管理層發言
Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the LENSAR First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. Operator instructions: as a reminder, today's program is being recorded. And now, I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Lee Roth, President of Burns McClellan, Investor Relations Adviser to LENSAR. Mr. Roth, please go ahead.
Thanks, Jonathan. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the LENSAR First Quarter 2026 Financial Results and Strategic Update Conference Call. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release providing an overview of our financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026. A copy of this press release is available on the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.lensar.com. Joining me on the call is Nick Curtis, Chief Executive Officer; and Tom Staab, Chief Financial Officer of LENSAR, who will provide an overview of recent developments, our go-forward strategy and financial results. Following these prepared remarks, we'll turn the call back over to the operator to take your questions. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you all that today's call will contain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding future results, unaudited and forward-looking financial information as well as information about the company's future performance and/or achievements. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results or performance expressed or implied on this conference call. You should not place any undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. For additional information, including a detailed discussion of the risk factors, please refer to the company's documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be accessed on our IR website. In addition, this call contains time-sensitive information accurate only as of the date of this live broadcast, May 8, 2026. LENSAR undertakes no obligation to revise or otherwise update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may occur after the date of this live conference call. With that said, it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Nick Curtis. Nick?
Thank you, Lee, and good morning to everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Near the end of the first quarter, we turned the page, marking a new beginning for LENSAR as we exited the transaction-related holding pattern we were operating in for the past year and began to once again carve our own path as an independent organization. With the termination of the merger in mid-March, we spent most of quarter 1 in a state of limbo, and that state was reflected in our results for the quarter. However, in a positive light, the FTC position and the deal termination validated that we have the best technology in the market. Subsequently, we have made substantial progress since March 16 and look forward to expanding our global footprint, allowing more surgeons and their patients to experience the life-changing benefits of ALLY without the uncertainty of a pending transaction. While our near-term financial and operational performance will no doubt be watched closely, it's important to understand that for the next several quarters, success won't be measured by any metric on our P&L, but rather by progress towards reestablishing the solid foundation and momentum for growth that we were building on prior to the announcement of the merger at the end of Q1 2025. We're returning to the fundamentals of growing new placements and the resulting recurring revenue in and outside the U.S. with purpose. It has been almost eight weeks since announcing the termination of the Alcon transaction and the progress we've made in that short time gives us cause for optimism over what the future holds for LENSAR. As I shared on our fourth quarter call, we continue to believe strongly in our ability to deliver value over the long term for all of our key stakeholders, including our surgeon partners in the U.S., international distributor partners, the patients that our end-user partners serve and ultimately, our shareholders. In parallel with these efforts to complete this organizational and mind reset, we are working diligently to return to the level of growth we were enjoying pre-transaction. We're taking a matter-of-fact, business-as-usual approach with a very clear path forward and a keen focus on rebuilding momentum throughout the business, and I'm pleased to share that we're making some great progress. We generated total revenue of $13.4 million in the quarter, which was down about 5% from $14.2 million a year ago. That decline, however, was a result of lower system capital sales, down roughly $1.8 million year-over-year as opposed to the placement revenue. This was partially offset by increased procedure revenue driven by continued growth in global procedure volumes. One of the most important takeaways I'd like to highlight from this quarter's financial performance was the continued growth in our recurring revenue, which was up $1.1 million, or 9%, compared to the first quarter of 2025, representing 94% of our total revenue for Q1 2026. We expect recurring revenue growth in two ways. The first is to increase as we begin again to expand the installed base of ALLY. The second important initiative is to continue to leverage our existing installed base to grow recurring revenue driven by the materially industry-leading utilization rates of the ALLY System. As system installations and base ramp back up, procedure-based recurring revenue will accelerate further. In the coming quarters, I look forward to tracking and updating you in this regard. We placed seven ALLY systems during the quarter, bringing our ALLY installed base to approximately 205 systems, with another 11 systems in backlog pending installation. The total installed base of ALLY and LLS systems reached approximately 440, up 12% compared to March 31, 2025. ALLY now accounts for nearly half of our global installed base, demonstrating the strong adoption we continue to see for our next-generation platform. It's important to recognize that this growth in the ALLY installed base has been achieved despite limited contribution from our outside-the-U.S. markets over the past year. As I pointed out on the last call, the initial ALLY launch outside the U.S. was very successful, but the momentum that we were building came to a halt just as quickly as it started given the uncertainty over the post-acquisition business integration and ALLY distribution plan forward. While complexities around the go-forward commercial dynamic created a headwind for us, physician interest in ALLY and its numerous benefits have never subsided. Now that we and our distributors have clarity, I'm confident we can rebuild the strong international presence over time. So while placement activity in the quarter was down, I want to draw attention to the more important story, which is the continued strength in the recurring revenue. We're reaching an inflection point where the size of our installed base is increasingly supportive of the recurring revenue growth even during periods of slower system placements. That represents a materially stronger and more durable business model than the one we had in the early days of the ALLY launch. Procedure volume also continued to trend in the right direction. We performed approximately 54,000 procedures in the first quarter, up from about 52,000 last year and 39,000 in 2024. Our U.S. procedure market share at the end of the first quarter was 23.4%, consistent with reported market share on December 31 and expected given the fewer laser installations in Q4 '25 and Q1 2026, which generate share growth for LENSAR. I believe that we will get back to the recent trend of quarter-to-quarter market share gains moving forward as we continue to convert competitive system users and attract additional femto-naive surgeons into the ALLY ecosystem. My strong conviction is grounded in firsthand observations from the field. LENSAR has maintained a presence at the key ophthalmology meetings and with the knowledge that we will be moving forward as an independent company, our attendance at these key industry congresses is expected to return to pre-acquisition levels. While our booth at the ASCRS Annual Meeting last month in Washington, D.C. was smaller than we've had historically, it was no less productive. As you know, these meetings are planned months in advance, and we had precious little time or the opportunity to expand our footprint as an independent company following the decision to terminate the merger. Although we didn't have prime real estate in the exhibition hall and overall meeting attendance was lower than previous conferences, booth traffic was incredibly high, which resulted in more than 50 system demos. That's a great indicator of interest and engagement from potential surgeon partners and a very encouraging way to reinitiate LENSAR's presence at these important industry events. I'm really proud of what our team accomplished at the ASCRS, pulling it together with such professionalism and pride in a matter of weeks, and I look forward to a more visible presence at the upcoming major conferences. This conference was a bright spot and everyone on the team is reenergized as the enthusiasm and interest in the benefits of ALLY was reaffirmed for our entire organization. While the workflow and practice efficiency benefits of ALLY are well known throughout the community, we see a significant opportunity to continue building upon the robust body of clinical evidence supporting that ALLY enables surgeons to consistently deliver optimal outcomes for patients. In the coming months, we'll have podium presence at several key industry congresses with ALLY continuing to represent a leading voice in the ongoing clinical discourse around the benefits of laser-assisted cataract surgery to surgeons, their staff, and the patients that they serve. Before wrapping up my prepared remarks, I'd like to quickly share a recent interaction with one of our surgeon partners, a perfect reflection of why we're so enthusiastic and optimistic about what the future holds for LENSAR. I've known this particular doctor for years. She was using a competitor's first-generation laser and struggling with the inefficiencies of that technology. She had reached a point where she was considering stopping laser-assisted cataract procedures altogether because she just couldn't justify the cost of premium surgeries for her patients given the limited benefit she was realizing with this competitive system. Her facility ultimately upgraded to an ALLY System and saw the difference almost immediately. Based on early experience, this included not only improved efficiencies, but also improved outcomes and an improved patient experience in their cataract procedure. With ALLY, her perspective on laser-assisted cataract surgery changed completely, and she is now recommending it to all of her patients. I spoke with the surgeon in a recent users call that we had, and the comments she made were quite telling. She said, "Nick, I will never do another premium procedure without using ALLY." For us, that really captures what this is all about: delivering on the promise of our technology. ALLY isn't simply an incremental step forward. It improves the experience for all surgeons and their ability to optimize treatment for premium cataract patients. The big players in our industry who thought they'd be eating our lunch are instead trying to catch up. We welcome their advancements, which no doubt bring greater attention to the market, and we look forward to not only maintaining but also extending our technological lead. I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Tom Staab, to cover the financial highlights for the quarter. But before doing so, I'd like to acknowledge that after today's call, Tom will be leaving us and going back to his biotech roots as well as relocating closer to his home. On behalf of the entire organization, I'd like to thank him for the six-plus years he served alongside me and the numerous contributions he's made to help us get to the point we're at today. He's been a trusted colleague and a dear friend, and I wish him the very best as he starts his next chapter. Tom?
Thank you, Nick, for your kind words, and good morning, everybody. Before I begin, I'd like to thank the entire LENSAR team for six incredible years. It has been a rewarding experience launching ALLY and helping grow the company to its current state with recurring revenue annualizing over $50 million and ALLY continuing to outperform other first-generation lasers. LENSAR's future is bright, and I leave the organization in a strong position to reclaim the success we experienced in 2024. I look forward to watching LENSAR build momentum and advance its mission of delivering next-generation care in refractive cataract surgery. With that, let me turn to a brief conversation of our financial results for the first quarter, and there are only a few items to discuss in greater detail. Our total revenue for the first quarter of 2026 was $13.4 million compared with $14.2 million in the first quarter of 2025. The year-over-year decline was primarily due to lower system revenue, which was partially offset by continued growth in recurring revenue. System revenue was approximately $800,000 this quarter compared with $2.6 million in the prior year quarter, reflecting lower placement activity from the acquisition-related malaise Nick discussed earlier. Recurring revenue continued to be the bright spot in our performance with total recurring revenue of $12.6 million, up 9% from the $11.5 million in the prior year quarter. Gross margin for the first quarter was approximately $6.4 million or 48% of revenue compared to $7.1 million or 50% in the first quarter of 2025. Our gross margin percentage is squarely in the range of 46% to 49% discussed in our fiscal '25 results call and, as discussed then, reflects the higher cost of production associated with inflationary increases and tariffs that we have chosen not to pass on to our customers. Total operating expenses were $4.1 million compared with $12.9 million in the first quarter of last year. Specifically, SG&A expenses declined significantly to $2.5 million from $11.1 million, primarily due to a credit of $4.4 million associated with unpaid acquisition costs that were eliminated or written off through concession of our acquisition advisers. When you exclude acquisition-related costs, SG&A costs were consistent at $6.9 million for both first quarters ending March 31, 2026 and 2025. Net income from the quarter was $36.3 million or $1.56 per basic share compared to a net loss of $27.3 million a year ago. It's important to note that this quarter's net income was largely driven by noncash items, including a $23.9 million gain related to the change in fair value of warrant liabilities, along with the recognition of $10 million acquisition deposit into our other income in our first quarter results associated with the termination of the acquisition. This recognition did not increase our cash balance as funds were already in our operating accounts, but funds were not owned by us until the acquisition termination. Moving on to adjusted EBITDA, which was negative $311,000 versus a positive $165,000 in the prior year quarter. We expect upon achieving a rebound of our quarterly placements that adjusted EBITDA will return to positive territory and thereby again generate cash from operations. We ended the quarter with $13.5 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments, and we continue to manage our liquidity carefully while we cautiously rebuild our business and keep ALLY as the premier robotic laser in the marketplace. That concludes my comments. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Jonathan, and we look forward to answering your questions.
分析師問答
And our first question for today comes from the line of Frank Takkinen from Lake Street Capital Markets.
Tom, wish you the best. Congrats on your transition. I was hoping to start with just an update on the current state of affairs. I know we've talked about a number of different things you're rebuilding, Nick, from internal on the U.S. side as well as outside the U.S. with distributors. I was just hoping to get a general update on how all of that is going and then the primary goal of getting to when can the business get back to some of the prior growth rates we've seen based on the progress you've made thus far?
Yes. Thanks, Frank. I hope you're doing well today. I appreciate your question. So we've been doing exactly that. You and I had a chance to meet at ASCRS, and we talked about some of this. I've been meeting with — and I've met individually with each of our distributors. We're getting people back on board. I don't want to say too much, but we have received purchase orders from our distributors, which is very positive because that indicates that they're getting back on track and have orders. We should ship some systems this quarter outside the U.S., which will be the first time in about a year. So I'm optimistic about that and restarting that business. And we've got some purchase orders that will take us into the fourth quarter as well here. So I'm optimistic about that. Activity — those 50 demos — and we did a conference call as well. We did a Webex. We had about 77 participants on that Webex just to talk about LENSAR's going-forward plan and strategy. And the doctors couldn't have been more supportive of the company and our initiatives there. Peer-to-peer activity is very strong. We've got some conferences coming up this summer. And I'd say that I'm pretty pleased with the activity that we've got and the increase in activity that we've seen in the U.S. post termination of the deal.
That's helpful. And maybe just a follow-up on that, the distributor purchase orders — is that something that's included in the backlog today? Or was that post quarter end?
That's post quarter end. It's going to take us the next couple of quarters. I really expect the next few quarters to be a steady period of rebuilding and improvement. I think the really great story is that our recurring revenue is so strong and that it continues to grow. And I feel that's going to continue. So now as we start adding additional placements, I think really looking toward 2027 is going to be really, really good for us.
Got it. Very helpful. And then maybe just one more for Tom would be great to get a sense of how we should think about operating expense. Is that $6.9 million adjusted figure how we should be thinking about that for quarters moving forward in 2026? And then if you could refresh us on cash use expectations as we work through the transition and get back to growth and profitability.
Yes. Good question, Frank. And the easiest way to respond to your question is over the last 12 months, we've kind of not rebuilt our human resource system. Some of our people left thinking that the acquisition was going to take the reins and they went to other opportunities. So our SG&A expenses are actually going to increase now organically from the $6.9 million. Obviously, we had acquisition costs in there, and we won't have any of those going forward. But we need to build our service and customer application specialists as well as our regional sales representatives to support the growth that we're going to do. But we're going to do it judiciously as we go forward. I think the best way to look at this — and as you reflect on the fourth quarter, our system placements were down, but it was simply because we had no placements in the first quarter outside the United States versus we had eight placements in the quarter of the first quarter of 2025. So that's a huge governor on our business when we were being so successful outside the United States. And as Nick's comments allude to, we're just getting those distributors back on board, and they're excited to get back on board, but it's not something that you just flip on like a light switch. As we increase the number of sales, then we're going to devote that cash back to the business. We're in a strong financial position right now, but we do have to be judicious in how quickly we build just because of paying transaction costs and because of getting the distributors back in the saddle. The good news, as you compare the first quarters of 2025 to 2026 in the United States, is that we actually increased placements in the United States. So that's a good thing. All indicators, as Nick mentioned, are that we're going to grow the business. It just may take a couple of quarters for the distributors to get back on the horse and for the U.S. business, based on the sales cycle, to get back to where we were in 2024.
And our next question comes from the line of Ryan Zimmerman from BTIG.
Tom, great working with you these past few years and enjoy being back in the Carolinas. I want to pick up a number of things. One of the things is if you go back to first quarter 2025, you guys had very strong procedure growth. So it was a tough comp this quarter. Nick, can you talk about both the U.S. versus international procedure growth this quarter relative to maybe what you saw in first quarter 2025? And then the second question is, I appreciate you're not giving guidance. It's a very unique dynamic in terms of getting things going post the transaction. But help us with some broad strokes about how you think about the pace of recovery as we think about both procedures and recurring revenue and system placements. I recognize the challenge of it, but how you see that playing out over the course of the year would be helpful.
Can you hear me? I'm sorry.
Yes. Now we can hear you, sir.
Okay. Great. I appreciate the thoughtful question here. I'll give a little color on how it relates to now. When you install a system, due to the training and the integration — especially if they're moving it into the OR for the first time and learning how to do fully sterile procedures — we look at about 30 to 90 days to ramp up, depending on the account and their experience and whether we have a fewer number of surgeons or a larger number of surgeons. It takes 30 to 90 days to really ramp up a system where they're doing productive procedure revenue. So in the current installed base, you should think about the seven systems in the first quarter and 11 on backlog; those systems will start to be installed. From the point of installation, it takes 30 to 90 days for them to start producing meaningful revenue. Recurring revenue kind of comes in waves from the growth side of it. New systems will bring fresh revenue; existing systems will grow but at a slower rate. On average, compared to a competitive device — based on MarketScope data — we perform 27% higher procedure numbers on average than a competitive system that's been installed, and we see about an 11% increase if we're upgrading from an LLS to an ALLY. So take new systems and project those out 30 to 90 days from the revenue increase perspective. As we start to get more placements into the field, that recurring revenue begins to grow more quickly. That's why I'm being cautious about the next two quarters because we're just getting back to the point where now people know who they're dealing with, and they're getting back to decision-making related to installing systems. In OUS, we recognize revenue immediately upon selling a system when it leaves LENSAR, which is different than revenue recognition in the U.S. So as we see some systems go there, we'll recognize revenue immediately on that, but you'll see a similar ramp-up of procedures there as well. Procedure numbers have been pretty strong outside the U.S., which has been a pleasant surprise with the existing systems that are in place. As we start getting more systems out there, I'd expect to get a bump there, too.
Very helpful, Nick. If we go back, and this goes back even when you guys came out of PDL BioPharma, the intent of the system was to do a combined femto and phaco. We lived through the early dynamics with the FDA, etc. But now as you refocus the company, what are your thoughts around the ALLY technology itself? What enhancements do you want to make? What's the pipeline roadmap? We know the market will get more competitive. There are some companies developing new FLACS systems. How do you sustain momentum and advantage over time, technologically speaking?
I love this question because this is really important for us going forward. Now that we're independent and getting critical mass, there are several applications we're looking at to enhance the ALLY device. Much of this work was put on hold during the transaction because we didn't know what an acquirer would prioritize. Now we can restart. I'll discuss some of this at the upcoming AECOS meeting in Madrid, but it's likely obvious that we'll look at corneal procedures such as flaps and other corneal applications. I won't get too specific today, as I'd like to make announcements directly to surgeons when we present. With the system's capabilities, including the dual-pulse laser, we certainly have the capability of doing more in the cornea than we've shown to date. Since we have the makings of a robotic technology, you'll see us move toward more robotic function and continued enhancement of robotic capabilities. One area we could look at closely is docking automation — making docking more automated and less surgeon-dependent while remaining surgeon-guided. On the phaco side, I'm open-minded because we have strong intellectual property around integration with phaco devices. It's highly unlikely LENSAR would develop a phaco ourselves; that's not realistic. But we could revisit integration depending on market dynamics and potential partnership opportunities.
I was just going to address the procedure question: when you look at the procedure growth in the quarter, it is solely related to U.S. activity. Nick and I can't emphasize enough that when the acquisition was announced, there was a slow turn-off of our distributor activity. You see that in not only procedure volume, but more importantly, in placements. Right now, the U.S. business is still doing pretty well, but outside the United States it has been flat up until the activity that Nick just mentioned.
But Tom, I think it's important to call out that in the 52,347 from 1Q 2025, there is procedure volume outside the U.S. in that comp, right? So you are comping a U.S. number against both a U.S. and OUS number, just to be clear.
What I'm saying is the increase is solely associated with the United States as you're comparing those numbers and that the procedure volume outside the United States was effectively flat from Q1 of 2025.
Okay. I can take that offline. Just one last one for me, Nick: with Alcon terminating the agreement, they have a significant LenSx installed base now. Given how old that technology is, what's the response been from LenSx users? For you, does that represent meaningful opportunity because those users thought there might be a pathway to get to ALLY? I'm curious what you're hearing from that segment of the market.
That's a really good question. There is no doubt that the uncertainty delayed some surgeons' decisions. An analogy: when do you buy a new car? People often drive their car until maintenance bills get high or they simply don't want to deal with the old vehicle. I think we're getting to that point. We're looking at certain multisystem opportunities that have older technology, specifically some LenSx installs. I think people will come to their own realization that despite a vast portfolio, some of that product is old and getting toward the end of its useful life. We're looking forward to going after those systems. We're disciplined — we won't pursue deals at any cost. We're creative about structuring deals, which is one of the advantages of being single-product focused. At a certain point, from a pricing perspective, we bring way more efficiency: doctors can do many more cases in a day than with other devices, saving time for patients and staff, and enabling additional premium procedures that bring higher revenue and EBITDA for practices and private equity groups. We shouldn't have to compete on price because we bring higher benefits. There's a balance between the incumbent using resources to try to keep customers and the point at which users switch. So it's not if, it's when.
This does conclude the question-and-answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Nick Curtis for any further remarks.
I really appreciate everybody joining the call today and even more so your continued interest in LENSAR. I look forward to updating you as we continue to make further progress throughout the year and look forward to our next call.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.