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Good afternoon. My name is Kevin, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Rogers Corporation First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I would now turn the call over to your host, Mr. Steve Haymore, Senior Director, Investor Relations. Mr. Haymore, you may begin.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Rogers Corporation First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. The slides for today's call can be found in the investor section of our website, along with the news release that was issued earlier today. Please turn to slide two. Before we begin, I would like to note that statements in this conference call that are not strictly historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and should be considered as subject to the many uncertainties that exist in Rogers' operations and environment. These uncertainties include economic conditions, market demands, and competitive factors. Such factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in any forward-looking statement made today. Please turn to slide three. The discussions during this conference call will also reference certain financial measures that were not prepared in accordance with U.S.

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. A reconciliation of those non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the slide deck for today's call. With me today are Ali El-Haj, Interim President and CEO, and Laura Russell, Senior Vice President and CFO. I will now turn the call over to Ali.

Thanks, Steve, and thank you everyone for joining us today. I will begin on slide four. In the first quarter, we delivered solid results with all financial metrics meeting or exceeding the midpoint of our guidance for the third consecutive quarter. Q1 sales were $201 million, a 5% increase year-over-year from foreign currency benefits and a higher industrial demand in the U.S. If not for adverse weather conditions and multiple supplier disruptions, which impacted operations at some of our U.S. plants, Q1 sales would have approached the high end of guidance. We achieved a significant year-over-year improvement in profitability. Adjusted EPS more than doubled to $0.75 per share, and adjusted EBITDA margins expanded 580 basis points to 16%. For the second quarter, we are forecasting sales to increase 6% at the midpoint of our guidance.

We expect Q2 growth in automotive, industrial, and electronics end markets. Adjusted EBITDA margins are projected to increase year-over-year by nearly 600 basis points. The improved Q1 results and stronger Q2 outlook demonstrate the progress we are making on our commercial and profitability initiatives. We are maintaining an intense focus on improving Rogers' multi-year growth outlook. The past quarter, we secured important design wins and continued to gain customer tractions through our R&D pipeline. Turning to slide five. Beginning this quarter, we streamlined our reporting into four primary end markets. At 37% of sales, the industrial market remains our largest segment and now includes renewable energy and mass transit markets. Q1 industrial sales increased at a double-digit rate compared to the first quarter of 2025.

Growth was driven by increased demand aligned with improved manufacturing PMI activity in the U.S. and Europe, as well as additional market share wins with Rogers traditional customers. The automotive market segment, which represented 24% of revenue in Q1, includes EV, HEV, ADAS, and all other ICE vehicle applications. Sales declined year-over-year at a high single-digit rate due to lower global light vehicle production and weakness in the U.S. EV market. We are seeing positive design win momentum in automotive, which we expect to translate to robust sales growth in the coming quarters. The electronic and communications market segment includes sales in consumer electronics, semiconductors, wired and wireless infrastructure. Accounting for 18% of sales in the first quarter, this segment increased at a double-digit rate, driven by higher smartphone and wireless infrastructure sales.

The improved smartphone sales resulted from higher volume, a favorable mix of higher end devices, and an increased share with existing customers. Lastly, aerospace and defense sales comprised 15% of revenues and improved slightly from last year. The growth was led by commercial aerospace sales in our EMS business. We expect aerospace and defense to remain a growth area for Rogers. Next, on slide six, I will outline our progress toward 2026 priorities. Our objective to grow the top line in 2026 and in the coming years remain our highest priority. We secured several design wins during Q1 in support of that goal. First, in the AES business, our high frequency circuit material were designed into a new automotive radar application with a leading Asian OEM. Sales are planned to begin in the second quarter.

In the AMS business, we were awarded several design wins for EV battery applications with leading OEMs in the United States and Asia. These solutions will be used across different platforms. We are further encouraged by the progress we continue to make across products in our R&D pipeline. We continue to test and validate our microchannel cooler technology for data centers with multiple customers. Feedback from our customers has been encouraging. We believe our technology possesses unique capabilities for cooling high power chips in data centers and AI applications. Development of high frequency circuit material for data centers is also ongoing. Recent internal testing showed promising results. We expect customer sampling and testing to begin within the next two quarters. While these projects move forward, we are also actively advancing other high potential opportunities.

We continue to make progress with our 2026 profitability improvement initiatives. Across most of our manufacturing operations, we have seen measurable improvement in cost structure and overall operating performance resulting from the focused effort of our dedicated team. The restructuring initiatives at our German facility remain underway, with $13 million of annualized savings still expected by Q4 of this year. We also continue to efficiently manage operating expenses with strong control measures in place. Our capital allocation priorities support both organic and inorganic growth. Accordingly, we have increased our focus on evaluating potential M&A, and we continue to assess opportunities that align with our strategic and financial objectives. Our organic growth will largely be supported with existing capacity, but we are prepared to allocate capital for CapEx to support opportunities in our R&D pipeline as needed.

I will now turn it over to Laura to discuss our Q1 financial performance and Q2 outlook.

Thank you, Ali. Starting in slide seven, I'll summarize our first quarter results. Sales, gross margin, adjusted EPS, and adjusted EBITDA all met or exceeded the midpoint of our guidance for the first quarter. First quarter sales increased 5% or $10 million, inclusive of foreign currency benefits of $7.9 million. As Ali mentioned, there were weather and supply disruptions specific to several of our U.S. manufacturing locations, which tempered our Q1 sales. AES Q1 revenues increased by 3.4% versus Q1 of 2025. In market, sales increased in the electronics and communications segments and the industrial segments. EMS sales improved by 7% year-over-year. By end market, sales increased in the industrial, electronics and communications, and A&D segments. This was partially offset by lower automotive sales.

Adjusted earnings per share were $0.75 in Q1, an increase 178% from the prior year period, resulting from higher gross margin and significant improvements in operating expenses. Foreign currency fluctuations had only a small effect on adjusted EPS, as our global operations act as a natural hedge. Turning to slide eight, Q1 adjusted EBITDA was $32 million, an increased 580 basis points year-over-year to 16% of sales. The improvement in adjusted EBITDA was primarily a result of higher sales and improved product mix. Reductions in manufacturing costs, start-up, and general and administrative expenses also contributed to the higher adjusted EBITDA. We continue to ramp our new factory capacity, which resulted in a $1.4 million headwind to EBITDA versus the prior year. New factory performance costs decreased versus Q4 of 2025.

Continuing to slide nine, I'll discuss cash utilization for the quarter. Cash at the end of Q1 was $196 million, and changed only slightly from the end of the fourth quarter. Cash provided by operations was $5.8 million, compared to $46.9 million in Q4 of 2025. Inventory reductions were a key driver of the much higher operating cash flow in the prior quarter, and this was not expected to repeat in Q1 of 2026. Consistent with typical patterns, accounts receivable increased in Q1 following a large reduction in Q4 of 2025. Higher accounts payable partially offset the Q1 increase in AR. Capital expenditures in Q1 were $4.7 million. Our expectation for full year 2026 capital expenditures of $30 million-$40 million is unchanged.

We did not repurchase shares in the first quarter and will continue to balance returning capital to shareholders with other capital needs. On slide 10, I'll review our guidance for the second quarter. On a year-over-year basis, we again anticipate improvement in Q2 sales, margin, and profitability. We are guiding Q2 revenues to be between $210 million and $220 million. The midpoint of the range is a 6% increase in sales year-over-year. The guidance includes our expectation for higher automotive sales from the start of new program wins and continuation of existing programs. In addition, smartphone sales should increase from normal seasonal factors, with some growth in industrial end markets continuing. We're guiding gross margin in the range of 32.5%-33.5%.

The midpoint of the range is 140 basis points higher than the prior year due to higher volumes and cost structure improvements. We expect Q2 adjusted operating expenses to remain approximately flat to the first quarter. Adjusted EPS is forecast to range from $0.90-$1.10. The $1.00 midpoint compares to adjusted EPS of $0.34 in Q2 of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to range from $35 million-$41 million. This equates to a 17.7% EBITDA margin at the midpoint of the range, which would be a 590 basis points improvement versus the second quarter of 2025. Excluded from adjusted EPS are restructuring costs related to the ceramic actions in Germany.

In Q1, we recognized $4.4 million of associated restructuring charges, bringing total restructuring for this program to date to $9.8 million total. This is relative to our total estimated range of $12 million-$15 million. The remaining restructuring costs associated with this action will largely be incurred from Q2 to Q3 of 2026. The program is still anticipated to deliver $13 million of annual run rate savings. Lastly, we project our non-GAAP full year tax rate to be approximately 30%. I will now turn the call back over to Ali.

Thanks, Laura. In summary, we had another quarter of solid execution and delivered improved Q1 results. Our second quarter outlook also reflects solid year-over-year improvements and highlights the momentum behind our commercial and profitability initiatives. We remain focused on execution and driving greater value creation. That concludes our prepared remarks. I will now turn the call back to the operator for questions.

Our first question today is coming from Craig Ellis from B. Riley Securities. Your line is now live.

Yeah, thanks for taking the question and congratulations on the real strong execution team. Ali, I wanted to start just following up by one of the points you made about calendar 2026's focus areas, and you indicated that growth is the highest priority. Can you talk a little bit more about the design wins that were achieved in EV and ADAS, and when those wins would convert to revenue? As the second part of that question, go into a little more detail in terms of what you're seeing with the data center opportunity. How material are the engagements that you have now, and how significant are the things that sound like they're more in the development or pipeline stage?

Okay. you know, as mentioned regarding the design wins, as we've indicated in the prepared remarks, we had several in the AMS side, mostly related to EV batteries and other applications. On the AES side, we have, as I mentioned, one for radar applications with an Asian OEM. Both of these or actually the majority of these wins will be in production between Q2 and Q4 of this year. We will start seeing revenue out of these wins in Q2, Q3 and Q4 this year. As this relates to the data center, the opportunities are there, as we've been indicating for now the past two quarters. For 2026 however, revenue will not be significant. It'll be mostly sampling or prototype type revenue, it's not as significant as we would like it to be.

I've always been indicating that this is a probably a Q3, Q4 of 2027 and depend really on, you know, how fast our customer will accelerate their development and their qualification and their readiness for the product. But we see opportunities as indicated for data centers in all of our product area, but mainly the highest volume or dollar impact will be out of our microchannels with the ceramic activities and the high-speed digital product lines.

That's really helpful. Then I'll ask the follow-up question to you, Laura. Love the trajectory of gross margin as we start the year. Can you talk a little bit about what's driving the sequential strength? Is it all really volume or are there some things happening on the COGS management side that are coming in a little bit better than we might have expected three months ago? Thank you.

Sure. No problem, Craig. I'll take that. With regards to the margin, what I would have to say is really a function of all of the above and what you mentioned. You know, we've spoke in the past in prior calls about our initiatives and our objectives in managing our operations, to ensure that we're doing what we can to minimize yield loss and optimize on our input costs and really be effective in what we're running through our factories. Those initiatives continue and are in flight, and they have some favorable impact, which you see in our EBITDA bridge and some of the transitions that we call out on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Now, with that said, the other thing that's favorable there and that we're also discussing is some of the structural changes that we undertook that are in the margins.

That's all to say there's some other puts and takes that go the other way in terms of, you know, some transitions in terms of the segments and where we're realizing some of the revenue growth and gains. There's always some, you know, puts and takes across the margin. In general, I would agree with you, Craig. We're making the right progress. We're keen to continue to make additional inroads and incremental improvements, which are some of the key initiatives that will assist us as we continue to focus on growing the business and the top line.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Of course.

Thank you. Next question is coming from Daniel Moore from CJS Securities. Your line is now live.

Thank you, Ali. Thank you, Laura. Thanks for the color and taking the questions. I want to start with industrial. You know, it gets a little less attention, but still a significant portion of your business. Sounds like gradual improvement. Can you maybe just talk about particular end markets within that bucket where things are improving or, you know, Are there any that are becoming more challenging in the current environment?

No, I think really overall, the whole industrial segment for the business is really growing. Where we're seeing maybe more impact is the semi. Semiconductor industry, as you know, it is growing, so we realized some increase in our revenue in that area. You know, the rest of the economy and that, you know, just the manufacturing index here, PMI in the U.S. and Europe is higher, so we're tracking with that. In addition to some, you know, recapturing some market share with some of our existing customers. Kind of if you know, you separate all the growth come from those three areas. One is general economy, one semiconductor growth, and the third element is recapturing some market share with our existing customers for existing applications or newer applications.

Helpful. Maybe as a follow-up, just piggybacking on Craig's question on the data center opportunity. You know, you talked in detail in the last calls about the sort of specific applications. Maybe just take the opportunity to talk again about, you know, whether it be replacing any existing thermal management technologies or completely complementary, and when might you be in a position to talk a little bit more about, you know, a TAM and kind of what revenue might look like, you know, two, three, five years from now. Thanks again for the color.

Yeah, I'll take it backwards. With regard to revenue and discussing revenue and potential probably later this year, you know, as we get, you know, we have pretty good idea of the target and the potential. Some of this, as you know, it's customer specific, so we need to be extremely cautious here of what we communicate. With regard to the opportunity itself, it's really a mix. One is we look at the technology that we're providing for a specific solution of difficult issues that exist today. More of a complementary, but really solving serious issues that remains with the current systems today. It's a combination. We'll be taking some market share of existing applications, as well as solving some difficult issues with existing technologies regarding the thermal management today.

We believe the technology that we're introducing here is more specific, more efficient, and will be more cost-effective to the end user.

I know I'm out of questions, but last, if I could sneak it in, Laura. Can you quantify the revenue that slipped from Q1 due to weather and supply disruptions? How much of that is in your guide for Q2? Thank you again for all the color.

Yeah, no problem. Dan, yes, we did have some disruptions, which we alluded to in our prepared remarks. I would indicate that, you know, had we not encountered those disruptions, we probably have been trending more towards the high end of the guidance range that we'd set.

Okay.

Sure.

Thank you. Our next question is coming from David Silver from Freedom Capital Markets. Your line is now live.

Yeah. Hi. Thank you.

I did just want to level set one or two things. Then I have a couple of business questions. I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything regarding your cost saving targets. As of December 31st, I believe you said you had achieved the run rate of $32 million. In your remarks here, you've discussed the opportunity in Germany to capture an incremental $13 million, you know, by year-end. Is that how I should think about the total, you know, efforts that you've created or might there be another program or two that maybe, you know, I'm missing?

David, it's Laura. Let me take that for you. You're right insofar as what you said about $25 million in 2025. However, what I would tell you is that was the savings we realized in calendar 2025. When you annualize that, there's an additional $7 million still to be realized through the P&L. When you add to that the savings that we'll realize, which will be an incremental $13 million on an annualized basis once we're through the restructuring for our ceramic facility in Germany, that will bring us to a cumulative savings total of $45 million. That just will give you the information that allows you to fully triangulate the savings and where we are today and fully realizing them through the financials.

Thank you. That was the issue, the 25 versus 32.

Okay.

You read my mind very well there. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay. you know, Ali, I would just say, you know, the first quarter results reflect, you know, terrific, you know, terrific work on the controllable factors. you know, your sales growth, I think was modest, excluding, you know, the currency benefit, I guess, the currency tailwind. you know, you've cited maybe auto as a softer spot right here, but due to improve. I mean, overall, what are you hearing, you know, from your major OEM customers? Are they cautious because of the geopolitical environment? you know, what might be holding them back from moving more like this is kind of a more meaningful recovery, I guess, in broad-based demand for your key end markets?

Well, if you're specifically referring to the automotive industry, obviously it's not just geopolitical issues. You know, we got regulations issues and regulatory changes, especially in the U.S., as you know. That's really impacted the EV market, especially in North America, specifically the United States, and to similar extent in Europe. However, Europe is recovering, and we see growth in that market in Europe. It started toward the fourth quarter of 2025, and it continues. We see a pickup there. China first quarter was very soft. Again, some of the incentives for the EV market in China was taken away or pulled back, and we think some of that will be reinstated. That market will turn positive even in China within the next one to two quarters. We think EV market is coming back. It's not an issue.

We are not severely impacted by the EV market. We were trying to address the whole automotive market, not just for EV, but whether it's hybrid, whether it's EV, whether it's ICE type applications, we're in. We're targeting that market very heavily. We're engaged with a lot of the OEMs directly and indirectly as we speak. We anticipate really continued growth. As I said, we had several design wins in the fourth quarter of last year, first quarter of this year. We anticipate that will continue into the balance of 2026. With regard to the other industries, whether it's electronics and portable electronics specifically, we see growth in there for us.

The mix of the high-end, especially in the first quarter of this year, the mix of or the sale of the higher end, mobile phones and cell phones, what that did for us, it provided us higher revenue. We have higher content on those devices than just a standard lower cost version phone. That did help our growth, and we expect that also to continue. We're capturing more market share, more applications within that market segment, and the mix is helping us also significantly. We see growth really in all of our areas, and we're targeting every segment of our business for growth for the balance of this year.

Maybe just to follow up on, you know, your targeting of growth for the balance of the year, maybe going at it from a slightly different angle, but maybe for Laura. You know, you did highlight the capital expenditure budget, maybe the midpoint at $35 million. You know, I don't think of your company as kind of a capital intensive one normally. Within that proposed, you know, call it $35 million plus or minus budget, is there growth or targeted growth investments included in there? Maybe, if you wouldn't mind, just what, you know, what areas of your company are, you know, are you directing kind of some discretionary or growth-oriented CapEx towards? Thank you.

Let me start there, David, if needs be, Ali can add some additional color. What I would say in terms of capital intensity, actually at the midpoint at $35 million, the intensity has declined versus where it was in prior year. In 2025 we were at 4%. I think in 2024 we were at 7%. What that's indicative of is, as you talked about the capital intensity, were largely through the investments in our facilities to expand capacity that was made in the last three to five years, those investment decisions. What we're investing in is, number one, maintaining those facilities and automating as appropriate to improve our operational effectiveness.

Secondly, looking at the other auxiliary systems and processes that we have and how we can make them more effective and efficient in the business. That's where we're currently largely investing. The one thing that I did want to call out is that, you know, we also talk, you know, repeatedly to you all about the potential and the opportunity for the business, and we continue to evaluate that, you know, month-to-month, quarter-to quarter, and we'll make the appropriate decisions, you know, as we see fit based on potential return on any potential investment.

Okay, that's great color. Thank you. Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to be placed in the question queue, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. Once again, if you'd like to ask a question today, please press star one on your telephone keypad. One moment please while we poll for questions. Our next question is a follow-up from Daniel Moore from the CJS Securities. Your line is now live.

Yes, I apologize. I missed, like, a minute or two of the call. On the defense side of aerospace and defense, has your outlook or growth expectations changed at all since the start of the war in Ukraine? Maybe, you know, not necessarily for this year, but looking out further just in terms of maybe a restock, et cetera.

No, it has not changed. I think we expect to continue to grow. We, you know, I think the Q1 we were heavily impacted by actually the commercial aerospace industry, not the defense. That was softer. Again, that's just really timing of projects. Dan, as you know, these are projects driven type activities. Because of the restocking issue that's expected, we expect growth in Q2, Q3, and going forward. That's our expectations right now.

All right. Thank you again.

Sure.

Thank you. Our next question is a follow-up from Craig Ellis from B. Riley Securities. Your line is now live.

Yeah, thanks for taking the question. I've wanted to use Laura's comments on capacity and the investment that has been made so that you do have sufficient capacity and just use that as a jumping off point with something that I see broadly in a lot of the end markets where Rogers materials wind up, and that is we're seeing increasingly tight supply conditions. In other sectors, we've seen customer order patterns change either with longer term pipelining and visibility or other things. The question to you, Ali, is: As we've seemingly gotten into more of a capacity-constrained environment across the broader supply chain, how do you feel about your capacity, and are you seeing any changes in your customers' order behavior?

No, we don't really have an issue or constraint on capacity. I think what we see in our business is shift in, let's say, geographical demand and needs, where, you know, if you remember, we discussed the local for local strategy that Rogers has in place. We're seeing this is now playing more of a role in the business today and going forward than our capacity overall. Rogers capacity overall is sufficient for what we forecast for the next probably six to eight quarters without any concerns, with the exception of the additional new R&D projects, new business that we discussed earlier. For current business demand, we think we have sufficient capacity. However, shifting within regions or between regions, something we're looking at. We may have to rebalance that available capacity in different regions.

It'd be more of a rebalancing rather than investing more.

The follow-up to that, and the next question is one as a follow-up: Does that present an opportunity for you to do things with pricing in an environment that just seems to be structurally tighter, that can benefit what you bring home on the top line and gross margin? Then the next question is related to the tighter segment summary that you presented with auto and industrial, aerospace and defense, et cetera. What catalyzed the more consolidated look at end markets, and what does it do internally for you in terms of how you're running the business? Thank you.

I don't think it's gonna change the way we run the business. I think, you know, the business will continue, you know, the path we started few quarters ago, I think we're gonna continue running the business with the same way. The only thing that I've mentioned is, again, rebalancing this capacity and the availability of production lines where to serve the local geographical needs, or serve the OEMs within those geographical areas. This is something we're gonna continue to work on going forward. With regard to pricing, you know, my comments in the past, this is market-driven. We're gonna continue to evaluate and study the market and understand the pricing, the market tolerance for pricing and those conditions, we'll act accordingly.

We try to mitigate any cost increases internally first before we try to go in and ask our customers for price increases. We try to do that internally first, mitigate that with our efficiencies, you know, our cost reduction activities first, then last resort will be going back to increasing pricing on customers or for certain customers.

That's helpful. Thanks, Ali.

Thank you.

Thank you. We've reached the end of our question and answer session. Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.