Zepp Health Corp (ZEPP) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for Zep Health Corporation's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Today's conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host, Ms. Grace Zong, Director of Investor Relations for the company. Please go ahead, Grace.

And welcome to Zapp Health Corporation's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. The company's financial and operating results were issued in a press release via the Newswell Services earlier today and are posted online. You can also view the earnings press release and slides referred to on this call by visiting the IR section of the company's website. Presenting today are Wang Huang, our founder and chief executive officer. and Leon Dunn, our Chief Financial Officer. Joining us today, we also have Mike Young, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of North America, and Eric Fleming, Vice President of Capital Markets of North America. Before we continue, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's actual results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding this and other risks and uncertainties are included in the company's annual report on Form 20F for the fiscal year ended December 3rd. And the other filings as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not assume any obligation or looking statements, except as required under applicable law. Please also note that ZEP's earnings press release and this conference call include discussions of unaudited GAAP financial information as well as unaudited non-GAAP financial information. ZAP's trash release contains a reconciliation of the unaudited non-GAAP measures to the unaudited most directly comparable GAAP measures. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. Wen Huang. Please go ahead.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining ZAP Health's second quarter 2026 earnings call. In the second quarter, revenue reached $63.5 million, representing year-over-year growth of 6.9%. Growth margin was 37.4%, improving by 120 basic points from the same period last year. This was measured rather than exposed as growth. however the quality and direction of the improvement are important before all of our new products have fully completed their production ramp and channel expansion we have already returned to year-over-year revenue growth while improving cost margin this improvement was achieved despite higher memory and and other components' causes. During the first half of this year, and partially and particularly, during the second quarter, we launched or expanded products across our major families with each family serving a distinct strategic role. I would therefore like to use this opportunity to explain how our major product families are developing, and more importantly, how they are collectively changing the quality and the longer-term growth potential of our business. The first clear development is that our product mix is moving toward higher-value products. Within the T-Rex family, we have established a mature and stable higher-end product structure. T-Rex 3 Pro and the T-Rex Ocker 2 have U.S. suggested retail prices of approximately $399 US dollar and 549 US dollar, respectively. These higher-end models have continued to account for approximately 50 percent of recent global Chirac family activations. The important point is that this higher-end mix has been sustained at approximately half of the family, Demonstrating durable consumer acceptance of both our higher-end products and the broader T-Rex price letters. The active family demonstrates our ability to create and expand a new price tier using Using a strict definition that includes only active three premium and active max, both positioned at the U.S. suggested retail price of 169 U.S. dollars, this tier increased from approximately 22 percent of global active family activations in the first quarter to approximately 40 percent in the second quarter it reached approximately 49 percent in july and approximately 57 percent through august 25. no us no 159 us dollar active products in the comparable period last year. This, therefore, represents general adoption of a new higher price tier rather than a mid-classification of existing products. The overall scale of active is equally important. Following the recovery in deep supply, total global monthly activations of the active family remain broadly comparable with those of BIP in both July and August to today this comparison is particularly meaningful because BIP itself has returned to a strong scale and continue to experience strong consumer demand. It demonstrates that active family centered largely in their $100 to $200 price range can now sustain approximately the same global activation scale as BIP family. Our family anchored in the sub-$100 U.S. dollar segment, even after the surprise constraint on BIP was removed. Together with the growing contribution of our $169 active products, this provides strong evidence that our overall volume mix is moving towards higher value product bans. The balance family provides more than another example of premiumization. It is also important evidence that our strategic focus on hybrid training is beginning to translate into product adoption and growth. Balance 3 was designed around the core needs of hybrid training users. Athletes who combine strength, endurance, and recovery within a single training system. Together with Balanced Ultra and Headerstrap Pro is to pause our goal of building a differentiation position in hybrid training rather than competing only as another general-purpose wearable brand. Our sustained engagement with the high-walks and hybrid training communities have given us a deeper understanding of these athletes and their training needs. Balance also entered this product cycle with the benefit of several generations of accumulated product credibility and user trust. Another increasing important source of the competitiveness is the product design language and the aesthetic capability we have established across our higher-end portfolio this year. The most direct way to understand this progress is to experience the products themselves, to see watch and wear them and to appreciate not only their performance but also their materials form unfinished achieving both objectives at the same time requires significant engineering investments broader use of the metal more refined materials and the more sophisticated industrial design can affect a team performance wireless connected really positioning signals and sensor sensibility if they are not careful engineered our ability to improve materials craftsmanship and design while maintaining a higher level of gps connectivity sensor and the sports performance is therefore not simple and aseptic achievement we believe it is an important and increasingly differentiated technology capability this capability is particularly visible in the new balance generation balance 2 has a US suggested retail price of $299.99, Balance 3 starts at $369.99, Balance 3 Titanium is priced at $499.99, and Balance Ultra at $599.99. years dollar despite this meaningful step up in price adoption of the new generation has developed quickly balance three and the balance occur together increased from approximately three percent of global balance family activations in the second quarter to approximately 26 percent in July and approximately 30% through August 25. This was not simply a makeshift caused by the replacement of the earlier generation products. In July, total global balanced family activations increased by more than one-third compared with with a monthly average in the second quarter. While activations of the early generation balance products remain relatively stable. Balance III and Balance Ultra were announced in early June, with production and channel deployment ramping through July and August. Initial supply of certain titanium models began only in August. The earlier momentum we have observed validates our product direction and hybrid training strategy. However, the new generation has not yet reached a scale or made the financial contribution that we believe it ultimately can. Together, these three families demonstrate different but complementary capabilities. TREX shows that we can sustain in a mature higher-end structure. ACTIVE shows that we can establish a new price tier and scale the overall family. Balance shows that our strategic investment in hybrid training, product design, and engineering can support sustained high prices, incremental demand, and a differentiated market position. BIP provides the other side of our product strategy, A strong entry-level foundation combined with improving pricing discipline. BIP is our entry-level product family, anchored by BIP6 in the stock $100 segment at a U.S. suggested retail price $79.99. dollar. BIP6 was launched 17 months ago. Although its availability was constrained during the second quarter, demand remained very strong after supply recovered. This enforced our confidence in the product's competitiveness and its ability to sustain a meaningful longer life cycle. The longevity of BIP-6 is also supported by our vertically integrated technology stack. Our in-house processor platform was designed with meaningful computational headroom for continued optimization, while ZappOS continues to become more capable and intelligent. Together, these capabilities allowed us to continue improving BIP-6 through software after launch without relying solely on a new hardware cycle. This strength the product's long-term value proposition and supports our confidence in a longer product life cycle at the same time dip max which began contributing during the second quarter has recently represented approximately one-third of global big family activations this creates a more complete internal price ladder while BIP-6 continues to provide a strong volume foundation. The recovery in supply, the sustained change of BIP-6, its continued software evolution and growing contribution from BIP-Max gives us confidence to move from rebuilding scale towards stronger pricing discipline and healthier units economics higher memory and component causes have created pressure on the profitability of entry level products however the pricing decision we are announcing today is supported by enduring consumer demand and the continued competitiveness of the BIP family. Today, we are announcing that we will increase prices across the entire BIP family beginning in January 2027 our objective is to preserve tips comparing consumer value per position while supporting healthier and more sustainable unit economics over a longer product life cycle we also see growing strategic relevance in screen free wearables. Google's recent launch of Fitbit Air further validates the screen-free wearable category that Amazfit entered last year with Helios Straps. Helios Straps provides screen-free, sufficient-free fitness, sleep, and recovery tracking within the border Amazfit and ZEP app ecosystem. Demand exceeded our available supply during the second quarter. We expect supply to recover partially during the third quarter and to be fully restored during the fourth quarter. Availability improves. We expect Helioshap to make a more meaningful contribution while continuing to change our broader training and recovery ecosystem. Building on Helioshap, Helioshap Pro serves a more specialized role. It is designed specifically for high-ross and high-intensity hybrid training with additional capabilities continuing to be developed through software updates at this stage its role is to serve as a professional and technological speed pack allowing us to develop advanced training and recovery capabilities with highly demanding athletes and then expand mature capabilities across the border of the ecosystem we are also building professional credibility in running through cheetah unlike balance cheetah does not yet benefit from the same multi-generational product Foundation. Its professional feasibility must therefore be earned progressively through product development, asset adoption, and real-world performance. Over the past several months, we have begun to see increasingly visible evidence of this progress. After joining amazing as an athlete partner jose kerr broke the world record for the one mile amazing athlete ben did mount won 50th utmb monbron germany's conjecture finished second in the london marathon in under two hours and later World Chilichu Pro, when he set the half-mason world record, is not a constructed, amazing athlete, making his choice to use our product during a world record performance a strong validation of our credibility among elite runners. They recognize that the credit belongs to the athletes, while their choice to complete this amazing, reflects growing trust in our products at the highest level of sports. These positive product indicators should not be integrated to mean that every family is already contributing all at full scale. T-Rex currently represents a story of sustained higher-end mix rather than rapid unit growth. ACTIVE has delivered clear growth in both scale and product mix, while the higher-priced balance generation has only begun to establish initial momentum. BITS and Hilo Shep were constrained by supply during the second quarter, and Cheetah and Hila Shepro remain at the early stage of professional credibility and the market development as a result the strategic progress across our portfolio has not yet translated into its full revenue potential The product direction is increasingly clear, but the financial contribution is developing at a different stage across the portfolio. At the same time, higher memory and the component causes affected profitability across multiple product families with a greater relative impact on entry-level products. These cost pressures, particularly, offset the benefit of our improving product mix. The fact that gross margin still improves by 120 basic points year-over-year, despite But these headwinds provide further evidence that the underlying mix improvement is real. Looking ahead to the third quarter, based on our current outlook, we expect revenue to be between 68 million US dollar and 73 million US dollar this would represent a year-over-year decline of approximately 4% to 10% the comparison base is important. Revenue in the third quarter of last year grew by 78.5% year-over-year to $75.8 million. Against that high base, the activation chance we observed in July in August indicated continued improvement in both product mix and the consumer demand the normal production ramp and the channel deployment cycle means that these improvements will not all be reflected in reported revenue immediately, and our guidance incorporated that planning, we will remain disciplined in how we manage pricing, product positioning, and growth quality. Our priorities are to expand the contribution of higher-value products, improve the unit economics of our entry-level portfolio this does supply for products where demand remains strong and build deeper and more durable brand credibility through professional products athletes and the sports communities we believe these changes are establishing a higher quality more resilience and the more sustainable foundation for that house future growth with that I will now turn the call over to our chief financial officer Leon down to discuss our financial results and outlook in greater detail Leon please go ahead thank you well greetings all let me walk you through our financial performance for the second quarter.

Starting with top line, our revenue coming at $63.5 million in line with the guidance we provided. Total revenue grew approximately 7% year over year, primarily driven by the new product launches we introduced during the first half of the year, including, among others, Active 3 Premium, Active Max, and Big Max. As William mentioned, our revenue this quarter was impacted by the timing of product launches and product availability, namely the Balance 3 series and the Helio Stripe. While underlying consumer demand remained healthy, the timing of product availability affected the quarterly revenue contribution from certain new products, resulting in a temporary impact on near-term revenue growth. Turning to gross margin, our performance continued to reflect a combination of factors, including product mix, launch timing, and normal product lifecycle dynamics, such as model upgrades. In Q2, our gross margin was 37.4%, compared with 36.2% in the same period last year, and broadly in line with the first quarter of 2026. The year-over-year improvement continued to reflect the structural strengthening of the Amazfit brand, driven by a stronger contribution from new products with premium pricing and healthy margins, as well as continued ASP expansion supported by growing brand recognition and consumer adoption. At the same time, we continue to navigate certain cost headwinds, including higher memory component prices and foreign exchange fluctuations, particularly the appreciation of RMB. These factors partially offset the benefits from our improved product mix and margin expansion. Looking to the second half, we are managing the headwind of higher memory costs that are putting downward pressure on our gross margin. As you know, the semiconductor industry is in the middle of a transition from DDR4 to DDR5 and high bandwidth memory, driven by AI and data center demand. That is tightening supply for the memory chips we use and increasing costs across consumer electronics industry. Our global operations team has been focused since 2025 on securing sufficient supply to support our manufacturing demands. This means pursuing supplies through multiple channels. We're also leveraging our engineering expertise to optimize memory requirements across different and future designs, all without compromising product performance or customer experience. With regard to the effect of higher memory prices, we have a variety of levers to mitigate the impact. Our focus is on managing the headwinds thoughtfully without losing sight of the large opportunities to drive top-line growth alongside increased probability. On the topic of tariffs, we have filed refunds of prior duties paid. The benefit could be another meaningful offset to the higher memory costs. So while memory headwinds are real, we are managing them from a position of preparation and expertise. We remain confident in the long-term margin opportunities of our business. As our product portfolio continues to shift towards premium products and our brand positioning strengthens, we expect to continue improving the quality of our gross margin over time. to operating expenses. We remain committed to the prudent cost management discipline we initiated in 2020 and invest on opportunities where we see fit. Total adjusted operating expenses for the second quarter were U.S. dollars $34.8 million compared with U.S. dollars $26.4 million in the second quarter of 2025 and U.S. dollars $35.7 million in the first quarter of 2026. The year-over-year increase of U.S. dollars $8.4 million was primarily attributable to two factors. Approximately U.S. dollars $2.7 million was related to foreign currency impacts while the remaining U.S. dollar's $5.7 million was mainly driven by higher selling and marketing investments. On a sequential basis, operating expenses decreased slightly. Looking ahead, we will cautiously manage the overall expense level, especially when the pace of the new product launches in the second half moderates. Adjusted R&D expenses were U.S. dollars $10.8 million compared with U.S. dollars $10.3 million and U.S. dollars $11.9 million in the second quarter of 2025 and first quarter of 2026, respectively. Excluding approximately $0.7 million of foreign currency headwinds, R&D expenses were slightly lower year over year. We continued to invest selectively in cutting-edge products and emerging technologies, including AI, to further strengthen our competitive position. At the same time, we maintained a disciplined approach to R&D resource allocation, continuously improving efficiency and optimizing returns on our investments. adjustments. Adjusted selling and marketing expenses were $18.2 million compared with $12 million and $16.4 million in the second quarter of 2025 and first quarter of 2026, respectively. The $6.2 million year-over-year increase was primarily driven by investments supporting new product launches and brand building, including $2.9 million in launch campaigns, as well as $1.6 million in e-commerce platform fees, which increased in line with the revenue growth. The remaining increase reflected strategic brand building initiatives, including $0.7 million in affiliate sponsorships, $0.5 million related to our Hydrox partnership, and another $0.5 million in physical retail and event activations. These events are designed to further enhance brand awareness, strengthen consumer engagement, and support our long-term growth. Adjusted G&A expenses were $5.8 million compared with $4.1 million and $7.4 million in the second quarter of 2025 and first quarter of 2026, respectively. The majority of the year-over-year increase were attributed to foreign currency impacts. In addition, we continued to make targeted investments to protect our intellectual property rights and support certain legal and regulatory matters. During the quarter, we also achieved a favorable outcome with respect to the lifting of the Section 337-related exclusion order in the U.S. Beyond these strategic investments, we continue to streamline our overhead structure and maintain disciplined cost control while improving operating efficiency. Turning to profitability, we remain focused on gradually improving operating leverage as we scale the Amazfit brand business while maintaining sufficient investment behind product innovations, software development, and brand awareness. With higher revenue and improved year-over-year gross margin partially offset by higher operating costs and unfavorable foreign exchange translation differences, our adjusted operating loss was $11.1 million compared with $4.9 million in the second quarter of 2025. Net loss was $31 million in the first half of 2026, compared with $27.5 million a year ago, including approximately $4.5 million in foreign exchange headwinds, primarily due to the appreciation of the RMB against the U.S. dollar. Moving on to working capital, we continue to manage inventory carefully during the quarter, We recorded inventory of $62.4 million for Q2 2026, which was flat compared with Q1 2026, and decreased by $17.5 million compared with the same period last year. Inventory remained under tight control, reflecting our continued focus on improving inventory efficiency and aligning production and procurement more closely with actual market demand. Turning to cash, we ended the quarter with a solid liquidity position. As of Q2-2026, cash and cash equivalents were $106.3 million, increased by $11 million and $3 million each, compared with Q2-2025 and Q1-2026. The cash balance increase was primarily driven by enhanced working capital efficiency, which more than offset the net loss recorded during the period. The cash position provides ample runway for the company to invest and seize potential marketing opportunities in the future. We continue to actively manage our debt profile and overall financing structure. Long-term and short-term debt levels increased by $6.2 million as of Q2 compared with Q1 2026. The increase was entirely attributable to a rise in long-term debt with a corresponding decrease in short-term debt. We remain committed to prudently managing our debt profile. Our primary objective is to maintain overall debt levels broadly stable where actively extending the maturity profile by replacing short-term borrowings with long-term debt. During the quarter, we successfully converted $13.3 million of short-term debt into long-term obligations. And we expect to continue this trajectory in the coming quarters, supported by sufficient financial headroom and liquidity capacity. Since the beginning of 2023, the company has cumulatively retired $40.2 million of debt and will continue to optimize the capital structure going forward. We'll continue to take a disciplined approach to capital allocation, maintaining a healthy balance sheet and strong liquidity. Our first half performance demonstrates our ability to grow the amazement business while sustaining gross margins meaningfully above historical levels. Looking ahead, we remain focused on strengthening our product portfolio, expanding our global brand presence, developing the ZAP ecosystem and hybrid training experiences, and maintaining disciplined cost and working capital management. We also remain committed in our shared repurchase program. As of Q2, 2026, we had repurchased $17.6 million under the $20 million authorization. Overall, we remain focused on sustainable high-quality growth, supported by a healthier product mix, disciplined cost management, and continued operational improvements. I will hand the call back to Operator for Q&A. Operator, please go ahead.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star then 1. To remove yourself from Q, please press star than 2. Once again, that's star than 1 if you have a question. And we'll pause for just a moment to assemble our roster. Today's first question comes from Zid Razeev with Fundamental Research Corp. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for the details. I have two questions, if I may. First one, on the supply bottlenecks affecting BIP and Helios trap, When do you expect these issues to be fully resolved, and how confident are you that supply will be sufficient to meet Q4 demand?

Good evening.

On your question, I think we have explained earlier for BIP, we have almost removed all the restrictions on supply bottlenecks. But on heliostripe, we are gradually working on fully restore the supply bottleneck. So in Q3, you will still see the impact of the supply constraint a little bit, but that has already been reflected in the guidance which we have provided. And in Q4, we're expecting the heliostripe to be in full supply.

Okay, thank you. And second question, selling expense increased significantly in Q2. Where do you see the biggest opportunities to reduce OPEX? And should we expect selling expenses to remain at similar levels in Q3?

No, obviously not. I think if you look at my explanation towards selling expenses, you will see majority of the increase around 2.9 million are linked to the new product launches which we have launched in Q2. Obviously Q2, it was a busy quarter that we launched a lot of new products if you can recall, right? I think to name a few, we probably have around six or seven new product launches in Q2 in this quarter compared with one or two in the previous year. And you know each product are attached to a certain amount on marketing, efforts, activation, budgets, et cetera, et cetera, and you simply multiply by seven or six, that will be a sizable number. But as I mentioned, we are almost done with new product launches for the year by now. So maybe there's only one or two in the second half of this year, but those are minor product launches compared with the ones we had in the first half of the year. So you will see the selling expenses moderates when the activity kind of moderates.

In total, how many products were launched this year, to be exact?

I think if I'm correct, so far we've probably launched 9 to 10 products, and there's still 1 to 2 in the pipeline. So there's going to be, yeah, it's a lot of new products.

So 10 to 12 products this year. Last year, I remember, it's nine. So is that a fair assumption?

I think last year it's less, but I can come back to this number later on.

Thank you so much, Leon.

I appreciate it.

And our next question comes from Frank Dugan at Brooks Investments. Please go ahead.

Hi, Leon. Congratulations on the second quarter performance. So, my first question is around your outlook for the third quarter of 2026. Can you walk us through the main reasons for expected revenue decline in Q3? And also, how do your profitability and cash flow look against current guidance?

Yeah, so I think as I have explained and also Wayne explained before, The Q3 outlook actually incorporates a few things. Number one, I would say you're looking at the macroeconomic situations around the world. There's inflation. Everybody is pressed on the discretionary income. and the consumers are kind of squeezed because of the higher oil price, et cetera, et cetera, right? So naturally, the Marco and on the demand side, people are more or less keen to buy new things. But that is the Marco situation for consumer electronics. Number one, that's number one. Number two, we have explained that a lot of the impact which goes into the Q3 guidance are linking to supply issues or supply constraints, which I just answered the question from Sid namely Heliostripes, Balance 3 and BIP series and then we're working resolving them and some of them will be resolved fully in Q3 some of them will be resolved in Q4 so holiday season for Q4 would be a good quarter compared with what we have experienced in Q1 and Q2 to some extent. Number three, I think it's linking to the new product launch windows and also on the process and the speed to actually get the trade in selling them. For example, Balance 3, that's the situation. Number one, it's a beautiful piece of art of watch, which we developed for the hybrid trading, but we just couldn't manufacture them good enough. It has a lot of difficulties in building them, which we believe that we're resolving them as we speak. Linking to the supply constraints, linking to the new product launch windows, and linking to the bigger macroeconomy situation, we have come up with the Q3 number as you see right now. And mind you, last year Q3, the base was 75.8 million, and that was a year-on-year growth over 2024, if I remember correctly, of more than 75%, right? So, obviously, we're doing our best, but it's a few of those factors which I just mentioned has been taken into account in the guidance of Q3, which we put forward.

Yes, and for the longer-term period, do you have any longer long-term strategy to get the business back to growing year over year?

I think if my calculation is correct, I mean, first half of the year, we are still growing by more than 17%, 18% year over year. And if you account for even the low end of the guidance for Q3, we are still growing. And then if you heard us correctly, Q4, we are pointing or we're aiming to deliver a growth or at least go back to the growth trajectory. So altogether, if you add it all up, I think on a full-year basis, we're still working or you're still looking at a growth trajectory for the top line.

And lastly, my question would be around the market performance, especially Balance 3. And do you have plans to develop a subscription model for the business?

Yes and no. I think we are having in our current Dapp app a subscription functionality, but it's more towards your sleep quality, how to get you relaxed better, changing your stress levels, et cetera, et cetera. But we believe that by providing all those professional functionalities for free to the user at this moment of time, it's also one of our key competitive edge against the competitors. So for now, I think, except for the services, which I just mentioned, in short term, we don't have any subscription charges, ideas on balance three at this moment.

Okay, thanks. Thanks, Liam.

Thank you. As there are no further questions, now I'd like to turn the call back over to the company's IR director, Grace Song, for closing remarks.

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact Zephouse Investor Relations Department. Thank you.

Thank you. This concludes the conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.