Ceragon Networks Ltd (CRNT) November 5, 2026 Conference Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Our call will begin shortly. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Our call will begin shortly.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Saragon's third quarter, 2026 earnings call. Our presentation today will be followed by a question and answer session, at which time, if you wish to ask a question, you will need to raise your hand using your mobile or desktop application or press star nine on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be I must advise you that the call is being recorded today. I would now like to hand over the call to our first speaker, Rob Fink, Head of Investor Relations. Rob, please go ahead.

Thank you, Denise, and good morning, everyone. Hosting today's call is Dorona Razi, Saragon's Chief Executive Officer, and Rona Enstein, Chief Financial Officer. Before we start, please note that today's discussion includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, among other things, projected financial performance, future initiatives, business outlook, development efforts, anticipated results, timelines, and other matters. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include global and regional economic conditions, conditions in Israel and the region, fluctuations in exchange rates, customer concentration and ordering patterns, and supply chain challenges, as further detailed in Saragon's most recent annual report on Form 20F and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements are accurate only as the date they are made, and Saragon undertakes no obligation to update them. Saragon's public filings are available on the Security and Exchange Commission's website at scc.gov and on Saragon's website at saragon.com. Today's call will include certain non-GAAP measures. For a reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP results, please see the table attached to the press release issued earlier today, which is posted in the Investor Relations section of Saragon's website. With that all said, I will now turn the call over to Daron. Daron, the call is yours.

Thanks, Rob. Saragon delivered a strong third quarter. Revenue was $95.5 million, up 11.7% year over year. Non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 8.5% from 6.2%, and non-GAAP EPS was $0.07, more than triple the $0.02 were reported a year ago. These results, as compared to Q2 2026, reflect the rebound in North America, a favorable mix and solid execution across several key markets. Business momentum is accelerating, especially for our newer technology, which delivers differentiated capabilities. The technology is broadening our use cases and making us increasingly relevant to new and existing customers. When we reported first quarter results in May, we said a component shortage affecting a key North American customer would interrupt business in Q2 and that activity would rebound in Q3. That is precisely what happened. We delivered strong performance despite continued pressure from higher component costs and supplier delivery delays. We are addressing these challenges through customer price adjustments, longer procurement planning horizons, and increased commitments for critical components. We expect these pressures to continue into 2027. The third quarter performance demonstrates the progress we are making against our strategy. We expanded our customer base and increased engagement with prospective customers. We also introduced new solutions addressing additional use cases and increased the number of ongoing proof of concept trials. North America was the key driver of our revenue growth and margin expansion this quarter. As expected, activity with our key T1 carrier customer accelerated and we benefited from increasing contributions from software sales. Together, those two factors drove our strong performance. More broadly, demand in North America remains healthy. With strong engagement from existing and prospective customers across both our traditional carrier business and private networks. We are encouraged by the opportunities ahead and expect North America to remain an important driver for growth. In private networks, we are pursuing larger opportunities in markets where our differentiated technology and end-to-end capabilities could provide a meaningful competitive advantage. Two opportunities in North America illustrate this approach. The first is introducing wireless solutions to the fire safety and prevention market. Following a successful proof-of-concept trial and several small-scale commercial deployments, we are currently engaged with one of the industry's largest integrators, to tailor a unique set of wireless solutions in an initial commercial deployment project. Successful execution of this initial project could open a huge market opportunity for Seragone. The second involves private 5G solutions for defense applications covering remote unserved locations as well as separate networks for private use. Following initial successful deployments of both use cases, we are already working on numerous opportunities to replicate these solutions across and outside North America. Beyond these opportunities already developing across our business, two developments could add upside, particularly in North America. The first is the evolution of satellite connectivity. We believe satellite and terrestrial wireless networks will increasingly complement One another, creating additional demand for the high-capacity connectivity solutions Seragone provides. SpaceX's potential expansion into terrestrial wireless infrastructure could generate a new wave of investment in infrastructure and create new opportunities for wireless transport. In parallel, established operators are likely to continue investing in network capacity, coverage, and performance to remain competitive. With our established carrier relationships and broad wireless transport portfolio, we believe Serragon is well positioned to benefit from such developments. The second opportunity comes from the disruption at Cambium Networks, which is creating an opening for Serragon to expand its market share, particularly in North America. We have moved quickly to capitalize on this opportunity, bringing on former Cambium sales professionals. Strengthening relationships with distributors and resellers and expanding our partnerships with complementary technology providers to offer customers a more complete wireless portfolio. Our recently announced collaboration with Radwin to expand our portfolio into sub-6 GHz wireless access speaks to this strategy. Our network management capabilities provide another important competitive advantage. Our products are fully integrated with Cambium's network management systems, while the technology acquired through our E2E acquisition enable us to integrate equipment from multiple vendors into a unified network management platform for customers who do not use Cambium management systems. This gives customers a single pane of glass to monitor the networks, simplifying operations and making it easier to transition to Ceregon. We believe these initiatives position us to capture additional market share and create new opportunities for growth beginning in 2027. Turning to India, Q3 revenues were $33.6 million, in line with our expectations following an exceptionally strong Q2. India remains a major contributor to our business, with our two largest operator customers continuing to invest in network capacity, modernization, and fixed wireless access. Both customers are adopting our new IP50-IXA and IP50-CX technologies as key platforms for their network rollout. Looking ahead, we expect volumes in India in 2027 to remain comparable to 2026 levels with potential upside from additional network modernization projects and an anticipated RFP from another major tier one carrier. EMEA continues to gain momentum. Order activities has strengthened considerably over the past two quarters, with bookings exceeding revenue and contributing to a growing backlog. This progress reflects increasing customer engagement and strengthens our confidence in the region's growth prospects. Changes in the competitive landscape are prompting our operators across EMEA to evaluate alternatives to their incumbent wireless transport suppliers, creating opportunities for Saragon to expand its presence with major customers. We recently secured an award from a new T1 operator in EMEA with initial orders expected in the coming quarters. At the same time, Multiple new operators are conducting proof-of-concept trials of our Eben technologies, including our newest IP50XAP and IP100E platforms. The combination of stronger order activity, new customer engagements, and growing demand for our event solutions gives us increasing confidence that EMEA will deliver significant revenue growth in 2027. Looking ahead, we see two important trends creating opportunities for Ceregon. The first is the demand for network capacity driven by increasing investment in AI, cloud infrastructure, and data centers. The second is the changing competitive landscape, which is opening doors for us to expand our presence with existing customers and gain market share with new ones. We believe Serragon is well-positioned to capitalize on both trends. Our differentiated technology, expanding portfolio, and established relationships with leading operators give us a strong foundation to compete for these opportunities. Those relationships not only support our existing business, but also demonstrate our capabilities to prospective customers. We are encouraged by the progress we are making and believe the combination of these market trends and our strategic initiatives positions us, or positions Serragon, for continued growth in 2027. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ronan to review our financial results in greater detail.

Thank you, Doron, and good morning, everyone. Q3-2026 was a strong and profitable quarter. We generated $8.9 million of cash for operating and investing activities, nearly triple last year's level, and ended the quarter with a net cash position of $32.1 million. To help you understand the results, I will be referring primarily to non-GAAP financials. For more information regarding our use of non-financial measures, including reconciliations of these measures, we refer investors to today's press release. Let me now review the third quarter results. Revenues for the third quarter were $95.5 million, up 11.7% from $85.5 million in Q3 2025. Our strongest regions in terms of revenue for the quarter were North America and India at $37.8 million and $33.6 million, respectively. We had three customers in the third quarter that contributed more than 10% of our revenues. Gross profit for the third quarter on a non-GAAP basis was $34.8 million, an increase of 16.3 percent, compared to $29.9 million in Q3 2025. Our non-GAAP gross margin was 36.4 percent, compared to 35 percent in Q3 2025. Gross margin benefited from favorable geographic and product mix, including increased contributions from North America and software-related revenue, as well as a smaller benefit from tariff refunds. These factors more than offset continued component cost pressures during the quarter. While we expect industry-wide cost pressures to persist into 2027, we remain focused on managing their impact through customer pricing adjustments and proactive supply chain management. Turning to operating expenses. Research and development expenses for the third quarter on a non-GAAP basis were $7.7 million, up from $6.8 million in Q3 2025. As a percentage of revenue, our non-GAAP R&D expenses were 8% in the third quarter compared to 7.9% in the third quarter last year. Sales and marketing expenses for the third quarter on a non-gap basis were $12.9 million, up from $12 million in Q3 2025. As a percentage of revenue, sales and marketing expenses on a non-gap basis were 13.5% in the third quarter, compared to 14.1% in the third quarter last year. General and administrative expenses for the third quarter on a non-GAAP basis were $6.1 million, compared to $5.8 million in Q3 2025. As a percentage of revenues, non-GAAP GNA expenses were 6.4% in the third quarter, compared to 6.8% in the third quarter last year. On a longer basis, our operating expenses were also impacted by a $2.1 million acquisition integration-related expense for the third quarter related to strategic non-recording activities. Operating income for the third quarter on a longer basis was $8.1 million $5.3 million compared to $5.3 million for Q3 2025. As a percentage of revenues, non-GAAP operating income was 8.5% in the third quarter, compared to 6.2% in the third quarter last year. Financial and other expenses for the third quarter on a non-GAAP basis were $1.2 million, compared to $2.8 million in the third quarter last year. Foreign exchange conditions stabilized during the quarter. Our tax expenses for the third quarter on an on-gap basis were $0.7 million. Net income for the third quarter on an on-gap basis was $6.2 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, compared to $1.7 million, or $0.02 per diluted share for Q3 2025. As for our balance sheet. Our cash position at the end of the third quarter was $39.1 million, compared to $38.4 million at the end of 2025. Short-term loans at the end of Q3, 2026 were $7 million, compared to $19 million at the end of 2025. Thus, at the end of the third quarter, we had a net positive cash position of approximately $32.1 million, compared to a net cash position of approximately $19.4 million at the end of 2025. We believe we have cash and facilities that are sufficient for operations and working capital needs. Our inventory at the end of the third quarter was $65.7 million, up from $61.6 million at the end of 2025, reflecting mitigation plans to overcome components and supply chain challenges to support our customers. Our trade receivables at the end of the third quarter were $100.4 million, up from $99.7 million at the end of 2025. Our DSO now stands at 103 days. With respect to our cash flow, net cash flow generated by operations and investing activities was $8.9 million in the third quarter, compared to approximately $3 million in Q3 2025. Net cash provided by operating activities was $14.1 million, while net cash used in investing activities was $5.2 million, compared to $7.2 million and $4.1 million, respectively, in Q3 2025. Turning to our 2026 guidance. Our current revenue outlook for fiscal 2026 is $365 million to $375 million. The wide range of revenue for the last quarter is solely due to supply issues driven by the turbulence in the component market and not demand. We are also maintaining our previously communicated non-GAAP gross margin guidance of 33.5% to 34.5% and non-GAAP operating margin of 5% to 6%, each at the midpoint of the revenue range. That concludes my prepared remarks, and I'd like to now turn the call over to Doron for any remaining comments. Doron?

Thanks, Mounen. Our third quarter results demonstrate the strength of Saragon's business and the progress we are making across our strategic priorities. We are strengthening our competitive position, expanding our opportunity pipeline, and translating our investments in technology and market development into new growth opportunities. We believe these initiatives are positioning Seragone for continued profitable growth in 2027. With that, I'll now open the call for questions.

To ask a question, please raise your hand using your mobile or desktop application, or press star 9 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. Our first question comes from Ryan Koons from Needham. Ryan, please go ahead.

Great, thanks. Can you hear me okay?

Yes, we can.

Super. Great quarter, guys. Nice to see the business inflecting here across a number of fronts. Maybe starting with some color on North America here. What do you see as some of the drivers behind your big tier one spending, picking up number one in the quarter, and how are you feeling about that spending from your big tier one customer over the next year?

So, generally, as we already said on the prepared remarks, part of the strong quarter of tier one operator in North America was as a result of some supply chain challenges that we had in Q2. Generally speaking, we continue to see a strong demand. For different use cases. Some of them are just increasing capacity. Some of them are associated with the network resilience, predominantly buying E-Band products from us. And generally speaking, I believe that in 2027... Especially given SpaceX's announcement that they intend to establish. A fourth-carrier-grade network in the U.S., I believe that the spend by also the other carriers will continue into 2027 to compete their competitive edge, especially when pertaining to capacity and reliability.

That's a great update. Any update on your other North America Tier 1 opportunities? Is that still progressing?

Yeah, that's still progressing. We are at the last mile of some formal technical things to conclude, and we believe that we'll get a meaningful order this quarter.

Great. And maybe going back to your comment about Leo's, you know, obviously, you know, you've got AST Space Mobile in here partnering as well, you know, to try to provide rural coverage that obviously doesn't extend indoors. I mean, how do you think that, you know, microwave it or your products in general can complement, you know, someone like an AST Space Mobile who's trying to serve rural?

Look, I think we touched on that also in the previous quarter. The way we see this technology is that this is another augmenting technology to provide better communication capabilities across the world and across different regions, whether they are more populated or less populated. And as a part of that, it really depends on the use case. And in use cases where you either have gathered significant amount of capacity and now you need to transport it to a longer network, still terrestrial... Radio capabilities will be required as they are by far stronger with higher capacity and higher reliability. And the same works, obviously, if you have an accumulation of traffic in rural areas at a certain point of time. You need the transport piece of the network to be very strong, and in this respect, we do believe that we have a play side-by-side to some of the capabilities of the Leos.

That's helpful. I mean, I guess, do you not see Leo backhaul as much of a threat? Do you just think there's not enough capacity to handle that kind of...

What I'm saying is that it really depends on the amount of traffic. And I believe that maybe there will be some use cases where Leo could be good enough in terms of transport. There will be a lot of other cases where terrestrial will be the preferred solution. Just take an example is private networks. Private networks would probably want to own their own network fully and prefer wireless terrestrial solution over cloud.

That makes sense. Appreciate that. And maybe one more, if I could, on the Cambium opportunity you mentioned, can you maybe outline which sorts of products you have that can snap in to complement the large install base of Cambium and where you're seeing the near-term opportunities to pick up some of that business?

Yeah, so first of all, I think it's a known secret in the industry that... Back when Cambium were not bankrupt, we had an OEM agreement where they sold our point-to-point products. Over time, especially during the last two years, when they weakened, obviously the business on our end weakened as well. And their go-to-market strategy was to their customers, guys, we are one-stop shop for you, for all main wireless technologies for your networks. With their unfortunate situation, we are now taking this role and becoming the front. Obviously, providing our point-to-point products that are very, very much known in the industry. And on top of that, we are collaborating and partnering with predominantly sub-6 gigahertz access technology providers and some others to front. And to be, so to speak, the stable, strong company that can accommodate any sort of commercial and technological relationship with a large list of distributors, resellers, and obviously, and customers that were previously Cambium customers. That's a strategy. We see a lot of demand for that. I would even dare say that it was coming as a request. From some of the distributors, resellers that started the engagement with us just recently, and we decided to accommodate this request, leveraging the fact that also on the software side, we can offer something that is technology agnostic that make the life of smaller players and private networks much, much easier in running their networks.

That's really great, guys. That's all I've got. I'll get back in the queue. Appreciate it.

Our next question is from Scott Searle from Roth Capital. Scott, please go ahead.

Good morning, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions, and congrats on a nice quarter. Daron, maybe to just dive in real quickly, maybe taking an early cut at 2027, it sounds like India, your baseline expectations are flattish. EMEA, you're looking for some solid growth next year, and it sounds like activity is pretty good in North America. So I'm wondering if that, you know, where does that place you in terms of your early thoughts on 2027? And maybe more specifically, as you look at North America, a lot of opportunities there just with your existing tier ones, but talking about SpaceX, do you actually believe that starts to come in in 2027 as an opportunity? And how are you guys thinking about, you know, quantifying the Cambium opportunity with the Radwind partnership?

So, first of all, because we are in the early stages of planning out 2027, my comments will be more, I would say, qualitative rather than quantitative. Generally speaking, I'm very much encouraged by the progress we've been making in EMEA, North America, and by the way, also in India, the basic assumption is that we can be flat, but I can see also there are some opportunities for growth. So the general notion when we come to plan our 2027 operational plan is very positive in terms of growth potential. To your point specifically about North America, the business that will be coming as a result of the disruption that happened in Cambium is obviously more imminent and clearer, and I feel that it's going to... To contribute a significant growth to North America. In essence, I would even dare say that during the last year and a half, two years, we lost a little market share because of Cambium's situation, and the position now is totally different. With regard to SpaceX, you know, I think you should ask Elon Musk, not me. He was talking about, I think, 80,000 sites within a year or so. If he's capable of doing it, we'll be more than happy to support him, and I'm quite sure that he will need some wireless terrestrial technology in order to meet his promises and commitments to a very strong network that can compete with the more legacy ones.

Very helpful. Thanks. And maybe shifting gears back to Europe, it sounds like you're seeing a lot of activity on that front. I'm not sure if you mentioned if some of the RFP activity now is coming at the expense of Nokia, you know, since they communicated divesting that business. So I'm wondering if there are, you know, some sizing parameters that you could put around the opportunities that are coming to you as they start to explore additional. You know, non-Nokia OEMs. And I'm wondering, just from a high level, what does that do to your thought process of the attractiveness of Nokia as an asset when you start to see some of these RFPs now, you know, putting some pressure on that core business?

So the situation in Europe or in EMEA, to be more precise. It's driven by a few elements. First of all, predominantly in Europe, Western Europe, the fact that there is still, I would say, quite significant Chinese incumbency requires for them to change gears because of the government's direction. And obviously, that drives considering more and more Western, so to speak, vendors. And obviously, in this respect, when I connect your question about Nokia, obviously, Nokia is, I would say, less considered. Because of the, so to speak, vagueness and unclarity about how this announcement will end up and in which hands it's going to end up. So there we see RFPs. We basically participate. As we already mentioned, we won one and we're awarded, and now it's just more of logistics and formalities, and I believe that we'll start getting orders soon. At the same token, there are numerous operators in EMEA that are kind of still sitting on the fence with a wait-and-see mode. I think the more time it takes to Nokia to finalize the process they announced, the more chances other players like Saragon have to take market share. As we speak, because obviously, especially with new engagements, even if Nokia is an incumbent, operators are kind of concerned about roadmap. About operational aspects, whether the new buyer will be able to accommodate for delivery and so on and so forth. So these concerns, the longer they stay, the higher the chances that we can continue and take market share.

And lastly, if I could, just one follow-up to get out on this. The guidance for the year implies gross margins, I think, of 33.5% to 34.5%. So reading into that, it looks like we see, I'll call it a normalization of the gross margin outlook in the December quarter. Is that correct, given that there were some positive biases in terms of mixed North American software in the third quarter? Thanks.

The bottom line, the short answer is yes, but to be more precise, ah. I know it's difficult for the capital markets, but I don't measure our gross margins on a quarterly basis. There's a lot of fluctuations that are driven by regional mix, by software that is being bought more aggressively. And as you know, the vast majority of our software is perpetualized. And so obviously, that can impact a certain quarter and create some fluctuations in the gross margin. So I think this is the way to take a look at it. But all in all, the bottom line is that for the midpoint of the guidance, we gave the range and we believe that we will be in this range.

Great. Thanks so much. Congrats on the quarter.

Sure. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Tyler Burmeister from Lake Street. Tyler, please go in.

Hey, guys. Thanks for letting me ask a question. I was wondering if you could just update us on the year-to-date India bookings since last quarter, what those stand at, and then in your outlook for India next year to be stable, is the potential RFP from that third customer there, is that included at all in that outlook, or would that be a potential upside there?

So generally speaking, the last time we announced the number of booking, we were at around $120 million, and we continue to accumulate more booking, and we expect to continue accumulating. Significant amounts also during Q4. And that means that based on the current run rate, more or less quarterly run rate of the ability to deliver, we expect to enter next year with a very nice backlog in India. As to the additional RFP that we believe is coming up shortly, this would... Probably be on top. I'm saying that very cautiously, but my earlier comments were assuming, based on the forecast we are currently getting from our main two customers, the flat is going to be driven by these main two customers, and anything that we'll be able to gain from some new opportunities, including this RFP, can become an upside.

That's great. I appreciate that. And then maybe just on the supply constraint dynamic, you said previously last quarter that the demand was there to reach the high end of your guidance and it was just supply constraint. I'm wondering if that view is still the same and if that supply constraint demand, if you're comfortable with that being pushed out and will be recognized in 27.

So, the supply constraint is still there, and I would say it's very difficult. It's almost a daily fight, and so far, we're able to navigate through these constraints, I would say, relatively nicely. We believe it will continue into 2027, and because of that, we took a lot of measures. As I mentioned on my prepared remarks, such as opening orders for, I would say, a longer horizon or forecast, and in parallel working with customers to assure that eventually they will consume. I believe that even if the constraints will negatively impact... This quarter or that quarter, the necessity and the demand in the market is real, and I don't see a situation where this demand will be canceled. That's basically the way I see the business at this point.

That's great. I appreciate that. All right, that's all for me, guys. Thanks.

To ask a question, please raise your hand using your mobile or desktop application, or press star nine on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. Our next question comes from Christian Swab from Greg Hallam. Christian, please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Can you hear me all right? This is Ben.

Hey, Ben. How are you?

Hey, I'm good. Thanks. Greg Corder, we'll just keep humming along here. It seems to be inflecting. Hey, a lot of my questions have been answered. I just had one on the price increases. Can you just give us a little bit more clarity around what you guys have been doing on that side? How often you increase prices? Obviously, everybody's doing that, but how has your customers been taking the increases? Just a little bit more clarity would be helpful.

Yeah. Look, I think we need to split the discussion into two groups of customers. I would say that the smaller customers, those that we are selling indirect, and those who we don't have a very sizable business, there the situation is, I would say, much easier. Because in most cases, it is PO by PO, and we can, I would say, be able to raise prices slightly easier as we move along. With the bigger customers, usually... The process is some sort of more complex. It usually starts with some sort of negotiation. The points of negotiations are usually dictated by the frame agreements. And therefore, our hands are slightly more tied in terms of when and how. And obviously, when heading to competition, we always need to take the competition into account. I'm optimistic about our ability to increase prices with at least some of our big customers. I think they realize the huge pain that their vendors are suffering. And since we are already in discussion with some of them, and I feel that the mindset is, I would say, positive, although nothing has been concluded yet, I believe that this will help us in terms of gross margins in 2027, assuming, obviously, that the cost increase. of the component will kind of start kind of settling or coming down, because up until now, it was quite crazy, predominantly the memory stuff.

Got it. Got it. That's really helpful. That's all I got. Thanks, guys.

If there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the call back to Doron for closing remarks.

So, thank you very much, everyone, and we hope to finish the year strong. Thank you for participating in the call, and goodbye.