Prepared remarks
Good morning, and welcome to IPG Photonics' First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded and webcast. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Eugene Fedotoff, IPG's Senior Director, Investor Relations for introductions. Please go ahead with your conference.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. With me today is IPG Photonics CEO, Dr. Mark Gitin, and Senior Vice President and CFO, Tim Mammen. On today's call, Mark will provide a summary of our first quarter results as well as the overall demand environment and then walk you through the progress we are making on our long-term strategy. After that, he will turn it over to Tim to provide financial details. Let me remind you that statements made during this call that discuss our expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in our Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2025, and our reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements made on this call are the company's expectations or predictions as of today, May 5, 2026 only, and the company assumes no obligations to publicly release any updates or revisions to any such statements. During this call, we will be referencing certain non-GAAP measures. For more information on how we define these non-GAAP measures and the reconciliation of such measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures as well as additional details on reported results, please refer to the earnings press release, earnings call presentation and the financial data posted on our Investor Relations website. We will also post these prepared remarks on our website after this call. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Mark.
Thanks, Eugene. Good morning, everyone. First quarter revenue exceeded our expectations, increasing 17% year-over-year. We continue to see improved demand for our laser solutions, particularly in battery manufacturing and medical applications, which drove our strong performance in the quarter. We maintained a disciplined focus on our growth initiatives across all of our markets, delivering solid first quarter results and building momentum for future growth. Before looking more closely at our first quarter sales performance, I would like to highlight our updated revenue reporting framework, which better aligns with our strategic growth initiatives, making it easier to understand and track our progress. It also provides a clear separation between our industrial and nonindustrial revenue streams, giving better visibility into our focus areas and splitting the business into two distinct buckets, with unique performance and growth profiles. This reporting combines applications into two categories: Industrial Solutions and Advanced Solutions. Today, most of our business is in Industrial Solutions where we are building on our strong foundation, expanding our addressable market by displacing incumbent technologies and enhancing our value proposition by offering differentiated system and subsystem solutions. This includes applications such as cutting, welding, cleaning and additive manufacturing and other industrial offerings. In the first quarter, Industrial Solutions revenue accounted for 86% of total sales, increasing 21% year-over-year as our design wins took hold and general industrial demand improved. Welding, cutting, marking and cleaning applications drove higher revenue. Welding and cutting, our two largest applications, posted double-digit growth benefiting from solid demand and new orders from battery manufacturing. Sequentially, Industrial Solutions revenue was relatively flat and outperformed typical seasonality driven by business wins in cutting and additive manufacturing. In Advanced Solutions, which is another important driver of our future growth, we are applying our laser technologies and applications expertise to solve challenging problems for customers. Advanced Solutions serves markets such as medical, defense, micromachining, semiconductor manufacturing and others that present strong growth opportunities and collectively represent a $5 billion TAM. We've already established a solid presence in these markets and are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. Advanced Solutions represented 14% of our revenue in the first quarter and declined modestly year-over-year. Revenue growth in medical and semiconductor applications was offset by lower micromachining sales due to cyclical demand in solar cell manufacturing. Sequentially, revenue declined due to lower medical sales following an exceptionally strong fourth quarter of 2025. We were particularly encouraged by increased sales in semiconductor applications as we gain traction with large equipment manufacturers. Total bookings were strong in the quarter with book-to-bill firmly above 1 for the second consecutive quarter. This gives us confidence in our outlook; it points to robust demand for our solutions despite elevated levels of macroeconomic uncertainty. We see the strong demand and remain focused on executing our key growth initiatives across Industrial Solutions and Advanced Solutions, building upon our strong foundation in industrial innovation, expanding our leadership in laser technology into new high-growth applications such as medical, micromachining and defense. While our initiatives target a wide range of opportunities, our path to success is consistent, leveraging differentiated laser technology and deep applications expertise to deliver clear performance advantages that incumbent approaches cannot match. Together, these initiatives represent compelling opportunities to meaningfully expand our addressable market and support sustained long-term growth. In Industrial Solutions, welding revenue is growing, driven by our advanced capabilities for battery manufacturing across both electric vehicles and stationary storage applications. Global stationary storage deployment is growing rapidly to support data center energy requirements and is gaining increasing share of battery manufacturing. These batteries use larger cells with thicker bus bars, requiring higher power lasers and process monitoring. This aligns directly with our strengths. Our unique combination of adjustable-mode beam lasers, advanced beam delivery and real-time process monitoring ensures weld quality and sets us apart from the competition. Beyond lasers and subsystems, we continue to make meaningful progress in our systems business, which posted another strong quarter. We're moving up the value chain by integrating our fiber lasers into differentiated complete systems which, together with our applications expertise, enables us to tackle complex problems that incumbent technologies cannot address. This approach allows us to deepen our partnerships with customers across a wide range of markets from welding to cleaning. Turning to Advanced Solutions, we continue to make progress with our growth strategy by targeting opportunities across defense, medical and micromachining applications. In February, we announced that Lockheed Martin placed a $10 million follow-on order for Crossbow, our scalable, cost-effective, high-energy laser defense system for countering Group 1 and Group 2 drone threats. Shipments for that order are expected to begin in the second quarter. We also showcased Crossbow at the 2026 AUSA Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, where we engaged with defense industry leaders on how our solutions can address escalating drone threats at a significantly improved cost exchange ratio. Crossbow continues to generate interest from potential customers; we're gaining traction on converting that interest into orders. In Medical, revenue grew significantly year-over-year driven by sales to a new customer as our solutions continue to deliver clinically meaningful outcomes. We are advancing our innovation roadmap and expect several new product approvals and introductions in 2026 and in 2027. We have a very strong backlog for 2026, giving us excellent visibility into full year revenue that points to another good year in medical. In semiconductor, revenue grew this quarter as we ramped up new lithography, metrology and inspection business with large semiconductor equipment manufacturers. This market is being driven by the accelerating adoption of AI, which is fueling demand for GPUs and high-bandwidth memory chips. We continue to advance our product development and are working closely with customers on design and opportunities, supported by the clear performance advantages of our solutions. Our strategic progress is enabled by the organizational changes and investments we have made. We have streamlined operations, strengthened decision-making and accelerated product development, translating into better performance and greater consistency across the business. While our entrepreneurial and innovative spirit remains at the heart of IPG, we are building the operating discipline required to scale these capabilities effectively. In summary, our team delivered another year-over-year growth. Customer demand for our differentiated laser solutions continues to strengthen across our markets. We are making meaningful progress on our strategic objectives, outperforming the market and creating lasting value for our customers and our shareholders. With that, I will now turn the call over to Tim.
Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. My comments will generally follow the earnings call presentation which is available on our Investor Relations website. I will start with revenue trends by application on Slide 5. Industrial Solutions revenue increased 21% year-over-year in Q1 and was driven by growth in welding, cutting, cleaning and marking. This was partially offset by lower revenue in additive manufacturing. On a sequential basis, revenue was basically flat, down 1%, and lower revenue in welding and additive manufacturing was largely offset by growth in cutting and marking. Cleaning revenue is flat. Advanced Solutions revenue decreased 5% compared with last year as growth in medical and semiconductor was offset by lower revenue in defense and micromachining. Revenue is down 13% quarter-over-quarter on lower medical sales from a very strong fourth quarter. Micromachining, semiconductor and scientific revenue all improved sequentially. Sales of our emerging growth products continued to increase and accounted for 53% of total revenue in the first quarter, consistent with the prior quarter. Following our annual review, we made a slight adjustment to the product list. Many of these products are benefiting from growth in battery manufacturing and the medical market. Moving to revenue performance by region on Slide 6. North American revenue increased 27% compared with last year, driven by growth in welding, cutting, additive manufacturing and medical applications. Sequentially, revenue was down 4% due to declines in cleaning and medical, partially offset by strength in welding, cutting, additive manufacturing and micromachining. European sales were up 4% year-over-year, driven by cutting and down 13% sequentially versus a strong fourth quarter due to lower sales in welding, cleaning and additive manufacturing. Revenue in Asia improved 14% year-over-year driven by strong demand in welding, cutting, marking and cleaning applications, which primarily benefited from capacity additions for battery manufacturing. Revenue is flat quarter-over-quarter. Moving to the financial performance review on Slide 7. Total revenue was $265 million, up 17% year-over-year, marking our second consecutive quarter of double-digit sales growth. Foreign currency benefited revenue by approximately 4% this quarter compared to the same period in the prior year. GAAP gross margin was 37.5%, and adjusted gross margin was 37.8%. Adjusted gross margin came in close to the midpoint of our guidance range and improved sequentially. Gross margins benefited year-over-year from lower inventory provisions due to improved inventory management. While product margins have been stable over the last few quarters, we did experience headwinds from tariffs compared to the first quarter of 2025. We continue to target improvement in product margins based on pricing and cost reduction initiatives that are starting to take hold. Underabsorbed expenses continue to run at a higher level than we are targeting in the medium term. And we have specific initiatives underway to improve our operational efficiency. We expect the impact from tariffs to persist in 2026 and continue to work on ways to offset their impact, including cost reduction and pricing initiatives. Total GAAP operating expenses were $107 million. This includes a $13.5 million payment and license related to an agreement with TRUMPF Laser Systemtechnik, settling all parts of litigation between us worldwide. The license will have an immaterial impact on our future results. Excluding the settlement payment, litigation expenses, amortization of intangibles and other acquisition-related expenses, adjusted operating expenses were approximately $91 million, as we continue to invest in our strategic initiatives to drive future growth. GAAP operating loss in the quarter was $8 million, and GAAP net income was $2 million or $0.04 per diluted share. Excluding one-time items, FX and amortization, adjusted operating income was $9 million, and adjusted net income was $13 million, with adjusted earnings per diluted share of $0.29. Adjusted EBITDA was $35 million. Both adjusted EPS and adjusted EBITDA came in above the midpoints of our guidance ranges. Moving to a summary of our balance sheet and cash flow on Slide 8. We ended the quarter with $813 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. We had $71 million in long-term investments and no debt. Cash used in operations was $5 million. The first quarter is typically weaker for cash generation, as it is impacted by annual bonus payments. During the first quarter, we spent $16 million on capital expenditures, below the expected run rate given our CapEx budget of $90 million to $100 million this year due to the timing of investments in our major fiber manufacturing facility in Germany. Excluding the German investment, underlying CapEx is running at about 5% of revenue and we expect to maintain this level going forward. Moving to our outlook on Slide 9. Orders remained strong with book-to-bill staying firmly above 1. For the second quarter of 2026, we expect revenue of $260 million to $290 million, and we expect adjusted gross margin between 37% and 40%, including an ongoing impact from tariffs of about 150 basis points. We estimate adjusted operating expenses in the range of $92 million to $95 million in the second quarter and anticipate that these expenses will increase moderately during the year to support opportunities to further accelerate our key growth initiatives. For the second quarter, we expect to deliver adjusted earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.25 to $0.55 with approximately 43 million diluted common shares outstanding. Our adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $32 million and $48 million. In summary, we are pleased with our first quarter results with both bookings and revenue moving in the right direction. The underlying strength of the business is good to see, but we'd like to remind you that we do face tougher comparisons in the second half of 2026 relative to a strong second half in 2025. Although first quarter gross margin was a little light given the level of revenue, we continue to strive for margin increases through cost reductions, pricing initiatives and reducing underabsorbed costs. While we are monitoring freight costs that may be influenced by geopolitical developments in the Middle East, our direct exposure to petrochemicals and energy markets is limited and our vertical integration provides resilience against potential adverse impacts arising from conflicts in the region. I will now turn the call back over to Mark.
Thanks, Tim. As Tim said, we are pleased with the strong start to the year, reflecting robust demand for our solutions despite elevated macroeconomic uncertainty. While we are closely monitoring current geopolitical events and have yet to see an impact on demand for our solutions, we remain cautiously optimistic in our outlook. We focus on what we can control: executing on our growth strategy, supported by operational excellence and an innovation engine that continues to unlock significant areas of incremental opportunity. This foundation gives us confidence in our ability to achieve above-market growth and deliver lasting value for our customers and shareholders. With that, we will be happy to take your questions.
Questions and answers
Operator provided instructions. Our first question comes from Ruben Roy with Stifel.
Tim, I guess I'll start with one of your last comments on the margin structure. And maybe if we just think about sort of medium to longer term, you've sort of talked about mid-40s as a structural area that the business can run from a longer-term perspective. And if you think about the tariff regime, higher input costs, sort of the puts and takes on product improvements, et cetera, I'm just wondering if you still think that mid-40s target is valid on a multiyear basis? Or has the structural feeling moved around at all based on what you're seeing at this point?
In general, that's a target we're still striving to get to. We are starting to see some of the cost reduction initiatives and some of the pricing that we talked about last year pay through. The other critical aspect of that, Ruben, is really balancing the fixed cost manufacturing structure with the total level of underabsorbed costs so that we can get absorption down as a percentage of sales, and we've certainly got room to drive overall gross margins up. I think relative to the mid-40s when we gave that guidance, the only real headwind at the moment is the tariffs impacting that by 150 basis points or so. But that tariff regime is obviously pretty fluid right now. And I think, overall, for Q2, the guidance at the top end of the range reflects some of that momentum on gross margin that we want to continue to drive forward with.
Right. Okay. That's helpful. And then I guess a higher-level question for Mark. I get the new framework here with Industrial Solutions and Advanced Solutions, I think that makes strategic sense the way you've been sort of managing the business and looking at the business. So glad to see that. Maybe, Mark, if you could talk through in a little more detail some of the drivers across some of the businesses that you discussed in your prepared remarks. As you think about Q2 and maybe the rest of the year, that would be helpful, given that you're presenting it differently. For instance, if we think about some of the moving parts in medical, which you've been pretty excited about, it sounds like there is a little bit of a sequential decline with unevenness and customer ordering. Is that a scheduling dynamic? Is that related to product timing? And maybe if you could talk about some of the other bigger parts of the business, cutting and welding and how you're seeing backlog against those big pieces of the business playing out now? Do you have any extended visibility that would be helpful for us?
Yes, absolutely. Good to talk to you, Ruben. So first of all, we continue and we expect to see continued growth in both of the areas, both Industrial Solutions and Advanced Solutions. And of course, we saw overall the business strongly year-over-year, we saw a 17% growth. We saw that across a wide range of areas in both the industrial as well as the advanced. If we look at the particular areas in industrial, we saw growth and continue to see growth in welding, specifically in the battery area. We've seen good growth actually in cutting as we also start to impact some of the plasma cutting area with our new high-power integrated lasers and new cutting heads. We're also making good progress in additive manufacturing and cleaning across that Industrial Solutions area. And then as we look at the areas of Advanced Solutions—we've seen year-over-year strong medical. We've also seen growth in semiconductor, an area that we're starting to make impact on, as I mentioned in the call, in some of the areas of inspection, metrology, lithography. And then you specifically asked about the quarter-on-quarter in medical. We just had a very strong quarter in medical—we have a strong backlog in medical for the year 2026. So we continue to expect to see growth in that specific area as well.
Got it. Mark, if I could just sneak in one follow-up question. Congrats on the Lockheed Martin follow-on order. Can you just help me think about the revenue recognition profile on that Crossbow program? Is this sort of spread over multiple quarters, I would assume it would be. And it sounds like you're going to be shipping for revenue in Q2. So is that starting this quarter for sort of the initial orders that you had—or does that just reference the follow-on order and you've been shipping for revenue? Maybe you could just help us frame the scale production ramp for that program that I alluded to.
Yes, sure. We're making great progress on Crossbow—as we've talked about, obviously, we launched that at the end of last year. We brought that to a number of key shows—we have a very strong pipeline. Lockheed was a first mover in that area. And yes, we did ship initial systems to them, so they have done a considerable amount of work with that. Then we received the $10 million follow-on order, and we are beginning to ship that here in Q2, and that will be delivered over multiple quarters. I can tell you that we have great interest from a number of key customers that we're working through the funnel, very excited about it. They're really understanding the benefit of the IPG system. Crossbow, as we mentioned in the past, is based upon our high-power single-mode lasers, which IPG is the strongest at. We've demonstrated and shown lasers up to 8 kilowatts single-mode, which is tremendous, and we are making very, very good progress with customers as we launch this forward.
Operator provided instructions. Our next question comes from James Ricchiuti with Needham & Company.
Something to get maybe some additional color on the booking strength that you saw, whether there's much variability by geography perhaps in the two business categories that you're now presenting to us.
Yes. Jim, I'm happy to talk about it. I can talk about it regionally. We're not breaking bookings out by the two areas, but from a regional standpoint, we were very strong in North America and Asia, especially in China and Japan. Europe was a bit more stable.
Okay. And Mark, just on the strength in China. I wanted to— it looks like you had a pretty good quarter in China, yet there seems to be a couple of moving pieces in China. I think Tim alluded to additive manufacturing being a little weaker, but is the strength that you saw year-over-year or you're seeing in China coming from the battery side of the business?
So Jim, we're actually seeing strength across the board. Sometimes there's a little bit of movement quarter-to-quarter, but we've been quite strong in welding, especially in the battery area because we have very strong differentiation there, as you know, with our adjustable beam lasers combined with the scanning and beam delivery as well as the process monitoring that we have. That's very critical in that battery area; we're seeing significant growth and that's not just EV—actually, a similar grower is stationary storage for data center work. Those systems use thicker bus bars because they are higher capacity batteries, and that really zeros in on our solution. So that area of battery plus additive and there are some areas of micromachining also where we're strongly differentiated in China, and we've seen some of that growth. And actually, when I talk about the battery, I can tell you that's happening globally. In fact, in the U.S., we're seeing some battery factories convert from EV to stationary storage, which is good for us as well.
Got it. And maybe a related strong growth in systems the last couple of quarters. And I know there are a couple of moving pieces in that as well. Anything in particular stand out?
Yes, thanks for the question. We've seen strong growth in cleaning—it's one of the key areas. The whole area of systems is a strength for us now because it combines the laser capability plus our applications capability and the ability to deliver that in subsystems and systems and really deliver a solution. Cleaning is one of those key areas, and we're bringing out some new products in that area as well. So we're excited about the growth in systems.
Got it. And just one final quick one for Tim. Tim, any way to think about OpEx as we look out to the back half of the year? Any major changes that we would assume?
Yes. We expect maybe a moderate pickup in OpEx in the second half of the year with continued investments in the organization and really driving these growth initiatives forward. But it's a pretty moderate increase from where we are today. We are conscious that we invested significantly in OpEx to get the company turned around and we need to manage that cost base as we go forward to ensure we get growth coupled with those investments.
There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Eugene Fedotoff for closing comments.
Okay. Thank you for joining us this morning and for your continued interest in IPG. We will be participating in several investor events this quarter. I'm looking forward to speaking with you again soon. Have a great day, everyone.
This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.