Conference Transcript - BELFA 2026-02-18

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Bellfuse fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Should anyone require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Jean Marie Young with three-part advisors. Please go ahead, Jean.

Jean Marie Young, Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everybody that during today's conference call, we will make statements relating to our business that will be considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws, such as statements regarding the company's expected operating and financial performance for future periods, including guidance for future periods in 2026. These statements are based on the company's current expectations and reflect the company's views only as of today and should not be considered representative of the company's views as of any subsequent date. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements or outlook. Actual results for future periods may differ materially from those projected by these forward-looking statements due to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors. These material risks are summarized in the press release that we issued after market close yesterday. Additional information about the material risks and other important factors that could potentially impact our financial performance and cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations is discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports and other documents that we have filed or may file with the SEC from time to time. We may also discuss non-GAAP results during this call. And reconciliations of our GAAP results to non-GAAP results have been included in our press release. Our press release and our SEC filings are all available at the IR section of our website. Joining me today on the call is Farouk Tuik, President and CEO, and Lynn Hutkins, CFO. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Farouk. Farouk?

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

Thank you, Jean, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining our call today. I want to begin by expressing a big thank you to our global team for making customer service and meeting demand their top priorities and for delivering innovative technologies as a key partner to our customers. As a result, 2025 was a milestone year for Bell, with record revenue and EBITDA. We delivered net sales of $675.5 million for the full year, a 26.3% increase over 2024, and achieved a record GAAP and non-GAAP EPS. Fourth quarter sales reached $175.9 million, up 17.4% year over year. Our gross margins expanded to 39.1% for the year, reflecting strong execution and operational discipline. Aerospace and defense, including space, continued to be strong drivers for us in 2025. For the full year, A&D accounted for 38% of our consolidated sales, with 28% from defense and 10% from commercial aerospace. Recovery in the networking end market and growth in AI applications also contributed to higher sales in 2025. Order volumes remain strong across multiple end markets throughout the year, resulting in a full-year book-to-bill ratio of 1.1. We have seen continued improvement and strength heading into Q1. This sustained momentum in incoming orders highlights a healthy demand environment across our end markets and positions us well as we move into 2026. Our team delivered these record results despite headwinds from material pricing, particularly gold, copper, and PCBs, and unfavorable FX movements in the peso, renminbi, and shekel. We're actively monitoring these factors and have and will continue to take pricing actions to mitigate incremental costs, ensuring continued margin strength. Operationally, we successfully completed the closure of our Ping Wow China facility in Q4, transitioning operations to a third-party supplier without interruption to the business. This move is part of our ongoing efforts to optimize our global footprint and drive cost efficiencies. We also made significant progress in strengthening our balance sheet, paying down our debt by $90 million during 2025. This has created additional capacity and flexibility for future investments and potential acquisitions as we continue to pursue growth opportunities. Looking ahead to 2026, we anticipate continued growth in aerospace, defense, space, and AI. the same revenue drivers that have benefited Bell over the past few quarters. Additionally, we have seen positive shifts in sales across the networking, consumer, premise wiring markets, as well as through our distribution channel. The rebound in these areas are expected to continue into 2026. We also foresee increased raw material input costs and a weaker USD, which will require us to proactively manage pricing and pass costs along where appropriate. Our pipeline for M&A activity remains active, and we are excited about several opportunities currently in various stages of evaluation. We anticipate a better backdrop in terms of M&A opportunities as the market noise settles down a bit in 2026. As announced a few weeks ago, we're excited to welcome Tom Smelker to our executive team. Tom joins us from Mercury Systems, bringing valuable experience and a fresh perspective in aerospace and defense. His leadership will help us better align our organization with changing customer needs and industry trends. As we continue to evolve, we are reviewing our segment structures to ensure we're well-positioned for future growth. With Aerospace and Defense now representing a significant portion of our business, we see opportunities to further tailor our leadership and strategy to the unique demands of these markets. Before turning the call over to Lynn here, I would like to take a moment to recognize Pete Bittner, president of our Connectivity Solutions business, who will be retiring in April after 23 years with Bell. Pete has been instrumental in shaping and growing this segment and leaving it in great conditions as he pursues his next chapter. And we thank him for his many meaningful contributions. Wish him great luck, and he'll be missed, but we're sure he'll enjoy his time with his wife and family. I'd also like to take a moment to recognize Dan Bernstein, who transitioned out of the CEO role in May 2025. This past year has been one of the significant transitions for Bell, and I want to sincerely thank Dan for making it a seamless one. Our business transformation, which began years ago under Dan's leadership, laid a strong foundation for the company's continued success. His vision and commitment to Bell's growth have positioned us well for the future, and we're grateful for the guidance and dedication. On behalf of the entire organization, thank you, Dan, for your outstanding contributions and for setting Bell up for success. With that, I'll turn the call over to Lynn to run through the financial highlights from the quarter and provide color on the outlook for Q1 2026.

Lynn Hutkin, CFO

Thank you, Farouk. From a financial standpoint, we had another strong quarter and year with continued margin expansion and solid sales growth across all segments. Fourth quarter 2025 sales were $175.9 million, up 17.4% from the same quarter last year. Full-year 2025 sales totaled $675.5 million, a 26.3% increase over 2024. On an organic basis, sales grew by 41.5 million, or 7.8% over 2024. All three product segments delivered organic growth for the quarter, demonstrating the strength of our diversified portfolio. Profitability improved alongside sales, with gross margin rising to 39.4% in Q425, up from 37.5% in Q424. For the full year 2025, gross margin was 39.1% compared to 37.8% in 2024. This margin expansion was driven by improved absorption of fixed costs in our factories due to higher sales volumes and by strong executions within each segment, maintaining discipline around SKU-level profitability. These results highlight our ability to drive value through operational efficiency and strategic focus. Now turning to our product groups. Power Solutions and Protection delivered another exceptional quarter, with sales reaching 92.5 million in Q425, an increase of 18.5% compared to the fourth quarter of last year. The sales growth in the power solution segment was driven by several key end markets, including a $1.5 million increase in sales of our front-end power products, serving the networking end market in Q425 compared to Q4 last year. Fourth quarter sales into AI-specific customers reached $4 million in Q425, up from the $3.3 million in Q424. Fuse product sales were up by $1.4 million in Q425, a 31% increase from Q424. Sales into consumer applications increased by $1.8 million in the current quarter, up 32% from Q424. And just to note, in our power segment, this is also where we had the acquisition last year, so there was some organic growth on the defense side as well. These areas of growth were partially offset by a decrease in sales of our rail products by $4 million, and e-mobility sales were down $1.1 million as compared to Q424. The gross margin for the power segment was 44.5% for the fourth quarter of 2025, representing a 390 basis point improvement from Q424. This improvement was primarily driven by higher power sales into the aerospace and defense end markets, a favorable shift in product mix, and better absorption of fixed costs at our factories. Our connectivity solutions group achieved sales growth of 15.1% during the fourth quarter of 2025 as it reached $60.5 million compared to Q424. This improvement was due to the continued strong performance in commercial aerospace applications, where sales totaled $18.2 million, an increase of $3.8 million, or 26% year-over-year. Sales into space applications amounted to $2.6 million in Q425, up 53% from Q424. Connectivity sales through the distribution channel were up 3.8 million, or 20%, versus Q424, primarily due to shipments into the defense and market through the distribution channel. Profitability within the connectivity segment continued to improve, with gross margin for the group rising to 37.2% in Q425 from 36.6% in Q424. This margin expansion reflects the benefits of operational efficiencies achieved through improved revenue, a more favorable product mix, and facility consolidations completed last year. These positive factors were partially offset by minimum wage increases in Mexico. Lastly, our Magnetic Solutions group sales delivered a solid quarter, with sales reaching $22.9 million in Q425, a 19.1% increase compared to Q424. This performance was primarily driven by higher shipments to a major networking customer. Gross margin for the group was 27.3% in Q425, down from 29.1% in Q424. This margin differential was due to minimum wage increases in China, an increase in material costs, primarily in gold and PCBs, and unfavorable foreign exchange impacts related to the remedy. Research and development expenses totaled $8 million in Q425, representing an increase of $1.1 million compared to Q424. This increase was primarily attributable to the inclusion of Endercon's R&D costs, which amounted to an incremental increase of $1 million during Q425. We anticipate that R&D expenses in future quarters will generally remain consistent with the Q425 level. as we continue to invest in new technologies and solutions to support our customers and drive long-term growth. Selling general and administrative expenses for the fourth quarter of 2025 were $32.6 million, down $2.2 million from the $34.8 million in Q424, primarily driven by lower acquisition-related legal and professional fees in 2025 compared to 2024. Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow, we closed the year with $57.8 million in cash, down $10.5 million from last year, primarily driven by our proactive efforts to strengthen our balance sheet, including paying down $90 million in long-term debt, resulting in $197.5 million of total debt outstanding at December 31, 2025. Additionally, we made $3.5 million in dividend payments, and we invested $12 million in capital expenditures to support growth and efficiency initiatives. These outflows were partially offset by $7.8 million in proceeds from property sales and $1 million from the sale of held-to-mature securities earlier in the year. During the full year of 2025, we generated cash flows from operations of $80.6 million. Taking into account our swap agreements, the weighted average interest rate on our debt balance at December 31, 2025 was 4.4%. Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2026, we continue to see strength across all three segments. Historically, our first quarter tends to be our lowest sales quarter of the year, given the impacts of the Lunar New Year holiday in China. In light of this historical trend, and based on the information available as of today, we expect Q126 sales to be in the range of 165 to 180 million. Gross margin is expected to be in the range of 37% to 39% given anticipated headwinds related to higher material costs and the unfavorable FX environment we are in. Overall, our consistent performance, strategic investments, and operational excellence have positioned Dell for continued success. We remain committed to driving shareholder value, innovating for our customers, and capitalizing on growth opportunities across our markets. I'd now like to turn the call back to the operator to open the call for 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 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 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. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. The first question is from Bobby Brooks from Northland Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Bobby Brooks, Analyst — Northland Capital Markets

Hey, good morning, team. Thank you for taking my call. So I wanted to touch on kind of sales initiatives moving forward. So you guys brought in the new head of sales about a year ago, right? And I'd just be curious to hear where he sees the most interesting opportunities for growth. Obviously, Farouk, when you initially joined a CFO a handful of years ago, you led a massive shift in the margin profile of the company, which a lot of that was sort of low-hanging fruit that you targeted. So I'm just curious to hear if that sort of same scenario, if Uma has seen that sort of same scenario and, again, like what he sees as the largest opportunities to go after.

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

Yeah, thanks, Bobby, and good to speak with you here. I think that's a pretty nuanced question. As a reminder, we are largely in a medium to long-term design cycle businesses, right? So as we think about influence and we think about A&D, I'd probably suggest the largest part of A&D for 2026 is going to be simply receiving orders from the customers as they get funding and deployment. So if we were to think about sitting early on in the year here about new wins and when they get funding, you're at least a year out, probably one to two years before you monetize them. In some of our shorter design cycle businesses on the other end, I would say something like fuses, you could probably see a win a couple of quarters out, and that translates to some sales or some of our consumer business. So we are a long cycle design business. There's no quick wins here. We sell technology. We want to get in with the customer. We want to do the hard stuff, and therefore that does take a while. If we look at the past few quarters and some of the benefits that have been there, That has been a reflection of the work that the team has done at a global level within the various businesses, right? So I would suggest that the wins and the performance that had in Q4 was probably not much due to sales efforts that happened in Q4, right? This is stuff that probably happened earlier in 2026. So we are seeing the benefits of the global team folks in doubling down. When we look across the business, we have new wins across probably all of our end markets, maybe a little bit less so in places like e-mobility or maybe some of our, you know, I'd say rail is kind of a little bit on a slow year. But I would say more often than not, we always have new wins. And when we think about the funneling process, right, we want to make sure we're going after a robust set of opportunities that are good opportunities and try to convert them to sales. And that process we started a while back. Now, that's not to suggest that we don't have work to do. On the last call, we talked about CRM implementation. In Q4, we redid, you know, a little over three dozen worth of contracts with our reps in the U.S. to really lean into new opportunities. So, you know, we're trying to move the whole system forward from compensation structures to software and data. and mindset shift, and it's been happening, right? It's evolutionary. So we've seen the wins. Where is it going to come from? I mean, we think probably, you know, there's a lot of money going into A&D, data centers, AI, a lot of, obviously, interest going in there. But, you know, quite frankly, our consumer business did very good last year. So I think what we like about us is we touch a lot of end markets, and we like the way they're looking today, heading into 2026, A little bit more maybe than early 25 or 24. So a long answer to yours, but I just want to caution, we're not a quick-term business, and we're trying to sell more design-in type work or modified solutions versus just purely off-the-shelf stuff.

Bobby Brooks, Analyst — Northland Capital Markets

Absolutely. Really appreciate that detail, Caller Farouk. And then maybe just turn into the one cute guide, very impressive, but just wanted to maybe unpack that a little bit more and maybe hoping to get a little bit more granular on the expectations for growth across the three segments?

Lynn Hutkin, CFO

Sure, Bobby. So, you know, as we look to the first quarter, and I guess I'll compare it to this recent Q4 that just ended here, we're seeing a lot of the same areas of strength across all three segments. So not seeing much in the way of significant shifts or changes from Q4 to Q1. I think the only variable in there is the Lunar New Year holiday, which impacts primarily magnetics and then to a lesser extent power. So those are the areas where, you know, we may see a little bit of softness from Q4 to

Jean Marie Young, Head of Investor Relations

Q1.

Lynn Hutkin, CFO

But other than that factor, everything is pretty similar to the Q4 drivers.

Bobby Brooks, Analyst — Northland Capital Markets

Got it. Appreciate the color there. Congrats on the great corner. I'll return to the Q.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Christopher Glynn from Oppenheimer & Company. Please go ahead.

Christopher Glynn, Analyst — Oppenheimer & Company Inc.

Thank you. Good morning. I just want to build on Bobby's question about developing the commercial funnel. So you mentioned focus on design in and modified by modified versus off-shelf is how you're developing the funnel. That makes sense. We've heard that. I'm curious if you're noting any traction in win rates versus historical as you mature these strategies.

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

I think we're doing a better job at defining what a win is and how we want it to be at certain levels of margin. The other thing I think we are moving more towards, as we had 2026 and we talked about last call, is we want to really try to bring the whole Bell portfolio to our customers. I think historically we've been really more focused around selling a specific product, like a Fuse or a Connector or a Power Supply. And we do need to do a better job at doing a little bit more systems-type sales to our customers. Now, this is a little bit of a longer journey, but the idea there is we want to get more alignment to the customer, solve more of their problems and challenges, and really be, you know, a little bit more of a solution, address the difficult things for our customers. So it's not just simply about more shots on goal, which we are seeing. We're seeing better shots on goal, but we still want to continue to evolve to, you know, higher content on goal. So, yes, we're seeing better. Also, the market's a little bit better place, right, which creates more opportunity for us. I think the team also, if you remember, we spoke on the last call where we started creating new internal groups and structures to align to that. So, for example, we created a key accounts group, right, which we have not had that. Most of the time it was kind of sitting inside the BU's. Now we want to have a more Bell-focused key account groups that bring all of our products to the customers because we do have a lot of SKUs. You know, same thing on the business development efforts. We're coalescing the teams around end markets as we think about products and directions. So I would also argue customer service is an extremely important part of this as we create an easier user experience for our customers. We used to have a lot of different email addresses to customers in different forms and everything and the like, or different pricing lists to our distribution partners. So I think calling these things out to not underemphasize that there's a robustness in what we're doing that needs to be pervasive in our holistic approach to the market. So the short answer is yes there, Chris, but it's also more than just trying to get more shots on gold.

Christopher Glynn, Analyst — Oppenheimer & Company Inc.

Great. Thanks. That was great, Caller, Fruke. And then on the AI customer base, you mentioned that as one of the continued drivers of growth next year. You know, you've often described it as being an early stage, I think, you know, with single source to well-funded more startups versus the headline big three or four. So you're just curious if any of those customers are potentially, you know, positioning for, you know, adoption curve to their technology where you can coattail, you know, not necessarily, you know, first half of 26, but more conceptually.

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

Yeah, I think the answer is yes. In short, the body language from our customers, I'd say across the networking side, but specific to your question around AI, yes. And that is obviously reflected based on the bookings that came in, you know, towards the end of the year last year, the discussions that are ongoing with our customers, and obviously the ultimate outlook that we put out there in the quarter. So the answer is yes, we're seeing the positive momentum scaling and continuing to move forward. And also let's not forget, you know, there's a networking set of customers that bundle our product into their solutions that ultimately make it to folks like hyperscalers, right? So when we think about networking, it is obviously AI, and that is not an insignificant number for us, which is nice to see the team's efforts pay off there, but also the networking side is just as important because we do touch AI in a couple of different ways, right?

Christopher Glynn, Analyst — Oppenheimer & Company Inc.

Yep, understood. And then just defense, just wanted to clarify. I get a lot of questions about the mix. I think you're pretty broad-based, rotor, fixed-wing, munitions, comms, radars maybe even. Just curious if all those categories, if that is accurate, you know, where the weightings are.

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

Yes, in short.

Christopher Glynn, Analyst — Oppenheimer & Company Inc.

Okay, great, understood. I understand defenses.

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

Yeah, I would say we want to be careful with kind of talking about it at our sides here, right? But all the kind of main, you know, we're on all the major programs and some not major programs, So it's a very diversified portfolio, you know, to the things that you called out, munitions, things that fly, right? And we're doing more ground. Obviously, space is a little bit tangent to that as well. But we cover, you know, encryption communication, right? So all the things that you talked about, we probably touch it.

Christopher Glynn, Analyst — Oppenheimer & Company Inc.

Great. And last one, just housekeeping, any thoughts on share class consolidation? I think one of your holders generated a headline.

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

Yeah, I would say, and I think from the gist of it, our shareholder structure is a little bit more nuanced from the perspective of the economic differential between the two shares, versus just a vote, no vote. So that's one. I would say, you know, as an appropriate due course, we'll have a company response and views on that at the appropriate time. I don't want to speak on behalf of the board, but at the appropriate time we'll address that. And also, you know, I think what we're trying to do here, Chris, and we've really been at this for the last, you know, a handful of years here, is we want our fiduciary dairies to serve the best interests of all of our shareholders, A's and the B's. And as we build a company that's set up for the future with, you know, good performance and investing in our employees and our customers, ultimately that's kind of what moves the needle. So I just want to, you know, we're very aware of the fiduciary duty, but I think the board at the appropriate time will have a response that's a little more formal to this.

Christopher Glynn, Analyst — Oppenheimer & Company Inc.

Thank you.

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

Sure thing.

Operator

The next question is from Theodore O'Neill from Litchfield Hills Research. Please go ahead.

Theodore O'Neill, Analyst — Litchfield Hills Research

Congratulations on the good quarter. Thank you, Theo. So are you guys seeing any impact from the spike in prices on memory?

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

I was going to say, you know, our customers, I would say, largely are the ones that feel it. We not directly are impacted by that. Obviously, we have our other, let's say, spike in prices that we're dealing with, like cold and copper, I always spoke about. But on the memory specifically, it's more, I'd say, our customers are influenced by that.

Theodore O'Neill, Analyst — Litchfield Hills Research

Okay, and on the gold, copper, and print circuit board side, and the weaker dollar, do you have the ability to hedge some of those, or do you pass the pricing on?

Luke Young, Analyst — Baird

How do you adjust for that?

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

Yeah, that's a good point. Today we hedge our effects exposure from a raw material perspective. We're in the business of providing solutions to our customers and technology, so we want to focus on what we're good at. We're not running a prop desk here trying to hedge everything, right? So I think our approach has been we want to try to do our best to mitigate and offset price increases, but to the ability and work with our customers. So the extent that we can't, we unfortunately have to pass it along, and I think that's not unique to us and really kind of in line with the supply chain behavior. But ultimately, we want to be great partners. The extent we can offset it, sometimes we will find alternate sources. We want to be a solutions provider, really, to our partners. But in cases we can't, we need to do the unfortunate decision of passing it along.

Theodore O'Neill, Analyst — Litchfield Hills Research

okay and finally on the aerospace side do you have any exposure to the drone market

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

i would say we generally do yes i think the drone market is going through some interesting uh things right where there is let's call it more consumer that tends to get retrofitted as we're seeing out in the world in like ukraine that's not really our market we're more in the military um kind of u.s primes and you know some of the european and israeli oem's the stuff they manufacturer. So we're not in the, let's say, drones that you and I are maybe buying. We're in the more sophisticated drone game. Okay, thanks very much.

Operator

Yeah. The next question is from Greg Palm from Craig Hallam Capital Group. Please go ahead.

Danny Agrich, Analyst — Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Yeah, thanks. This is Danny Agrich on for Greg today. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe just hitting again on A&D and maybe unpacking how you saw that develop in the quarter, maybe between Enercon and Corbell and maybe what you saw in some cross-sell business. And obviously, we know about the increased spend. But as you look into 2026 here, what gets you excited about the growth in this business and what kind of visibility do you have here? Yeah. So, Danny, I'll take the first part

Lynn Hutkin, CFO

of that question. So the growth that we saw, you know, when we talk about defense, it's both in our legacy Cinch business and through Enercon. We definitely saw growth in the Enercon business. You know, as we look at the Cinch business, I think it's important to also keep in mind what we sell through our distribution channel. So there are direct sales and then there are sales through distribution, which we don't really break out into those end markets today. But we did see, as we mentioned in the commentary, we did see a nice increase in distribution that related to growth in defense for that Cinch business.

Jean Marie Young, Head of Investor Relations

So I would say that it was pretty split between the two.

Lynn Hutkin, CFO

So both Cinch and Enercon had robust growth in defense in Q4.

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

One thing we would just add to that as we head into 2026, right, we're seeing the build rates on the plane side continue to increase and head in the right direction. Also, a lot of the programs around munitions and given kind of what's going on in the world, these are well-funded programs. So we think there will be a prioritization to make sure those get to fruition and the finish line. So as we look at amalgamation of that, we feel pretty good as to where we stand compared to what's funded out there.

Danny Agrich, Analyst — Craig-Hallum Capital Group

No, that's very helpful. Thanks. And maybe if I can just touch on gross margin here, which was pretty strong in the quarter, especially in power. I know you mentioned some of those headwinds with FX and input costs, but any way to quantify those? And then as we kind of have that push-pull between these input costs and passing on price in any way to think about potential margin expansion in 26?

Lynn Hutkin, CFO

Yeah, I think as we look at the fourth quarter, you know, I think we thought that we may have had some additional FX headwinds in Q4. But we have had hedging programs in place, as Baruch mentioned. So we're still seeing the benefits of those prior hedging programs come through the current periods. uh so i you know as we look to 26 uh we we do foresee some uh margin pressure there on fx i mean if you look at the the peso rem and b and shekel they're they're all moving in an unfavorable direction and we do hedge probably half of that but but that's going to start rolling off so uh We definitely see pressures there. And then even on the material side, that's something that it takes time to ultimately come through our numbers, right? As we're buying raw materials today, that's something that will flow through our financials, you know, at a later date. So we do think that we will see margin pressures in 26. And this is why we're, you know, really being mindful of pricing actions that we may need to take with customers.

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

And one thing to just kind of flag on the pricing, right, it's a little bit of, it's not as simple as we wake up and raise our prices, right? There's a little bit of cadence to that, you know, so that some of the contemplations are, do you reprice the backlog? Do you come up with an updated pricing list for distribution, which takes, I think, something like 30 days before it's effective? So there's a little bit of a time issue. The other thing I would say, and we've talked about this in the past, while our margins are great and we'll always continue to try and push margin expansion, we have pivoted from a margin game to a growth game. So we need to make sure that we are winning our fair share of business and opportunities out there that we can get in on. And to enable that, there is some potential investment that we've been doing a little bit around the go-to-markets, the systems piece of it, and the people piece of it. So I just want to make sure, and I know the margin gets a lot of discussions on the bell earnings, and obviously we're very proud of our margins. But we are hitting some headwinds, and we've got to make sure that we have a middle of this kind of growth that's coming that we're positioned appropriately for not picking out too much.

Danny Agrich, Analyst — Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Yeah, no, that all makes good sense. I appreciate the color. I'll leave it there.

Operator

The next question is from Luke Young from Baird. Please go ahead.

Luke Young, Analyst — Baird

Good morning. Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Bruce, just want to double click on what we've been talking about in terms of, you know, what you've been doing to realign the sales force, really thinking more about, you know, how do you attack markets or key customers? But something that you said in the script kind of caught my attention with Tom coming into head the connectivity business that there might be, it sounds like, opportunities even further down in the organization? Am I hearing that right in terms of aligning operations maybe even from, let's say, a manufacturing footprint to better attack some of these discrete opportunities?

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

Thanks for the question there, Luke. I would say a couple things just to maybe answer it from the back way of your question here. So on the operational side, you know, we've I can't remember, seven, eight facilities. We've done a lot. So what's going to dictate facility moves is the current state of the business and the customer demand, right? We pride ourselves on working with our customers. So obviously for a while it was a lot of discussion around China to India, then that froze. You know, if that kind of starts up, for some people it is starting up, we are going to move some of our products to India. So I would say given the geopolitical world that we live in the realignment and localization of supply chains, we are in these, let's say, active discussions, right? But in terms of Bell and standalone basis, you know, putting aside geopolitical and supply chains, I think our facilities are pretty good. So we have to react to the fundamentals of the market. I think our biggest opportunity here is around the go-to-market and sales piece of it. I think maybe just to highlight on, you know, moving a facility for us is a big task, and it's not simply as just moving equipment, building some buffer supply, moving equipment from place A to place B. You need to set up a lot of kind of the legal structures, and if you're talking about A&D, there's a lot of regulatory hurdles to jump through. As we're setting up, for example, our Slovakia factory to be more A&D facing to the European markets, we're living through the complexity and spider web of getting all the clearances and certifications on defense weaponry control. In addition to that, customers usually always have to want to come out to your facility and do audits, and usually there's feedback, and that takes a whole issue. So, you know, it's not easy. We don't take these decisions in moving facilities lightly. So we need our customer or market change in dynamics to force our hand on a facility move. Go to markets are products today that we have that can be bundled together, that can be brought to bear, as we talked about the key accounts group earlier. That is our biggest opportunity at hand. And then operations, you know, there's always things to be done, sure. But I think we've done so many of them that we need to live in growth land. And if we're not going to move facility, unless it's going to help us grow, right?

Luke Young, Analyst — Baird

Yeah, that's super helpful. Near term, just curious from a guidance standpoint, you know, Lunar New Year obviously having a seasonal impact as we've normally seen in the business, but it's pretty late this year. I think it's almost as late as it can be just from a calendar standpoint. But would you normally have maybe a little better feel for that seasonal impact in the typical year? Is there any conservatism just because of your timing and the guidance?

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

You know, I think, you know, as you know, Luke, in public land, right, everybody's always trying to figure out the optimal way to guide the street. Our perspective from guidance is we want to land in range, and we build it to around the midpoint, right? So we're not trying to – we don't build it to the high end point of our range. and, you know, hope to God we go over range, we build it to the midpoint, right, to allow for some room for shifting from quarter to quarter. Obviously, we're an A&D. That tends to be kind of sometimes funny business. If we allow for some over-ordering and fuses. Yes, given how late we are in the quarter, talking about Q4 right here, we are roughly in the back of February. Yes, we have better visibility. But to put your comment and question specifically about training this new year, it's two weeks off, right? Everybody can check it down. It's not just us. It's all the CMs. It's all our customers. the Far East, right? So as a result of that, everybody goes pencils down for two weeks. And when they come back, it doesn't just turn on a dime. Usually there's a week of, let's say, upstart time, getting back into the groove, getting things going. So you're probably talking somewhere between two to three weeks loss on a three-month period, all right? That's not insignificant. So, you know, I wouldn't say conservatism. I would say we want to do what we say we're going to do and we're giving our best guess so we're not trying to be conservative on

Luke Young, Analyst — Baird

that um and then just want to zoom out for my uh last question you know the power side of networking obviously you've got some exposure there i mean the higher levels of power the power these more capable chips really becoming quite apparent in that world right now and i'm just wondering to what extent you're seeing any pull through from a design cycle uh point of view for high-voltage components from either your Tier 1 customers or your direct customers in that world, and especially if there's any IP that might be leverageable, either I think rail or e-mobility both have some high-voltage IP that might be interesting. Thank you.

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, I think there's a couple of things to unpack there, right? Specifically the AI networking world, it's always going to go to more high power, higher density, less energy, right, more efficiency. So that's a constant theme over ever. Now, we are seeing, I would say, some new designs coming in relatively maybe in a short period of time. Maybe back in the day it was a three- to four-year design cycle. Things are coming in a little bit, you know, sooner. So we are, for example, selling some products that are AI, but we're already working on the next-gen stuff. So that has happened a little bit quicker. I will also say generally, right, we do have exceptions, but we're not really an IP business, right? We R&D to fix or address a problem. And then what we want to do is we want to, and we do a pretty good job at this inside of each of our business units, is how do we leverage what we've developed for somebody to either standardize it or slight modifications, and then we extend the reach of that product, whether it be through distribution or other similar customers. The other thing we are seeing, which is actually interesting, is some of our actual e-mobility products, given the nature of those products, we are starting to see some military folks looking at, let's say, high-end products and services, but not quite military grades, so kind of what I guess we're calling semi-military being used. So we are seeing that extension of the R&D effort that has gone to e-mobility and to other markets. Now, you know, we haven't won anything yet, but we're feeling good about potential wins coming, if that makes sense. So that's how we extend our R&D dollars. We're not looking to reinvent the world every time.

Luke Young, Analyst — Baird

Okay, cool. Appreciate it, Frick. I'll leave it there for now. Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Jacob Parsons from Needham & Company. Please go ahead.

Jacob Parsons, Analyst — Needham & Company

Thanks for taking my call here. I'm just asking a question on behalf of Jim Reschutti. So, you know, we've been kind of hearing a better tone in the commercial aerospace market, really particularly with the leading domestic players in the marketplace. So how are you guys thinking about this area of the business in 2026 and potential for better growth within the connectivity solutions area?

Farouq Tuweiq, CEO

So as it relates to commercial air specifically, right? I mean, for better or for worse, we are, from an OEM perspective, are attached at the hip to, you know, our largest North American customer. And the way that we're going to make more money, and to be clear, we service that customer both through our connectivity and our power A&D business. So the way we're going to grow revenue is a direct correlation to increase build rates, right? And we've lived the ugly side of that when there was kind of all the union negotiation. If you recall, I think it was Q4 last year, there was a shutdown. It kind of, you know, threw our business a little bit out of whack or back in the days of the grounding of the MAX. So we are going to see how that correlates to the build rates. So what we always point folks to is I think, you know, they're very public about build rates and what's going to get approved and not approved. So take a view on that, and that should have a direct correlation back to us. On the connectivity business, so not the power business, there is an MRO element to it, right? So as we think about MRO cycles, I kind of think about are people on the planes flying, being consumed, and miles are being put on these planes? And so often those planes need to be kind of retrofitted or MROs, right? So we think flights, and when we look at the earnings of some of the flight operators out there, you know, people are flying and planes are moving. So we feel both good on the OEM and MRO side.

Jacob Parsons, Analyst — Needham & Company

Yeah, that's all super, super helpful. And if I can just kind of get one more in. So I'm curious, has the book-to-bill ratio varied much by market vertical, and which areas of the business have you guys seen the biggest changes relative to last quarter?

Lynn Hutkin, CFO

Yeah, so I think on the book-to-bill side, you know, Farouk had mentioned we were at 1.1. for the full year. You know, I think our book-to-bill has strengthened as the year progressed. In Q4, our book-to-bill was 1.3. And I would say that strength was seen across all three product segments. So, there's, you know, there's not one segment that is really high while someone else is below one. All three are very strong in Q4.

Jacob Parsons, Analyst — Needham & Company

Awesome. Thank you for taking my questions.

Operator

The next question is from Hendy Susanto from GetBellySuns. Please go ahead.