GrabAGun Digital Hldgs (NYSE:PEW) held its first-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday. Below is the complete transcript from the call.
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The full earnings call is available at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/361546724
Summary
GrabAGun Digital Holdings Inc reported a Q1 revenue increase of 11.1% year over year to $25.9 million, with firearm sales rising 10.5%.
The company launched Pew Logistics, a white-labeled direct-to-consumer fulfillment solution, and onboarded Kel Tec and Daria Arms as initial clients.
Mobile engagement accounted for 67% of traffic and 64% of revenue, highlighting the importance of digital channels.
GrabAGun Digital Holdings Inc maintains a strong balance sheet with $106.4 million in cash and minimal debt, allowing for strategic investments.
Management emphasized disciplined M&A strategy focusing on long-term shareholder value and maintaining a competitive pricing position.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good afternoon and welcome to the GrabAGun Digital Holdings Inc first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. On today's call are Mark Nemati, Chief Executive Officer and Justin Hilty, Chief Financial Officer. A recording of this conference call will be available on the GrabAGun Investor Relations website shortly after this call has ended. I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you that during the call we will be making certain forward looking statements. This includes statements relating to the operating performance of our business, future financial results and guidance, strategy, long term growth and overall future prospects. We may also make statements regarding regulatory or compliance matters. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied during this call. In particular, those described in our risk factors included in the Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 filed by the Company with the SEC on March 12, 2026, as well as the current uncertainty and unpredictability in our business, the markets and the global economy generally. You should not rely on our forward looking statements as predictions of future events. All forward looking statements that we make on this call are based on management's assumptions and beliefs as the date hereof and GrabAGun disclaims any obligation to update any forward looking statements except as required by law. Our discussion today will include non GAAP financial measures, including adjusted ebitda. These non GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from our GAAP results. Information regarding our non GAAP financial measures, including a reconciliation of our non GAAP financial measures to our most comparable historical GAAP financial measures, may be found in our earnings release which we filed with the SEC earlier today and is available on the Company's Investor Relations site. I will now turn the call over to Mark Nemati. Mark, please go ahead.
Mark Nemati (Chief Executive Officer)
Good afternoon and thank you for joining us. We started fiscal year 2026 with momentum. Our Q1 results shows a business model that's working and they reflect our commitment to supporting American Second Amendment rights. Our first quarter results reflect disciplined execution across our operation and our continued commitment to serving a growing customer base that values constitutional freedoms and lawful access to a wide selection of premium firearms and accessories. First, the headline numbers Q1 Revenue increased 11.1% year over year to 25.9 million, driven by a 10.5% increase in firearm sales. Our growth continued to outpace the broader industry as adjusted NICS background checks were up by 1.6% during that same period. We're continuing to take share in a challenging environment. We believe we are just scratching the surface of what this platform can do. Our growth is impressive. Against that backdrop, the strength of the business model shows up most clearly in our customer metrics. Customer lifetime value continue to grow up 4.2% year over year, reflecting deep relationships with our expanding base of loyal customers. Repeat purchase momentum remains strong with our repeat rate holding steady as customers continue to return to GrabAGun for their firearms and accessory needs. Mobile engagements continue to be a significant driver of our business as well, accounting for approximately 67% of traffic and 64% of revenue in the first quarter. Mobile drives higher conversion rates and our digital model runs at a structurally lower cost per transaction than traditional retail. These conversion rates, this customer lifetime value, this repeat purchase behavior, none of it is accidental. It's a result of over 15 years of compounding investment in technology, supplier relationships and customer trust. As I mentioned on our fourth quarter call, 2025 was an inflection point for Grabigun. We completed our public listing, expanded our strategic capabilities and laid the foundation for the next phase of growth. We entered 2026 with momentum and this quarter we continued to execute against our strategic priorities. We had a significant milestone this quarter, the launch and continued development of Pew Logistics, our white labeled direct consumer fulfillment solution. Purchase purpose built for Firearm Manufacturers for those who may be newer to this part of our story, let me provide some context on why this is important. The firearm industry has a friction gap that has persisted for decades. Manufacturers have historically been locked out of direct consumer commerce not because they lack the products or brand equity, but because the regulatory complexity, FFL processing requirements and a fragmented fulfillment infrastructure that creates barriers most cannot overcome on their own. The result is referral leakage. Manufacturers drive demand through marketing and brand building only to watch that demand get captured by third party retailers who own the customer relationship and the data. Pew Logistics solves this problem. We engineered a platform that allows manufacturers to launch branded direct to consumer storefronts with full ATF compliant FL workflows, end to end fulfillment and first party customer data. All of it is powered by over 15 years of infrastructure investment. At Grabigun, manufacturers can launch in weeks, not months with no major capital outlay and no need to build out compliance it customer service or logistics teams. We launched P Logistics in January with Keltec weapons as our first implementation. Kel Tec is a 35 year American firearms manufacturer with a loyal customer base and their collaboration validated the platform's value proposition from day one. In March we added Daria Arms as our second manufacturer client. Daria is a global manufacturer with over 200,000 farms produced and products trusted by professionals in more than 50 countries. The addition of Daria demonstrates growing industry momentum for the platform and validates its appeal across both domestic and international manufacturer profiles. We are also making progress on our new headquarters and fulfillment facility which we acquired in the fourth quarter. At approximately two and a half times our current footprint, this purpose built facility provides operational capacity to support our growth well beyond 2026, including the anticipated needs as we aggressively scale P Logistics. We are currently outfitting the space and remain on track to be fully operational in the fourth quarter of 2026. This is a long term infrastructure investment that reflects our conviction and where the business is headed. Since launch, P logistics has processed $1.3 million in gross merchandise value. Our network of FL holders that puts a licensed dealer within 15 miles of 97% of the US population ensures fast compliant delivery nationwide resulting in an average checkout to delivery time of just under three business days. P Logistics continues to outpace traditional online farms retail benchmarks. The early results are encouraging and we see significant Runway ahead as we onboard additional manufacturers throughout the year. Beyond P Logistics, we continue to strengthen our core DTC E Commerce business. Our Shoot and Subscribe ammunition subscription service which we launched in the fourth quarter continues to build momentum. The service introduced something the firearms E Commerce category had not historically had a predictable recurring revenue model built upon a loyal contracted customer relationship instead of relying upon a series of one time transactions with the same customer. Early adoption has continued to build, now contributing 15% of our ammo revenue line and the model is architected to expand across additional product categories over time. Looking ahead, we remain focused on scaling Pew Logistics with traditional manufacturers driving continued market share gains in our core DTC business and deploying capital towards accretive opportunities that strengthen our platform regarding capital deployment. Specifically, outside of directly growing Pew logistics in our D2C channel, we remain focused on finding accretive opportunities and are taking a disciplined approach focused on long term shareholder value. We continue to evaluate both potential M and A and internal build possibilities. Our M and A pipeline remains active but our priority remains disciplined and our approach to M and A is straightforward. We're not in the business of overpaying to hit arbitrary growth targets. The strength of our balance sheet gives the luxury of patience. We can wait for the right assets at the right price rather than chasing deals that don't make strategic or financial sense. Our framework is built on acquisitions in the tens of millions where they enhance our platform capabilities and meet our return thresholds, focusing on long term shareholder value. When we find those targets, we will move quickly. Until then, we are comfortable staying disciplined and letting our organic growth engines, both D2C and P logistics, compound. Overall, our first quarter results demonstrate that the strategy is working. We continue to outperform the broader firearms industry and we are building a promising new growth vector through P Logistics and we are doing so while maintaining a fortress balance sheet and returning capital to shareholders. The next generation of firearm consumers is already here. They transact on mobile, they transact with Bitcoin, they expect frictionless experiences and they hold GrabAGun to the same standard as the best retail platforms on the Internet. We are built for this customer. We're winning today. We're taking more market share every quarter Before I turn it over to Justin One regulatory item worth flagging that could reshape this industry the ATF has proposed new regulations that would allow certain firearm transfers to occur remotely with federal background check requirements still met through secure identity verification. If finalized, lawful consumers could complete the full compliance process remotely. That includes direct to home firearm delivery within an approved framework. This could be the most significant change to firearms retail distribution in decades. Importantly, infrastructure required to operate in this environment is complex. As currently proposed, the new regulations require remote identity verification, meeting federal standards, seamless NICS integration, advanced compliance systems, secure record keeping, and the operational ability to execute all of it accurately at scale. Grabigun is uniquely positioned for this opportunity. For more than 15 years we have built the digital infrastructure and compliance foundation required to support highly regulated online firearm transactions. Few companies are positioned to adapt this quickly if the rules change. Regardless of regulatory outcome. The long term strategy that we have been building on for years positions us to continue to drive the evolution of firearms commerce. With that, I'll pass it over to Justin.
Justin Hilty (Chief Financial Officer)
Thank you Mark. I will now dive into our financials in more detail. First quarter net sales were 25.9 million, an increase of 11.1% compared to 23.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. Firearms product sales increased 10.5% year over year to 21.7 million, significantly outperforming adjusted NICS background checks during the quarter. The strength in firearms was driven by continued market share gains, favorable product mix and the ongoing effectiveness of our AI powered pricing and demand forecasting capabilities. Non firearms product sales were 4.1 million, an increase of 10.4% year over year despite widespread softness in ammunition demand that has been consistent across the two a industry gross profit for the first quarter was 2.8 million or 10.7% of net sales compared to 2.2 million or 9.6% of net sales in the prior year period. Favorable mix towards higher margin firearms categories plus continued benefit from our pricing optimization drove the 107 basis point improvement in gross margin. We remain focused on driving sustainable margin improvement while maintaining our competitive price positioning. Total operating expenses for the first quarter were 5.4 million compared to 2.2 million in the prior year period. The increase reflects planned investments in public company infrastructure, the launch and scaling of Pew Logistics and incremental headcount to support our growth initiatives. As a reminder, the first quarter of fiscal 2025 was a pre public company period, so the year over year comparison reflects the full impact of incremental costs associated with operating as a public company. Net loss for the first quarter was 1.8 million. The $3.2 million increase in year over year SGA expenses were primarily attributable to approximately 1.5 million in incremental headcount to support our growth initiatives, about 500,000 in stock based compensation and approximately 800,000 in insurance costs and professional fees associated with operating as a public company. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was a $2 million loss compared to half a million dollars in the prior year period. The decrease reflects the increased operating expenses I just mentioned, partially offset by higher gross profit from our revenue growth and margin expansion. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with 106.4 million in cash and minimal debt. Our business model is built so that we can collect from our customers before we pay our suppliers. With 9.2 million in inventory against 13 million in accounts payable, our suppliers are effectively co funding our growth. As a reminder, while our results today primarily reflect our core direct to consumer business, over time we expect Pew Logistics to begin contributing to our diversified revenue model in an even more meaningful way. This business carries a structurally higher margin profile than our core direct to consumer business driven by its software like revenue share model and highly scalable economics that leverage our existing infrastructure with minimal incremental fulfillment costs. As Pew Logistics scales and contributes more significantly to our revenue mix, we expect it to be accretive to overall margins over time. During the first quarter we repurchased approximately $2.4 million of our common stock under our $20 million share repurchase authorization, we have just under 9 million remaining under the current authorization will continue to evaluate opportunistic share repurchases while maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation and preserving balance Sheet flexibility to support our long term growth initiatives. Looking ahead, we expect to continue investing in our strategic growth initiatives including expanding Pew Logistics through additional manufacturers and driving continued market share gains within our core direct to consumer business. We remain focused on disciplined expense management while making the investments necessary to capture these significant opportunities ahead of us. With that, I'll turn the call back to Mark before we move into Q and A.
Mark Nemati (Chief Executive Officer)
Mark, thank you Justin. I would like to quickly reiterate the key themes from today's discussion. We delivered a solid first quarter with 11% revenue growth and continued market share gains in a flat industry environment. We made meaningful progress scaling Pew Logistics with two manufacturers now on the platform and we maintained our fortress balance sheet with over $106 million in cash and minimal debt, providing us with significant flexibility to pursue our growth initiatives and return capital to shareholders. We at GrabAGun continue to lead the generational shift towards digitally native commerce in the firearms industry. With the potentially large regulatory changes by the atf, we believe we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the next industry evolution. Our 15 years of compounding investment in technology, supplier relationships and customer trust have built competitive advantages that widen as the market evolves. We are confident in our strategy. We are executing against our priorities. We are excited about the opportunities ahead with that. Operator, Please open the line for questions.
OPERATOR
We will now begin the question and answer session. Your line will remain open for follow ups. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press Star one. Again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally. Please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q and A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Matt Karanda with Roth Capital. Matt, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Matt Karanda (Equity Analyst)
Thanks guys. Nice work on the outperformance versus nics. Again, just wanted to hear a little bit more on the outgrowth as it pertains to units versus average order value on firearms this quarter then anything you can share on just add on to the quarter. Obviously we had some geopolitical disruption in March. Just wanted to hear how that might have impacted results intra quarter and what you've seen in terms of demand trends since then. If you're willing to share sort of April or May trend that you've seen in terms of firearms demand.
Mark Nemati (Chief Executive Officer)
Hey, thanks Matt for joining. Yeah, so I think most of the growth that we can attribute to this is the consistency of our platform. Obviously we, we Spend a lot of time making sure that there's as much reduced friction as possible. A lot of it also attributable to our product mix. You know, we're continuing to purchase the right items at these right prices to help consumers purchase what they want as well. As you've probably seen our expanded marketing capabilities. So now we're driving, I think, a lot more traffic, a lot more consumer demand into our platform through all the change we've done in marketing, whether that's social media or other marketing channels. And then in terms of like inter quarter stuff, I mean the, the quarter, month by month, you know, it's pretty, pretty stable across the line. You know that growth is, is a upward trend and that trend is continuing through the first quarter and beyond and it's been pretty stable. I don't see that many like peaks and spikes because of geopolitical events. There may be some, but they're not, not massive in any duration. The platform and the revenue that is generating has all been fairly stable and linear. Growingly growing linearly.
Matt Karanda (Equity Analyst)
Okay. All right, appreciate that, Mark. And then just maybe on the Pew logistics solution, good to see the second customer added there. How should we think about the funnel of opportunity, I guess as it pertains to maybe manufacturing partners that could sign up, how you're attacking the market overall and how growth should unfold as that kind of ramps from a standing start?
Mark Nemati (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, I think we'll get more manufacturers on a much quicker cadence after they start seeing some of these metrics and revenue that's being driven by some of the partners we have on there already. As you know, we just launched this in mid January with our first customer, Kel Tec. And then Diria came on board and that website launched I think about a week or two ago. So it's all still very new. The more time we have under our belt with that and the more results that we show, these manufacturers, I believe will start to see kind of the op. The option that they have to leverage a platform like this to grow their gross margin and again to kind of work on that funnel of customer information that they're losing out on because of the way that they don't have a direct purchasing capability currently.
Matt Karanda (Equity Analyst)
Okay. And then on the margin front on few logistics, I mean, I guess it's fair to say, given this is service revenue and maybe there's a little bit of logistics cost associated with it, should come at a significantly higher gross margin than the core E commerce platform. Is that a fair assumption?
Mark Nemati (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, the platform is significantly higher. Yeah. Like you said it's a rev share model. So in addition to those pick pack fees, gross margin profile there is upwards of 70%, which is much higher compared to that of the hard goods e commerce platform.
Matt Karanda (Equity Analyst)
Okay, all right, got it. And then on the M and A funnel, I guess I didn't particularly detect like a different tone from you guys. It seems like you're just remaining patient there. And we'll look for opportunistic M and A as it becomes available. But just any update on the funnel and maybe level of urgency as we kind of think about deploying capital on the M and A front?
Mark Nemati (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, I would say the funnel is still full. We are actively reviewing and looking through several potential deals. But as I mentioned also we are very, very disciplined in our approach. We're not going to overpay for an asset just for the sake of making a deal. We have a pretty rigid framework and if a acquisition is accretive in revenue and income, then we'll act on that quickly. We want to make sure that we have all that cash to deploy whenever that target comes comes up. But as well, we want to leverage that cash for organic growth as well. Growing out Grab a Gun and pew logistics. So we're not just going to throw money away just for the sake of closing a deal.
Matt Karanda (Equity Analyst)
Yeah. Okay. And then in the meantime, in terms of cash deployment organically, I guess are there any chunkier expenses or capital expenses that we should be thinking about as you ramp the distribution center and move in there fully through the end of the year or with few logistics and getting that up and running, how should we think about, I guess, the capital outlay organically from a cash perspective through the rest of the year for those items?
Mark Nemati (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, yeah. Obviously we're building out that new facility and then once we're into that facility, we'll have a lot more space for inventory, our own inventory as well as the pelogistics inventory. So there likely will be some capital deployment by increasing our overall inventory capabilities, which again helps us drive better pricing, better margins. But still, the lion's share of the capital deployment is around M and A and we're going to still focus on that throughout the duration of the year and beyond.
Matt Karanda (Equity Analyst)
Okay, got it. I'll leave it there, guys. Thanks so much.
OPERATOR
There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Mark Nemati for closing remarks. Mark, please go ahead.
Mark Nemati (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you, operator. And thank you to everyone who joined us today. Before we sign off, I would like to thank our employees whose dedication and hard work continues to drive our success every day. I also want to thank our shareholders for your continued support and confidence in Grab a gun as we execute our long term vision. We look forward to speaking with you on our next earnings call.
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.
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