Earnings call transcript: Anterix Q2 2026 misses forecasts, stock rises

Anterix Inc (NASDAQ:ATEX) reported its fiscal Q2 2026 earnings, revealing a significant miss in earnings per share (EPS) and revenue compared to forecasts. Despite these misses, the company's stock experienced a notable rise in price, closing up 6.98% at $19.5 in premarket trading. Anterix's strategic initiatives and strong cash position appear to have fueled positive investor sentiment.

Key Takeaways

• Anterix reported an EPS of $2.86, missing the forecasted -$0.56.
• Revenue came in at $1.55 million, slightly below the $1.57 million forecast.
• Stock price surged by 6.98% in premarket trading.
• The company increased projected cash proceeds for fiscal 2026 from $80 million to $100 million.
• New product launches and partnerships aim to capture a $1 billion annual market opportunity.

Company Performance

In fiscal Q2 2026, Anterix maintained a strong cash position of $39 million with no debt, reflecting robust financial health. The company recorded total gains of $71 million, driven by significant license exchanges and broadband license sales. Anterix's strategic focus on spectrum monetization and expanding service offerings aligns with growing demand for secure, real-time grid connectivity in the utility industry.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $1.55 million, slightly below the forecast of $1.57 million.
• Earnings per share: $2.86, a significant miss compared to the forecast of -$0.56.
• Cash position: $39 million, with no debt.
• Total gains: $71 million from license exchanges and sales.

Earnings vs. Forecast

Anterix reported an EPS of $2.86, significantly below the forecast of -$0.56, resulting in a negative surprise of 610.71%. Revenue also fell short of expectations, coming in at $1.55 million compared to the forecasted $1.57 million, a miss of 1.27%. This performance marks a deviation from previous quarters where the company met or exceeded expectations.

Market Reaction

Despite missing earnings and revenue forecasts, Anterix's stock price rose by 6.98%, closing at $19.5 in premarket trading. This surge in stock price can be attributed to investor confidence in the company's strategic initiatives and strong cash position. The stock's movement contrasts with its 52-week high of $42.91 and low of $17.58, indicating positive market sentiment.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking forward, Anterix aims to continue its spectrum monetization efforts and expand its service offerings. The company has revised its projected cash proceeds for fiscal 2026 from $80 million to $100 million, signaling confidence in its growth strategy. New initiatives such as TowerX and Catalyx are expected to tap into a $1 billion annual market opportunity.

Executive Commentary

CEO Scott Lang emphasized the company's transformation, stating, "We are building a new Anterix, leaner, more focused and positioned to deliver long-term growth and value." CFO Elena Marquez highlighted the strategic importance of Anterix's spectrum assets, noting, "Our value is not solely in our quarterly earnings, it is in the strategic spectrum asset."

Risks and Challenges

• Potential volatility in spectrum asset valuation could impact financial stability.
• Dependence on utility market transformation may pose risks if adoption is slower than anticipated.
• Regulatory changes in the telecommunications sector could affect spectrum monetization strategies.
• Competitive pressures from other spectrum asset holders may challenge market positioning.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the progress of the license clearing process and the valuation of spectrum assets. Executives addressed ongoing utility negotiations and emphasized the strategic importance of market opportunities and long-term growth strategies.

Full transcript - Anterix Inc (ATEX) Q2 2026:

Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Anterix second quarter fiscal 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question at that time, you will need to press Star 11 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Natasha Vecchiarelli, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Ma'am, please begin.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. I'm Natasha Vaccarelli, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, and I welcome you to our fiscal 2026 second quarter investor update call. Joining me today are Scott Lang, our President and CEO, Elena Marquez, CFO, Chris Guttman-McCabe, Chief Regulatory and Communications Officer, and Ryan Gerbrandt, COO. Before we begin, please note that today's discussion may include forward-looking statements regarding our outlook, operations, and expected performance. These are based on current assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. We encourage you to review our SEC filings for a detailed discussion, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q, which are available on our website. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. With that, I'll turn the call over to Scott.

Scott Lang, President and CEO, Anterix: Thanks Natasha and good morning everyone. I appreciate you joining us today. October marked my one year anniversary as CEO of Anterix. A year of hard work and clear progress. I came to Anterix because I believed then, and I have even more conviction now, that Anterix is in a unique position to be the first disruptive company in a generation to make an even greater, lasting and profound impact for the entire industry for the next generation. With a strong customer base and asset value that we believe is 10 times our current cost basis, a strong balance sheet, a light OPEX model and expansive industry partnerships, we are well positioned to deliver for the industry and our shareholders. Over the past year we have strengthened our foundation, deepened customer relationships and positioned Anterix to expand beyond spectrum while executing on our long term strategy.

Recent transactions, including those led by Ecostar and others, reinforce what we have been saying all along. Spectrum is a strategic asset not only for utilities, but also for a wide range of critical infrastructure and adjacent industries. We see this opportunity clearly and are taking deliberate steps to make our company an even more powerful partner for our customers. With that said, momentum toward 10 MHz continues to accelerate and we remain engaged with the FCC with confidence in a favorable outcome for Anterix, our customers and the federal government. While 6 MHz already stands up competitively against any available alternative. Today, our expansion to 10 MHz positions Anterix as the future-proof foundation for critical infrastructure modernization, unlocking additional opportunity for the design, build and operation of private broadband networks.

Utilities have entrusted Anterix with this mission to lead solutions that are designed to simplify and accelerate deployments that will capture meaningful incremental value for shareholders. This expansion marks more than the evolution of our spectrum position. It defines our intent to own a larger share of the infrastructure market by being the partner utilities rely upon to connect, secure, and modernize the nation's most critical systems. Through our partnerships with leading utilities, both those already deploying private networks using our technology and those in our active pipeline, we have seen what works, the unique challenges that utilities face, and where they need the most support. That insight is shaping the next chapter of Anterix expanding beyond spectrum, unlocking incremental opportunity, and helping utilities modernize critical infrastructure while driving sustainable growth for our stakeholders.

Building on this foundation, I want to highlight two initiatives where we see significant opportunity to scale. Together, these two offerings represent an annual market opportunity of roughly $1 billion, positioning us to capture a share that we believe will be important for our customers and deliver value for our shareholders. The first initiative I'd like to highlight is TowerX. As recently announced, TowerX is a first of its kind tower optimization and access program providing utilities with pre-negotiated leasing terms, standardized pricing, and end-to-end support services. Launched together with one of the nation's largest tower companies, Crown Castle, utilities have access to a broad network of tower infrastructure including Crown Castle's 40,000 plus sites, enabling faster deployment of 900 MHz private wireless networks. While TowerX accelerates the physical deployment of private networks by simplifying site access and infrastructure readiness.

Our second offering, Catalyx, is designed to fuel adoption, helping utilities deploy their private networks faster. Catalyx was created to meet the clear first step needs customers identified for adopting private wireless networks. This streamlined customer-driven solution enables utilities to connect and manage devices immediately even before securing spectrum while simplifying operations, reducing friction, and ensuring multiple layers of security. Built on cutting-edge SIEM and eSIM management. In collaboration with a top-tier roaming solution partner, Catalyx capitalizes on Anterix's deep customer relationships and ecosystem strengths to generate significant customer value and create new growth avenues for the company. Together these opportunities position Anterix to accelerate adoption, broaden customer engagement, and lead the transformation of the nation's grid. Backed by our exclusive 900 MHz spectrum, proven deployment tools, and unmatched industry partnerships.

We are empowering utilities to enable connected intelligence securely, reliably and at scale, delivering real, lasting value for our customers and our shareholders. Finally, before I turn the call over to Elena, I want to give a quick update on new customers. We continue to make strong progress on negotiations with customers that are participating in the Accelerator program and are also pleased to share that we recently were selected after a competitive procurement process to begin contract negotiations on a spectrum opportunity with one operating company that is part of a two operating company organization with the goal to scale across their entire footprint. With that, Elena, welcome to your first earnings call as our new CFO. The floor is yours.

Thanks Scott. I'm honored to take on the CFO role at such a transformative time for Anterix. I'm excited to continue partnering with this talented team as we drive our strategy forward, deliver on key initiatives, and create meaningful long term value for our shareholders. As Anterix's new CFO, I want to set the stage for looking at Anterix data differently, not as a typical EBITDA or revenue driven business. Our value is not solely in our quarterly earnings, it is in the strategic spectrum asset that we're actively monetizing and the long term high margin cash flows our 900 MHz spectrum generates. This is a balance sheet and free cash flow story. Every spectrum transaction, deployment, partnership, and network solution we execute enhances value and creates optionality for growth.

Digging a bit deeper, today, our spectrum assets are carried on our balance sheet at $325 million, far below their true monetization potential. The 85% of our spectrum yet to be monetized is valued in a range of roughly $1.5 billion to well over $4 billion based on 600 MHz and AWS3 auction prices, with all of our current contracts falling in that range. This immense headroom provides us with unmatched pricing power and a path to unlocking billions in additional value from our spectrum asset alone. Combined with the new low capital intensive solutions and services Scott outlined, including TowerX and Catalyx, we're expanding and improving our financial profile. We're focused on growing top line revenue and unlocking even greater value. With both of these products, we're taking recognized market leaders who are part of our active ecosystem and partnering with them to capture new revenue.

Turning to our results, we closed our second quarter of fiscal 2026 with approximately $39 million in cash and no debt. Looking ahead, we have approximately $114 million in contracted proceeds to be received with over $60 million of proceeds projected to come primarily in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026. Notably on the contracted proceeds front, during the quarter, we received $29 million in milestone customer payments. Additionally, we continue to successfully deliver spectrum to customers ahead of schedule thanks to the outstanding coordination between our teams and our utility partners. Through the second quarter of our fiscal year 2026, we received $19 million in accelerated payments, raising our projected cash proceeds for the current fiscal year to $100 million from the $80 million we previously guided on.

Turning to our income statement, we see the benefits of our OPEX reductions and our continued financial discipline setting the foundation to deliver strong results. Additionally, we recorded a total gain of $71 million in the quarter, consisting of $60 million from the exchange of narrowband to broadband licenses across 99 counties and $11 million from the sale and delivery of broadband licenses in 26 counties. These record high one time gains demonstrate our continued ability to monetize our spectrum assets and deliver on our commitments to current and prospective customers. With that, I will turn it back to Scott.

Thank you, Elena. I am betting on us. We are building a new Anterix, leaner, more focused and positioned to deliver long-term growth and value for customers and shareholders alike. The progress we have made this year is real and the opportunity ahead is exciting. To reinforce this conviction, I invested in Anterix in the open market following last quarter's earnings call and I plan to be doing that again in the near future. On behalf of our leadership team and the entire Anterix organization, thank you for your continued confidence and support. We will now open the line for questions.

Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or comment at this time, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad. If your question has been answered or you wish to remove yourself from the queue, simply press star 11 again. Again, if you have a question or comment at this time, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad. Please stand by while we compile the Q and A roster. Our first question or comment comes from the line of Mike Crawford from B. Riley Securities. Your line is open.

Scott Lang, President and CEO, Anterix: Thank you.

Couple quick questions on the balance sheet, one and income statement. What are these wireless licenses that you entered into agreement with an incumbent for in June, and you have $28 million that you need to pay, and for which licenses?

Elena, do you want to take that?

Conference Operator: Hello?

Scott Lang, President and CEO, Anterix: I'm here.

She might be on mute. There were disclosures regarding this in the last two Qs, but I don't remember you guys talking about this.

Sorry, Mike. Elena, can you hear us?

Hello?

Yes.

Oh, okay, perfect. Apologies. We're on the right line now. Yes, Mike, thank you for the question. I'll start and then I'll pass it over to Chris for some additional insight. Yes, you will see in the disclosure that we have a total commitment for this clearing arrangement of about $28 million. As far as the financial impacts for the quarter, we have funded a $14 million escrow for this agreement. You will also see it in our disclosures, out of which only about $5.5 million have been so far expended with about $8.5 million left. We, you know, expect that likely this will be the escrow should fund this for the rest of the year. You know, there may be maybe a slight additional spend, but I will pass it over to Chris for the additional color.

Chris Guttman-McCabe, Chief Regulatory and Communications Officer, Anterix: Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Elena. Hey, Mike. This is part of our clearing. This is the clearing of a complex system. It allows us to deliver for an existing customer, but it also unlocks a range of opportunities in that footprint, potentially for other broadband customers. This is part of our anticipated sort of clearing pathway and clearing costs. We're still in line and in budget for our clearing estimates that we made multiple years ago, and we're still on path for that.

Okay. In August, I think you spoke of being 80% through clearing. Is that?

Scott Lang, President and CEO, Anterix: Yep, yep.

Chris Guttman-McCabe, Chief Regulatory and Communications Officer, Anterix: We're now north of that. We're closer to 85% of incumbents cleared. We could actually go to FCC licensing on 90% of the counties in the United States now. You know, as we've talked about in the past, we continue to clear both strategically and opportunistically, and we're still, you know, right in line. We're still delivering actually, not only on time, but early, our licenses to our existing customers. This is all sort of part of that.

Okay, thank you. Just as these licenses get exchanged from narrowband to broadband, you have these kind of non-cash, well, non-cash changes on your balance sheet and income statement. In the past, the company's been reticent to try to put any kind of scale or scope on that. Are you able to do so now for the rest of this year or in the future altogether?

No, no, Mike, thanks for asking again. Right. We're not able to provide guidance simply because we work, right, partner with FCC and it all depends on the timing of licensing and we will not guide on these.

Okay. And then final question is in. Once the company in the past has reached contract negotiation stages for a complex system, is there any time frame around when that process might conclude and lead to actual transaction?

Scott Lang, President and CEO, Anterix: Yeah.

Chris Guttman-McCabe, Chief Regulatory and Communications Officer, Anterix: Hey, Mike, it's Chris again. We've cleared six of the 11 complex systems. We're working on the seventh right now. We have a path for each of the remaining complex systems and we'll move forward with them again, sort of strategically and opportunistically. Not all six, and even the seventh, are always tied to a near-term spectrum contracting opportunity. It's not always a one-for-one, particularly with the complex systems. We are particularly strategic and opportunistic, and it's not a one-to-one. Clearing one doesn't necessarily mean that there's a contract falling right behind it. We'll continue to tackle them that way, but the reality is it's how we tackle all of the incumbents, including the remaining 15% that are still in place.

Okay, thank you very much.

Scott Lang, President and CEO, Anterix: Yep, thanks, Mike.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from the line of George Sutton from Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Mr. Sutton, your line is open.

Thank you, Scott. You kind of buried the lead at the end of your prepared comments, and congratulations on moving at least a bit forward with a two operator deal. I wondered if you could give us a better sense of where that stands and what kind of population is involved.

Scott Lang, President and CEO, Anterix: Hey, good morning, George. Thank you for that. It's a fairly large IOU. I can't give you the specifics on it at this time under NDA, but it's a fairly large utility. As we mentioned, it has two large operating groups, one of which is taking the lead to select us, work with us, get that standing up, demonstrate the power of the private broadband networks, and then we see that deploying across both operating companies. It is a nice, sizable contract opportunity.

You mentioned your asset value being 10x your current cost basis. I'm not sure what you're referring to as your cost basis. Are you referring to the $325 million on your balance sheet? Are you referring to the initial cost of the spectrum? Could you just give us a little more clarity there?

Yeah, if I. Another. Elena, you go first and then I'll weigh in.

Oh, thanks so much, Scott. Yes. $325 million just refers to the balance sheet, but ultimately within the balance sheet number. Right. There's still some of that broadband conversion. Ultimately our cost basis is even lower than that. Ultimately we're referring to the market value of our asset being about 10 times the balance sheet.

10 times the balance sheet. Okay, great Scott. The Edison Electric Institute conference was a bit of a buzz. You're basically talking about the utility market per the CEO there, saying they're going to spend $1 trillion over the next five years. We are really serving arguably the highest demand market in the country and they do not have modernized systems. I wondered if you could just talk about having Tom as your CEO, former Edison Electric Institute CEO. Just the broad sort of interest that you're getting relative to these, you.

Know, very, very busy utility systems. Yes, great question, George. So first of all, you know, I've worked with Tom for 20 years. He's phenomenal. He's just a terrific Chair of our company and spokesperson. He certainly has made a huge impact on back of his tenure at EEI, which is when I met him back 20 years ago. The connectivity platform, as we've talked about historically and something I've been focused on for a good part of most of my career, is the first and most strategic part of a utility's decision when they think about the long term nature of the flexibility and the security of the number of devices and the scale of the devices to offer these services to their customers.

While the utilities are making investments, large investments around data center builds, new generation, underneath that are enormous amount of population that demands and will require connectivity and new devices that are coming into the system. As those devices come into the system, there's a common theme with all of them. How do I get connected to the grid? How do I have real time secure connectivity to the grid? This leads us right back to a foundational step of building the wireless network infrastructure underneath that. I think this has clearly become a board level conversation, a strategic conversation that our partners and our utilities and our clients, our existing clients and our prospective clients see that this is something that is critical to their future.

I think it is continuing to be one of the top of mind, which is why we even see this progress with a new utility, progress with the existing customers and their deployment, which is the launch of TowerX and Catalyx and the interest in the strong demand and negotiations we're having with new prospects.

Okay, perfect. That's it for me, thank you.

Okay, thanks George. Have a great day.

Conference Operator: Thank you again. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or comment at this time, please press Star 11 on your telephone keypad. I am showing no additional questions in the queue. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Scott Lang for any closing remarks.

Scott Lang, President and CEO, Anterix: I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today. I'd especially like to call out to our existing customers who've been just absolutely terrific to work with as we've shaped these new initiatives. I'd especially like to call out appreciation of the team who's just working really hard and made the progress that we've made in these last few months. We will look forward to keeping you updated on our progress as we move forward. Have a great day. Have a great day, everyone. We will be talking with you again soon. Thank you.

Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a wonderful day. Speakers, stand by.

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