accounts receivables have nicely come down quarter-over-quarter. I'm comparing it to the previous quarter. At the same time, you have run down some of the inventory, probably converting it into revenues. Going forward, how do you plan to manage the cash and what should we expect on the OpEx front?
Philipp Stratmann: Let me jump in here. You're right. We actively manage the AR. We take a very diligent and what we think fiscally responsible look at where we expend operating capital and the trade-off between OpEx and CapEx. I think we have continuously stated that we need to expend CapEx in order to build up a fleet of maritime drones and of buoys that can be readily deployed so that we can respond to customers even more quickly. To your initial question, Sameer, around pipeline conversion, the larger the fleet is, the quicker we can go and talk to a customer saying, "If you want this in 4 weeks' time, we can deliver it immediately," as opposed to negotiating the PO, then using that PO to go and build the fleet, and then delivering it in two or three quarters. This enables us to accelerate the revenue conversion. We're obviously always mindful of where and how we expend our cash, and it is a constant OpEx and CapEx debate. We continue to look at building out the fleet.
Sameer Joshi: Understood. One last one, if I may. On the gross margin front, obviously there was some one-time or stock-based impact for the fourth quarter. Going forward, what is the margin profile? Maybe not on a gross margin, but like a contribution margin level where each incremental product or service you deploy gets you a certain gross margin or contribution margin. I would just like to understand that.
Philipp Stratmann: Yeah. I think you're right that as Bob stated, there were some accounting rules that required us to recognize a lot of the costs on one of our contracts upfront in advance of recurring revenues being recognized. Those revenues are yet to be recognized. As we stated, a large portion of that cost has already been recognized. There's going to be a different margin profile, whether it's a sale or, in the government parlance, a contractor-owned, contractor-operated type project, or in the commercial world, a lease project. We're working diligently to make sure that those margins start getting back to the levels that we saw about a year or so ago, which is somewhere in that kind of 35%-55% region, and manage them expeditiously.
Sameer Joshi: Understood. I just want to squeeze one more because of the acquisition. The subsea foray is quite nice to see. Are you willing to share any of the sort of revenue potential or what was paid for this? Any details would be appreciated. If not, we will understand.
Philipp Stratmann: Yeah. As we stated, it is a strategically important subsea wave power generation technology, which will enable us to potentially advance our discussions with certain parts of the U.S. government. We're pretty excited about where we can take this.
Sameer Joshi: Okay, fair enough. Thanks a lot for taking my questions. Good luck.
Philipp Stratmann: Thank you, Sameer.
Operator: As a reminder, that is star one if you would like to ask a question. We'll go next to Peter Gastreich with Water Tower Research.
Peter Gastreich: Thank you. Good morning, gentlemen. Congratulations on the results in advancing your strategy in 2026. Also thanks for taking my questions. It's great to see the top line finishing off in the fourth quarter there. I have a couple questions regarding DHS contracts. First, just a contract 101 question here to clarify how that recurring component functions within your contract. With the multi-buoy DHS program, for example, is recurring services component part of the $6.5 million? How should we think about the duration of recurring services for this contract, the prospects for renewal, and generally, how that recurring component functions in other potential contracts?
Philipp Stratmann: Thanks, Peter. Good morning. I appreciate your question. The recurring component is included in that number. The way it works is, think about it very similar to a lease contract. It is as long as the buoys are deployed and operating and streaming data, they are performing. As long as they perform, we get to recognize revenue, which over the period of performance of the contract. You're going to start seeing that in the quarters going forward. It's a case of, as long as the system is there and doing what it's meant to do, we get to recognize it. I think other contracts that we do operate in a very similar basis. In the commercial world, in the past, we've had several systems on long-term call-offs on our maritime drones. What is great to see is that that business model is now starting to be applied to the buoys, which enables us to continue scaling up the recurring revenue part of our overall stack.
Peter Gastreich: Okay, got it. That 15 months, the existing contract is for 15 months, is that correct?
Philipp Stratmann: It is a 15-month period of performance. Correct.
Peter Gastreich: Okay, great. That's something that could be extended after 15 months?
Philipp Stratmann: I think as we are in ongoing discussions with U.S. Coast Guard, other parts of the Department of Homeland Security, and other parts of the United State government, not just for potentially extending this contract, but also broadening it up and looking at bringing this kind of service into other parts of Homeland Security and the government writ large. Infrastructure security and border security are critical to the defense of the homeland. This is a fully operating commercial proof point that these systems provide additional augmented data points that enable increased security.
Peter Gastreich: Okay, great. Thank you. For the fourth DHS buoy, is that still expected to be installed this summer, and what would be the next steps there?
Philipp Stratmann: Yes. That system is being readied for installation, and we'll provide an update when it goes in, when it goes live operationally. It is currently in the phases of final marine operations planning.
Peter Gastreich: Okay, great. Thank you. Just another question. In a previous call, I think you mentioned that the autonomous docking and charging system could potentially see a early access commercial launch this calendar year. Is that still on track?
Philipp Stratmann: We are continuing to work on our docking and charging solution. I'm glad you asked that. As we stated before, the ability to have maritime drones autonomously attach themselves to a dock and then charge themselves up, whether that dock is deployed in a marina or a port or at a buoy, it is a game changer in terms of enabling distributed maritime autonomous operations. We continue to go and work on the next iteration of the system, having done some of the sea trials earlier this calendar year.
Peter Gastreich: Okay, thank you. Just one more question, just a follow-on on the Columbia Power. Congratulations on that, looks very interesting. The release mentions early customer engagement tied to these assets. Does that mean, is there an existing pipeline letter of intent or contract attached? Is there any color you can provide around that?
Philipp Stratmann: There isn't a huge amount of detail I can provide around that.
Peter Gastreich: Okay.
Philipp Stratmann: I think it is fair to say that the way that the technology has been developed and continues to be developed is definitely an application for underwater opportunities in large collaboration with parts of the U.S. government.
Peter Gastreich: Okay, great. Okay, thanks very much. Congratulations again, and I'll get back in the queue.
Philipp Stratmann: Thanks, Peter.
Operator: Moving on to Jon Hickman with Ladenburg.
Jon Hickman: Hi. Good morning. Can you hear me okay, Philipp?
Philipp Stratmann: Yeah, I can hear you just fine, Jon. Good morning.
Jon Hickman: Okay. Good morning. I'm sorry, I'm a little new to this story, is the six and a half million of Coast Guard contract, is that part of your backlog right now? As you deploy, recognize those revenues, then the backlog goes down?
Philipp Stratmann: That is correct. Part of that is still considered to be in backlog.
Jon Hickman: Then, theoretically, if the U.S. Coast Guard does not renew the contract in 15 months, those buoys come back to you, and you could redeploy them somewhere else with other customers?
Philipp Stratmann: Absolutely. The benefit of these systems is that the buoys have a useful operating life of somewhere up to 15 years.
Jon Hickman: Sure.
Philipp Stratmann: Once they are deployed, they would come back in, they'd get refurbished, we'll do a maintenance cycle, then they can, as soon as that's done, in the matter of weeks, they can go back out to the next customer. What that enables us is, over the long-term life of the fleet, is to really start generating a free cash flow flywheel.
Jon Hickman: Yeah. As of, I guess, either the end of April or right now, how many buoys are actually out there deployed?
Philipp Stratmann: How many buoys are deployed on this specific project or in general?
Jon Hickman: In total. With all your customers.
Philipp Stratmann: I think with all customers in water, there's five buoys currently under customer contract.
Jon Hickman: Okay. I think in an earlier call you expressed to me your manufacturing capacity is roughly a buoy a month. Is that it?
Philipp Stratmann: Give or take. There is a fair amount of flex in that system.
Jon Hickman: Okay.
Philipp Stratmann: The flex really depends on if we have clear line of sight to another large order, we can increase the sub-assembly production through our United State supply chain. All of our products are certified made in the U.S., which enables us to benefit from being able to rapidly flex our ability to increase production capacities.
Jon Hickman: Okay. Thank you very much and nice quarter. Look forward to hearing more and more from you in the future.
Philipp Stratmann: Thank you, Jon.
Operator: This now concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Philipp Stratmann for closing comments.
Philipp Stratmann: Thank you. Before we conclude, I would like to thank our shareholders, customers, partners, and our employees for their continued support and commitment throughout fiscal 2026. This past year marked an important milestone in OPT's evolution as we translated years of technology development into operational deployments, expanded our global presence, and strengthened our position in the growing maritime autonomy market. While we recognize there's still work ahead, we believe the progress we've made, reflected in our record backlog, growing pipeline, and expanding strategic customer relationships, provides a strong foundation for the future. Thank you again for your continued confidence in OPT. We appreciate your support and look forward to updating you on our continued progress throughout the coming year.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.