Bel Fuse (NASDAQ:BELFB) reported third-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
Bel Fuse Inc. reported a strong third quarter with double-digit year-over-year revenue growth, driven by data solutions and industrial markets.
The company recorded $220.5 million in sales, a 23.2% increase from the previous year, with gross margin improving to 40.9%.
Strategic initiatives include reorganizing into two end-market segments and holding a global leadership offsite to refine operating models and strategic priorities.
The company’s fourth-quarter guidance projects net sales between $220 million to $240 million and gross margins of 40% to 42%, reflecting continued strong demand.
Operational highlights include improved manufacturing capacity and resilience, particularly in data solutions and industrial applications, and a strong cash position with $333.1 million in cash and securities.
Management expressed confidence in future growth, citing record-high bookings and ongoing demand across key markets, while also navigating challenges such as inflationary pressures and geopolitical tensions.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good morning and welcome to the Bel Fuse Inc. third quarter 2026 earnings call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. If you’d like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to turn the call over to Jean Marie Young with Three Part Advisors. Please go ahead.
Jean Marie Young (Investor Relations)
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone 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 available in the IR section of our website. Joining me on the call today is Farouq Tuweiq, President and CEO, and Lynn Hutkin, CFO. With that, I’d like to turn the call over to Farouq.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you, Jean. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining our call today. We are pleased to have delivered another strong quarter led by continued momentum in our data solutions and industrial end markets. We also saw increased demand through our distribution partners which contributed positively to our performance during the quarter. It was a nice quarter to see the team deliver these results with lost productivity in certain operations due to summer vacations and holidays in places like Israel.
We are very proud of the performance of our global team and the quality of its execution in a heightened demand environment. Our factories did an outstanding job securing materials, increasing manufacturing capacity and strengthening business resiliency. The operational discipline enabled us to deliver growth despite continued variability and uncertainty in global markets. We’re also moving faster and operating with a more entrepreneurial mindset. We’re making decisions closer to the customers, responding more quickly to changing market conditions and acting decisively on opportunities. Growth was led by our data solutions business, including the broadening AI ecosystem as well as our industrial applications. This performance demonstrates the strength of our global operating platform, the resilience of our business and the ability of our people to execute at a high level.
As previously discussed and as some of you know, Bel is now organized under two end market based segments and we are entering an important period as we plan under the new organizational structure. We will be holding our second global leadership offsite in November, bringing together our global leadership teams for the first time since establishing the two new segments. The session will focus on further defining our operating model and strategic priorities as well as continue to identify segment initiatives that unlock the full value of our structure.
I’m excited about this one as we have had some new teammates at the executive level and among our key leaders at the VP level. On another note, we continue to see strong bookings across the business with record all-time high bookings, again exceeding our level of sales during the quarter. This provides us with continued confidence in the momentum across the markets we serve. Based on information available today, we expect fourth quarter net sales to be in the range of $220 million to $240 million with gross margin between 40% and 42%. This outlook reflects continued momentum across our key markets including data solutions, industrials and defense, as well as ongoing demand through our distribution partners.
Overall, we’re excited about our performance this year and how the year is shaping up. I am proud of our global team’s focus on execution, their commitment to advancing the organization and their continued efforts to deliver another remarkable quarter for our shareholders. And with that, I’ll turn the call over to Lynn for the financial review.
Lynn Hutkin, CPA (Vice President of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations | Principal Accounting Officer)
Thank you, Farouq. From a financial perspective, we delivered a strong third quarter with double-digit year-over-year revenue growth across both segments, improved gross margin and higher adjusted EBITDA margin. Third quarter sales were $220.5 million, up 23.2% compared with the prior year quarter. Growth was strong across multiple end markets led by data solutions and industrials. We also saw an uptick in activity through our distribution channel with strong end customer demand coming from both segments.
Gross margin was 40.9%, up 120 basis points year over year. The increase was driven primarily by operating leverage from higher volumes, pricing and stronger execution. These benefits were partially offset by higher material costs and unfavorable foreign exchange impacts. Adjusted EBITDA was $52.5 million compared to $39.2 million a year ago, an increase of approximately 34%. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 23.8% from 21.9%, reflecting strong conversion of revenue growth into operating profit.
From a segment perspective, ADRS revenue was $106.6 million, up $10.3 million or 10.7% compared to Q3 2025. Growth was led by sales into industrial applications largely through the distribution channel, followed by defense. These areas of growth were partially offset by a decline in commercial aerospace due to the timing of shipments into this market. ADRS gross margin was 39.6% compared to 41.1% last year. The decrease was largely attributable to market and channel mix in addition to unfavorable FX movements related to the Israeli shekel and Mexican peso.
Turning to IPDs, revenue for the segment was $113.9 million, up $31.2 million or 37.8% year over year. Growth was led by the Data Solutions end market which was up $27 million or approximately 61% compared to Q3 2025. We continue to see strong growth with our AI-focused customers where Q3 revenue totaled approximately $12.4 million. As a reminder, this amount is what we refer to as our AI floor as we have additional exposures to AI but lose visibility within our general Data Solutions customers.
This is an increase of $9.2 million from Q3 2025. Also, the Datamate acquisition in March 2026 contributed $4.9 million to Data Solutions revenue during the quarter. Strength across these end markets was partially offset by a decline in transportation revenue during the quarter. IPDs gross margin was 42.7%, up from 38% last year, an improvement of 470 basis points. The increase was primarily driven by higher volumes, improved utilization and pricing actions.
These benefits were partially offset by foreign exchange impacts related to the Chinese renminbi and higher material costs. Regarding operating expenses for the quarter, R&D expense was $8.8 million, up $1.3 million year over year. The increase was primarily attributable to higher personnel costs. SG&A expense was $39.4 million, up $6.6 million from last year. The increase was primarily driven by higher compensation and benefits including stock compensation, an increase in legal and professional fees, higher costs in USD as a result of FX movements and the inclusion of Datamate’s SG&A expenses in the 2026 period.
We expect SG&A to run at a similar level to the third quarter going forward. Cash flow and liquidity: we ended the quarter with $333.1 million of cash and securities, compared with $57.8 million at December 31st. The increase was largely the result of the equity raise completed during the second quarter of this year. We continue to be in a strong cash position to fund growth, manage volatility and pursue strategic opportunities. From a working capital perspective, we continue to invest in working capital to support our growth.
Through the first nine months of 2026, accounts receivable increased by $33 million, reflecting higher sales volumes in Q3 2026 compared to Q4 2025. Inventories increased by $56 million due to investments made in raw materials to accommodate an increase in orders and timing of shipments. Accounts payable increased by $37 million, largely in line with the higher inventory levels. Capital expenditures were $11 million during the first nine months of 2026.
As we continue to invest in efficiency initiatives and capacity requirements, we continue to focus on improving the cash conversion cycle through better receivables management and payables planning. We do, however, expect inventory turns to remain challenged in the near term as we build inventory levels to support our growth projections. With that, I’ll turn the call back over to the operator to open the line for questions.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you’d like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two 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 poll for questions.
Our first question is from Bobby Brooks with Northland Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Bobby Brooks (Analyst)
Hey, good morning, team, and thank you for taking my question. Really impressed by the 4Q outlook, and I think it’s more impressive when you add the context of how that really bucks the seasonality historical trend the business used to see. On that note, just wanted to give you the floor to add that context for folks who might be newer to the story and also to expand on what factors you feel are helping drive that sequential step up.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Bobby. Good morning. Thank you for the question. So you are correct. Historically, you know, I’d say most of the time Q4 generally is a step down from Q2, Q3, and partially that’s attributed to the productivity, or the lack of, that happens in Q4. Whether we’re thinking around, you know, end of December holidays, Thanksgiving, out in Asia tends to be Golden Week. And also when we look at last year, I think the Jewish holidays were in October.
So when we look at Q4 this year, I’d say we have a little bit more productivity given that some of those holidays shifted into September. But there is still the fundamental reality that demand is very strong into Q4 and that demand is really cutting across the entirety, or I should say majority, of the business as we’re thinking Q over Q, whether it be the A&D markets, data solutions markets, distribution. So there is definitely a demand uptick and drivers that’s helping carry momentum into Q4.
So that’s kind of really what resulted in the upper guide: strong demand, strong bookings, as we said, all-time high record for us, more than sales in the quarter, coupled with more productivity days in Q4.
Bobby Brooks (Analyst)
That’s very helpful, thank you. And it also just feels like kind of piggybacking on that. It just feels like the growth initiatives launched last year are really starting to shine through, whether that be the new sales head, revamped sales comp aligned better with KPIs, or the reshaped go-to-market strategy for tier 2 customers. So my first question is, is that fair logic, and can there be even more benefits from those? And then secondly, more recently enacted growth initiatives this year, such as the re-segmentation to go to customers by end market and be a solutions provider rather than approaching by product. Are those benefits from those initiatives enacted this year kind of still developing and not reflected in today’s results and the 4Q guide?
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, I would say I think we’ve launched a fair amount of initiatives. Including a lot of the stuff that you just talked about here, Bobby. But I would say we are seeing the benefits of a lot of those initiatives. Obviously our business, given the nature of our design cycles, it’s hard to say week over week, but if we zoom out and look at the first nine months, I would say all initiatives have borne some kind of fruit. I would also say if you remember where we launched kind of Q4 last year and we talked about it around key accounts and business development efforts to kind of drive further customer intimacy, I think that was a very crucial play for us and we’re seeing the data intimacy translate into more shots on goal. But to your point around really driving all of our portfolio to the extent that we can to our customers, I think has been very helpful.
Also I would say some of these longer-term relationships that we’ve been growing up over time, if you will, that used to be tier 2 or maybe smaller, that we have grown together and they’re hitting their strides as well. So allocating some bets on some customers I think is also paying off for us in terms of the, call it, system-approach sale that we always knew would be a little bit of a longer run because it’s a retraining of the market perception of kind of where we are and who we are. But we’re definitely seeing some glimmers of “we can do this” and “we can do this as well” type approaches, which is nice to see. Also, let’s not forget our Slovakia/European efforts have also continued to bear fruit.
So really it’s kind of across the board. The other thing I would say that we did this time as well is that we are, I alluded to it earlier here, pushing down the sales closer to the segment so that it’s a little bit more entrepreneurial ownership mindset for faster reaction and better read on the market. So I feel like we’re picking up speed, we’re seeing more, and we’re kind of bear-hugging the customers. So I would say all around we like a lot of our initiatives. We have better systems.
If you remember, we also invested in systems we still would like to optimize a little bit more, but we’re seeing the fruits of that. I can’t say we have “arrived,” but we’re definitely becoming dangerous to see more and also really drive accountability down the organization.
Bobby Brooks (Analyst)
I’d say that’s excellent to hear. And just last question for me, kind of piggybacking on the Slovakia/UK/EU efforts. Any new program wins for A&D? I think last quarter you were up to like 10 year-to-date, and a lot of those were kind of cross-sells where there’s an intercom plugging in with the CINCH or the reverse. Just want to hear any color there.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Yep. So the good news is really more of the same. In terms of program wins, we’ve definitely seen them come through in the third quarter over time. Obviously, as we’ve talked about previously, these wins—specifically A&D—kind of start out small and over time grow up. So we’ll see where that goes. I think we’re also—recently, maybe into the fourth quarter here—we had what we think is our first win as we think about using Slovakia as a little bit of the storefront for our connectivity business, which is kind of an interesting play for us here because, as we talked about, the impact of Brexit and where our facilities today sit in the UK. So I’d say it’s more of the same, which is the good news. I think we had roughly the same program wins we had in the second quarter, which I think was 12 is what we called out last time, Bobby.
So the good news is it’s really more of the same. And if we think about starting out this year at zero and to get to where we are today, I would say it’s gone very, very nice.
Bobby Brooks (Analyst)
I definitely agree with that. Congrats on the strong quarter. I’ll turn to the queue.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question is from Tomo Sano with JP Morgan. Please proceed with your question.
Brendan (Analyst at JP Morgan)
Hi, this is Brendan on for Tomo. Thanks for taking my questions. First, I’d like to ask on the revenue mix shift. So you’ve mentioned the revenue rotation into higher-growth, better-margin business. Is that simply a factor of markets growing faster and therefore becoming a larger percentage of your mix, or does that represent more of a strategic shift where you’re making a more concerted effort to adjust your revenue mix?
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
I’ll start out with a disclaimer on this one. As we think about end markets or our BUs, they all have their own separate commercial efforts, sales organizations, largely factories, go-to-market. So it’s not like we’re allocating decisions between the BUs. What we’re focused on is inside the BU: where are we better aligned from a technology, customer intimacy, and better alignment standpoint? And that’s where we want to focus—on where we can get more returns.
As we’ve doubled down on the, let’s call it, customer intimacy and going deeper from a commercial effort and standpoint, we’re seeing things that we’d like to maybe focus on more than others. I would say that’s nothing unusual for really any business around our industry. I think that’s a little bit of a new muscle for us over the past few years; as we built up the funnel, we can have a little bit of the leisure of saying we’re going to go here a little bit more versus here.
It makes it sound, I think, a little bit more than what it really is. But I think the good news is we are having the luxury of choice nowadays, and we want to make sure we’re making the right choices both in allocating our work hours and our work dollars.
Brendan (Analyst at JP Morgan)
Got it, thank you. And then touching on thoughts on M&A. So last quarter you mentioned the market was showing aggressiveness and irrationality, some peers doing acquisitions that weren’t for you, particularly now that you have a net cash position. Just kind of curious how M&A ranks within capital allocation versus organic capex, buybacks, etc. And has your view on valuations within your pipeline changed over the past quarter?
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
As a long-cycle design business, we kind of need to think things out a little bit in longer-term perspectives. And from that perspective our M&A strategy hasn’t shifted or changed. We’re just as hungry for M&A. We are pursuing multiple avenues of it. The market dynamics remain the same—elevated competitive set and sometimes the feeling that people are just buying for the sake of buying. But as a long-cycle design business, we will be disciplined.
We don’t want to be overly conservative. We also don’t want to be overly aggressive. So finding that balance is where we want to focus on today. When we look at the M&A pipeline, I’d say it’s a range from smaller assets to medium-sized assets I think is kind of where we’re looking at it. So it always feels like we have something under LOI and NDA, but when we have something at the appropriate time we’ll share with the team. But I would say we had hoped to have done an acquisition in Q3 and Q2, but also we’re going to be disciplined in our approach. So we like the pipeline. It’s like anything else in life: we’d like to be a little bit better at pipeline, but also we’re going to be disciplined in our approach.
Brendan (Analyst at JP Morgan)
Great, thank you.
OPERATOR
Our next question is from David Williams with Needham and Company. Please proceed with your question.
David Williams (Analyst)
Hey, good morning and congrats on the really solid results and guidance here.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you.
David Williams (Analyst)
Maybe first, just want to ask: in the script you had talked about some uncertainty in the global markets and maybe some volatility there. Just curious if you could maybe walk us through what you’re seeing and what maybe specifically you were pointing to, and is that more global or any region-specific that you’re seeing any of that volatility?
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
I think the short answer is yes. As a global business—operations in Asia, Europe, North America—there’s definitely always something seemingly going on. And I would say when we think about what are these headwinds, it’s hard to not think about inflationary pressures on seemingly all materials, to be honest with you. So when we look at all raw materials inputs, that seems to be obviously trending in the wrong direction. When we think about shipping and logistics, just getting things around globally to our customers or to our own factories is definitely a tightrope. The team is doing a great job walking through. FX—largely, as we’ve said in the past, we’re exposed to renminbi, peso, and shekel against the US dollar—also kind of trending in the wrong direction. Geopolitical tensions also are not helpful or additive, as we all read the news out in the world.
I’ll also say we’ve had even kind of more interesting situations where a company gets added to the no-trade list, if you will, that keeps getting updated seemingly on a regular cadence, where it really prevents our opportunity to just plan easier. So we had a situation like that in Q3 where one of our sub-suppliers got placed on a list and all of a sudden now you’re scrambling to find alternatives. So it feels that the team is constantly in some kind of scramble mode.
And it’s amazing to me to see the team pull together. I know these things seem a little bit maybe insignificant from the outside looking in because I think the team does a good job making it look easy, but on the inside there’s a lot of people working really hard in all sorts of ways that they historically maybe haven’t had to. So the challenges really are everywhere—political, FX, raw material, and also obviously wages as well.
David Williams (Analyst)
Thanks for the color there. And maybe, secondly, just on the AI-focused customers that you had kind of talked about in the script—really solid growth there—but just wondering if you could provide maybe a little color on the types of products, programs you’re seeing, and maybe the design-win activity pipeline and how that’s coming together. And then maybe where that could ultimately go in terms of revenue topside— is there any limiter or threshold that’s preventing growth longer term there?
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, I think the gist of it, as we think about our data solutions business, right—while we talk about this concept of floor AI, we know AI is obviously impacting the business. Now when we also look specifically at our AI play, it is continuing strength to strength. And we’ve seen that quarter over quarter this year. We’re seeing that into Q4, we’re seeing that heading into next year. So the order book specifically, whether it be explicitly or implicitly driven by AI, is definitely trending in a very positive direction for us. We talk about server, storage, networking, but we are also very mindful around just given our size disclosure programs and the like.
But I would say we are kind of what you would think about the ecosystem. As a reminder, we’re not directly interacting with and exposed to the hyperscalers, just to kind of differentiate a little bit. But obviously a lot of our customers do spend some time there. But in terms of where it can go, like I said, we’re not going to provide guidance on that. It is a fast moving market. But we like what we’re seeing out of that market for sure. And I get that AI is kind of a big focus for everyone.
I think we’re also seeing some really nice things, our AMD business and the growth that we’re seeing there. So I’ll leave it at that for now. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Our next question is from Theodore O’Neill with Litchfield Hills Research. Please proceed with your question.
Theodore O’Neill (Analyst)
Thank you. And congratulations on the good quarter. Question for you is what are you seeing for defense industry demand in Europe and are there any issues around getting the proper certifications for your factories?
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Are you talking about our AMD exposure in Europe and certifying them for the European business?
Theodore O’Neill (Analyst)
Yep, yep. Yes, please.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah. So I think that, that as an issue largely behind us, the plumbing is in place and I define plumbing as factory certification. So there’s, you know, certain standards from an industry perspective. There’s customer audits, there’s regulatory approvals that we get. So as we think about the plumbing and opening up the store to selling, we’re in good position there and ahead of schedule. I may have done when maybe we initially thought it was going to play out. So today that’s not really an impediment. Obviously in the AMD world where we play, we, you know, there’s always regulatory and check-ins that we have to do and transferring and all of it.
But that’s for us, regular way maintenance. But the hardest part was getting all the critical certificates. And I would say we’re. That’s largely behind us now. It is entirely behind us, I would say, actually.
Theodore O’Neill (Analyst)
Okay, great, thanks.
OPERATOR
Our next question is from Greg Palm with the Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please proceed with your question.
Jackson Schrader (Analyst)
Thanks. Good morning, this is Jackson Schrader. I’m for Greg Palm. Congrats on results. I wanted to start out with just pricing initiatives I know enacted earlier in the year that you mentioned were going to start seeing Q3, Q4. Looks like we did see them. I mean, obviously benefiting gross margins. Was curious if you could talk a little bit on how much revenue growth is driven by that pricing versus just higher volumes. And then secondarily to that, if you could touch on gross margin, ADRs kind of taking a small step down while ITBs you took a big step up.
How should we be thinking about ADRs gross margin going forward and if there’s any potential future increases in pricing that you can enact to kind of offset some of those inflationary pressures that you just mentioned?
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
I appreciate the question. I’ll let Lynn comment on the gross margin a little more in detail here. I just want to. I get it. We appreciate that when we report quarterly, that’s a static picture of the business. But underneath that there’s, there’s a life that happens daily. So we did do price increases as you talked about in February, March. I would say that was kind of, you know, a big one because we saw everything in the world moving and we did all of that.
But the reality of the matter is the pricing book, the backlog, the cost of materials are moving daily, I would argue, and if not daily, probably every other day. So there are conscious decisions and actions that are purposeful to trying to pass these things on. So since then, we’ve done obviously various and numerous other price increases. Why? Because the raw materials continue to go up and we’ve seen our suppliers give us price increases almost seemingly monthly in some situations.
So when that happens, obviously we got a downstream. Where our balancing act needs to come in is really what do you do in relation to backlog, right. Do you reprice it? Do you slightly modify it? Do you wait for the next order to come in? That is the relationship discussion that needs to be had because sometimes we may trade off kicking the can down the road from a timing perspective for the sake of a longer term gain. So pricing is definitely part of the mix for sure.
Operational leverage is part of the mix here as well. But it is a hand to hand combat. Right. Everything we’re reading constantly going up. So I just want to make sure it’s not a static discussion that we’re talking about. And I’ll turn over to Lynn on the gross margin side.
Lynn Hutkin, CPA (Vice President of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations | Principal Accounting Officer)
Yep. So on the question around the ADRS gross margin and the step down from prior year, a lot of that had to do with the mix of revenue that we saw in the quarter. So as we mentioned on the call, a lot of the growth that we saw was through industrials and through the distribution channel due to timing of shipments. Commercial air was actually down year over year and defense grew a bit, but not as much as distribution and industrials this quarter.
I would say the other thing to keep in mind if we’re looking year over year is the FX environment. So if you look at the Mexican Peso or the Israeli Shekel, we’re definitely in a different environment right now than where we were in Q3 last year. So I think those are the large factors driving the margins in ADRs. You know, I think as we’re looking ahead, the FX environment has stabilized and has started to improve a bit on both the Shekel. So we don’t, you know, if we’re talking sequentially, we don’t expect FX to be a further negative.
That should provide some uptick. And then on the timing of Defense and Comair, we do expect that to shift to be a little more favorable heading into Q4. One of the other things I would say is we think, you know, and we talked about this a little bit as well, but as we, you know, end of life and shift away from some lower margin business volumes, that should also have a positive impact on the business. So that obviously happens in spurts and there’s a smart way to do that. But I’d say it’s really an amalgamation of things that’s reflective of our global business and customer base.
Jackson Schrader (Analyst)
Perfect. A couple and then kind of just high level talking about defense. You know, I feel like everyone has this, it’s well known, you know, increased spending and some of these primes getting some big like munitions replenishment, long term contracts versus we’re operating or a continuing resolution right now. And it seems like there’s some uncertainty. Can you just talk about what you’re seeing from customers within defense? Both kind of like having long term, very clear high demand versus some near term uncertainty.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, I think that’s a good way of characterizing it when we talk to the primes. And also caveat, our prime discussion is really in three separate regions like the U.S., the Europeans, which that is multiple regions as well. But, you know, it’s a different, you know, let’s call it environment. And then obviously Israel. On the U.S. side of the business, where the language, the chatter in the channel, our customer relationships very clearly indicates that there is a strong need and unmet demand.
Whether we’re talking about the readiness in terms of stockpiles or the like, I think the demand is not really debatable. And the need for replenishment and investing in new emerging technologies is not debatable. The body language that we’re getting downstream, obviously we are down the channel here, very strong positive momentum and discussions. So it gives us confidence in that the need and demand is there and we are seeing increased booking across all of our customers are programs.
So we’re seeing it translate especially when we look at, I think our backlog in A&D this go around was also an all-time record. So we’re seeing it. It’s still not enough, I think to meet the demands. So I think there’ll be a question for the funding that comes out of the programs there. The Europeans, we’re seeing the spending, we’re seeing the growth. It’s reflected in our slow markets. I think they’re moving a little bit quicker just given the realities on the ground and for potentially years of underinvestment.
On the Israeli side, again, given different dynamics, they tend to move quicker. And also the need is there as well. So we know the need is globally there. Just it’s really how question does it translate down the channel into operations. But all in all, I think the demand drivers are all there, which is good for our business. And we see that in our backlog and our discussions around new wins and new discussions with our customers.
Jackson Schrader (Analyst)
Perfect. I’ll leave it there, thank you.
OPERATOR
Our next question is from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.
Wamsi Mohan (Analyst)
Yes, thank you. As you think about channel inventory levels, it seems like at least there’s been very strong demand and momentum that’s continuing and restocking channel inventory. How would you characterize the levels of channel inventory given that we’re coming from a pretty destocked state to where we are now and how much more of a potential positive could it be as we look beyond next quarter?
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, I know that’s a fair question, I think. Right. There’s always, maybe to extend on your question there a little bit, there’s always a view on double ordering, channel stuffing, you know, all that kind of things that we all think about. I would say that does not seem to be the case on average in the industry. In the channel the need and demand is real. So we don’t see that double booking channel stuff inside of the business. We do think of it as being more demand, I would say as we just kind of canvassed the industry.
I would say that generally view holds especially in the passives where we play. As we think about booking and backlog, it is there is life and there’s vibrancy there, which is obviously good to see as we look out and extended beyond fourth quarter. I think the body language, the discussion around the need for through the channel also holds. I would also say that this story quote unquote through the channel is not just North America. We’re seeing that also in EMEA and APAC, which to me indicates the demand at a global level is positive momentum.
So we like what we’re seeing and we think it’s positive overall.
Wamsi Mohan (Analyst)
Okay. Okay, thanks a lot, Farouk. And maybe just to follow up, it might be a little bit of a harder hypothetical question to answer. But if you were to look at the demand levels, which obviously are quite strong over here, if you were to say, let’s say raise pricing 5% across the board, across everything that you can, like, how much of that do you think would stick? Like I’m trying to ascertain, like what is the appetite for increased pricing within your SKUs at your customers?
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Let’s be realistic. Similar to personal levels, I don’t think anybody wakes up and says, I would love a price increase to, you know, anything that we’re doing, right? So I don’t think anybody’s waking up and giving me hugs. I’ve yet to discover that customer. But the way we are seeing it is, the inflationary environment is everywhere. And similar to our raw material, customers are passing costs on to us. We’re passing them on. I think we may sometimes make strategic decisions.
Maybe we’re not going to do that for a very purposeful reason. But most of the time we’re passing them on. We are. And as we’ve done that, like I said earlier, we’re seeing the increased bookings across all our customers and programs. So the pricing side of it, we have to be made net neutral. So if we woke up and arbitrarily did a 5% increase, given where kind of core was and everything else is coming in, obviously we’re also in a comparative world. If we just wake up and do it and nobody else is doing it because they’re not seeing inflationary pressures, that’s a problem. But assuming we are in this environment, everybody’s doing it, you know, we probably would be pretty okay here. And, as a reminder, we’ve been reacting quickly, right, as this happens. So I’d say we’re doing a good job staying on top of it. We need to continue to stay on top of it.
But if we just arbitrarily set a 5%, my guess is we probably would be okay in this hypothetical that we’re going through. I would say it’s probably going to buck the historical trend. To the extent of how much and all that kind of good stuff, we’ll wait and see. Like we kind of said before, there is lots of productivity in the first quarter. Also people come back from New Year’s, starting the business and turning on the factories, coupled with Chinese New Year. So you do have some loss of productivity there. But I do think that this will be maybe not a typical Q1 for us.
Lynn Hutkin, CPA (Vice President of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations | Principal Accounting Officer)
Yeah. And I think just to add to that, I mean, you know, about half of our business today is aerospace and defense, which does not have that typical Q1 seasonality tied to it. So that’s part of why we’re looking to buck the trend here. And then also as we’ve talked about on the data solutions side, we are in a bit of a ramp environment there. So that’s also something that will likely buck that trend.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
And I also said earlier, right, we’re seeing record backlog, so we’ll kind of frame that a little bit more as time goes on. But we definitely, knock on wood, all things being equal, we appreciate how the year will probably close out, and we are excited about ’27.
OPERATOR
Our next question is from Hendy Suzanto with Gabelli Funds. Please proceed with your question.
Hendy Suzanto (Analyst)
Good morning, Farouq and Lynn.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Good morning, Hendy.
Hendy Suzanto (Analyst)
I have a question about the decline in commercial aerospace due to the timing of shipment into this market. Should we expect some type of recovery in Q4 or in early 2027?
Lynn Hutkin, CPA (Vice President of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations | Principal Accounting Officer)
Yeah. So I think on the commercial air side, you know, our shipping patterns do not entirely correlate to the underlying demand there, right? We are a very small component into their larger production cycle. So the ordering and shipping patterns as dictated by the customer there tends to be choppy, I’ll say. So last quarter and this quarter we certainly had lower shipments going out, but that’s not indicative of the underlying demand. So do we expect to see that coming back in future quarters?
That answer would be yes.
Hendy Suzanto (Analyst)
Thank you, Lynn. And then Farouq, I would like to follow up Wamsi’s questions on price increase. I would like to ask on the other side, the inventories and lead times. Some companies discuss extended lead times and then how some customers are willing to secure supplies way ahead. Others have been building inventory to better capture upside in a stronger demand environment, meaning many, many companies are pointing to next year. I did see that your inventories increased sequentially.
I’m wondering whether that is reflective of this type of dynamic. How are you thinking about those dynamics, the puts and takes for Bel Fuse?
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, no, I think that’s a great question, Hendy. Right. We are, in addition to an inflationary environment, in a pretty robust demand environment globally. And as we think about that and our downstream suppliers have increased their lead times, we’re back in close contact with our customers to ensure that we’re building to forecast. So in some more common-area components, we are definitely doing some advanced buys or security buys to get it. So I would say our increase is largely in the raw material side of the business.
The demand is there, the orders are there. And it’s just as a reminder, Hendy, that the vast majority of our business is we’re building to an order book, right? We’re not really in the business of making things and sitting on it and hoping for demand. So these conversations and backlog orders with our customers are real time. And as these conversations are happening, we’re securing materials and getting in line at some of our suppliers. Worst thing we can do is not ship in a hot demand environment across the business, right?
That’s one way to really drop customer satisfaction and impact negatively new wins and new designs. It kind of poisons the well, in terms of the discussions. So back to what Lynn was saying, we are putting money in inventory. We have to meet customer demand. And that’s kind of part of what we do. It’s not unusual in these cycles when you have growth and demand coming. So do we like it from a financial working capital perspective? But at the same time, we are here to satisfy customer demands.
Hendy Suzanto (Analyst)
Thank you.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Sure. Thanks.
OPERATOR
Our next question is from Christopher Glynn with Oppenheimer & Company. Please proceed with your question.
Christopher Glynn (Analyst)
Thank you. Good morning, Farouq and Lynn. Building off that last topic, just curious—you’ve done a lot of rooftop consolidation optimization over the years. I think with automation investment you’ve also talked about increasing net throughput despite all that. But now with backlogs and revenue really ramping and, you know, projecting the next couple quarters to exceed normal seasonality, just wonder if you could highlight what kind of resourcefulness and success you’re seeing in the system for throughput other than supply chain, which you already just covered.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah. You know, I think the work that we’ve done in the last few years to get the factories ready, more leaning into lean—we’ve spent a lot of capex, a lot of great automation programs even at the systems level across the company. This has allowed us to be more efficient with production manufacturing. So one of the things that we’re not talking about here, to your point, Chris, is, you know, we’re not talking about capacity constraints, as an example.
Because I think we’ve done a pretty good job at managing that. So we feel good about it. I’ll give you another example of this: we have opened the storefront in Slovakia, as an example. It gives operational leverage to our intercom facilities in India and in Israel. So we’re learning to kind of make sure we’re moving things around. Same thing with China and India production. We are moving some things across geographic lines to meet customer demands and/or requirements, and that investment and collaboration between these two factories, as an example, is another good one. Obviously we invested a lot, as we said, in manufacturing execution systems and, you know, we’re doing some interesting things in AI and automation.
So it really is an all-hands-on effort. I’d say the bigger maybe discussion with our customers is around where do they want things manufactured. So we’ll obviously talk about Slovakia as the European storefront and in China and India. So it’s an interesting time where I’d say location of manufacturing is potentially becoming a bigger topic. So we’ll need to stay close to these things. Depending on where the customer’s desires and wishes land, that may take us down different outcomes.
But we do know things are moving around, and dexterity and flexibility between the factories is going to be pretty key going forward.
Christopher Glynn (Analyst)
Cool, thanks for that. And then just follow-up one, just at high-level headline—even since time’s tight here—global leadership confab coming up, second one. What’s your top priority or two in terms of, you know, just cultivating the enterprise group?
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah. You know I think I’m very excited about this one. Last year when we did it, we walked away with certain tasks and strategic priorities, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job at executing against that, and we’ve seen some of the benefits of that, including some of the systems discussion we’ve had in the past. I would also say that we’ve done a fair amount of, you know, obviously resegmenting the business was part of those priorities. As we look since we did it last year, roughly 12 months ago, we’ve had some new teammates join across our leadership team, and they’ve hit the ground running.
So now we get to show up again with new teammates, our existing teammates, and making sure that we’re all rowing in the same direction. Obviously we want to think big, we want to think measurable impact, and we want to continue to play to win. We like what we saw and we wouldn’t mind a little bit more. So we want to see leadership, we want to see growth mindset, we want to see operation, want to see supply chain. But there are some big topics and discussions that we need to have.
But I’m definitely excited to get into the room with the team there so we think big and continue to drive impact, because I think the last 12 months have benefited our shareholders tremendously and we’re seeing it across the business. So we got more room to go, but we like what we see. But hopefully we can get to the stuff that we haven’t gotten to yet as well.
Christopher Glynn (Analyst)
Sounds great. Have fun.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you.
OPERATOR
Our next question is from Luke Junk with Baird. Please proceed with your question.
Luke Junk (Analyst at Robert W. Baird)
Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I know we’ve covered a lot of ground, so maybe just one question from me, Farouq. I’d love to get your perspective on scaling the business in ITDs. In other words, driving operating leverage there as these AI programs come online. Both in a bigger-picture, multi-year sense—sort of the art of what could be possible there—as well as maybe more specifically in the near term in terms of what’s animating gross margin upside, both on the 3Q print and kind of what you’re implying in the 4Q guidance, which seems to be strong as well.
Thank you.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, no, thank you for the question. It’s an interesting time to see where we go. So maybe I’ll answer it backwards in terms of the future, right. I mean, I think it would be a great high-class problem if we continue to see the robustness and the growth and investment in the business and the future. And there’s interesting technologies emerging, but also, keeping in mind, in the future, hopefully we have M&A that allows us to leverage some of that capacities. So the future, we’ll see where it goes, but we kind of like where it’s heading. Obviously, growth brings its own set of challenges, but we will happily take that on in terms of the business today.
I think the team has done a very good job at leveraging really across the business, whether it be the R&D capabilities, commercial efforts, procurement efforts, moving production from one facility to the other per facility, or in process of moving more from one place to the other. We have some specific customers that have big opinions about where they want things manufactured for various reasons, and we’re happy to oblige. So one of our focus that we spent on the last few years is can we do it quicker and faster?
Keeping in mind that in our business you can’t just pick up and move. Right. There’s audits that have to happen, customer visits, customer sign-offs. So moving something in our world, in general, not an easy few-quarter thing, it takes a while. But the question is how do we build some speed and dexterity into it? Also with some proactive thinkingness. So we do have to get to that. We can move a little bit quicker. We’re seeing some of the benefits of that.
So I think the team on the IDS specifically, it’s nice to see capacity, like I said earlier, is really not bottleneck for us. So we’re okay there. It’s really the footprint adjustments and we’ll see where that goes. Right. Because I think the geopolitical landscape seems to be changing by the minute, and what’s maybe good today on this call will give you a different impression on it on the February call. So we need to just make sure we’re ready for a range of outcomes and scenarios and that we can move quicker.
That’s going to relieve our focus areas.
OPERATOR
Our last question is from Assia Merchant with Citigroup. Please proceed with your question.
Assia Merchant (Analyst)
Hey, great, thanks for squeezing me in here. And actually my question was kind of related to the last one that was just asked. You know, Capex here, still a small percentage of your revenues, and I get it, like you guys are investing here for the solid demand, but anything, you know, as you think about the demand picture shaping out for ’27 and beyond, how we should be thinking about Capex intensity? And often investors will always ask about how flexible that capacity is in the sense that, could you divert some of that to, let’s say, other programs that perhaps are not as impacted if there is any kind of economic downturn here?
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. It’s an interesting question. Right. But if we look at our manufacturing footprint today, right. So putting M&A aside, or, I don’t know, we have so much growth, we need a new factory, or putting that aside. But we look at our footprint today, capacity is not an issue. And the Capex—and I think this is one of the unique strengths of Bel Fuse—is we’re generally a low volume, medium volume, high-mix, medium-mix business, and a lot of our business doesn’t necessarily lend itself for over-automation, where you hit a button, it comes out on the other end.
Right. So we want to work with our customers on designing and modifying, on customizing, really trying to drive complexity. We definitely have some commodity stuff, right, for sure, like as we think maybe by some of the fuse business, but generally most of our business is kind of, let’s call it in the modified or modified-standard or customized type approach. So because of that you will hit a limitation and you will not give the ROI on a certain level of automations. And I think our team, I would suggest, is probably one of the best at trying to find automation for the environments that we operate in. And this is really kind of true especially on the power side of the business. So, given the nature of our business, I think that’s a fair comment there, as is, if you look at our Capex, maybe as a percentage of revenue—and I can see where there’s that question—but our revenue is also different, and therefore I think not sure that’s a very valid metric.
I will tell you we don’t have a problem spending on Capex, especially as we’re seeing growth coming in, and where there’s opportunity we’ll do it. We just are not going to artificially do it for the sake of automation. And also customers are a key part of that. Right? So as we think about what the customers need and do they want that or not want that. And I think, just as a reminder for everybody, when we look at our power business as an example, across the portfolio—which is over 50% of the business today—the materials are the biggest cost in that bill of materials. Right. So as we think about overhead and labor, it’s really the procurement is the key. So today we like our Capex. Sure, there’s always things you can spend money on, but we’re not holding back money on investment, that’s for sure.
The other thing, keeping in mind kind of to what I just said earlier, which is what you’re talking about is resource allocation. I think our factories are generally designated to make something. So our power factories largely are making power components. Connector factories are making connectors, right. Or magnetic factories are making magnetics. So when we think about factory resource allocation, we’re thinking within that factory, where do we spend our time and energy.
So it’s not, you know, let’s move power from one facility to the other. Right? It’s a very different product set and complicated one. So we think about efficiency, productivity, quality over automation. Right. That’s what we’re selling. So I think we’re at a good level in terms of Capex, and I think we’ve stepped it up in the last few years for sure.
Assia Merchant (Analyst)
Great. Thank you.
OPERATOR
We have reached the end of the question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Farouk Tuwaik for closing comments.
Farouq Tuweiq (Chief Executive Officer)
Again, thank you everyone for joining our call. We’re very excited to have delivered these results to our shareholders, excited about the fourth quarter. So thank you again for joining our call, and we’ll look to speak to you in the next quarter. Thanks, everyone.
OPERATOR
This concludes today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you.
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