Earnings call transcript: NetSol Q1 2025 sees stock plunge amid mixed results

NetSol Technologies Inc. reported its Q1 2025 earnings, revealing a mixed bag of financial metrics and a significant drop in stock price. The company witnessed a 2.8% increase in total net revenues to $15 million, driven by a 9.4% rise in subscription and support revenues. However, a GAAP net loss of $2.4 million, translating to a loss of $0.20 per diluted share, overshadowed these gains. Following the announcement, NetSol's stock plummeted 27.09% to $3.3 in pre-market trading, reflecting investor concerns over the company's financial health and future prospects.

Key Takeaways

• NetSol's total net revenues rose by 2.8% to $15 million.
• Subscription and support revenues increased by 9.4%.
• The company reported a GAAP net loss of $2.4 million.
• Stock price fell 27.09% in pre-market trading.
• Strategic focus on AI and digital automotive retail solutions continues.

Company Performance

NetSol Technologies showed resilience in its revenue growth, with a 2.8% increase to $15 million compared to the previous year. The company's subscription and support revenues, a crucial area of focus, grew by 9.4%, indicating a successful transition toward a SaaS-based model. Despite these gains, the company faced challenges, reporting a GAAP net loss of $2.4 million. This loss, coupled with increased selling and marketing costs, underscores the financial pressures NetSol is navigating.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $15 million, up 2.8% year-over-year
• Subscription and support revenues: $9 million, up 9.4%
• Gross profit: $5.9 million, representing 39.4% of net revenues
• GAAP net loss: $2.4 million, or -$0.20 per diluted share
• Cash and cash equivalents: $22.7 million, up from $17.4 million in June 2025

Market Reaction

NetSol's stock experienced a significant decline, dropping 27.09% to $3.3 in pre-market trading. This movement reflects investor apprehension regarding the company's financial loss and the broader macroeconomic challenges it faces. The stock's current price is notably closer to its 52-week low of $2.14, indicating a loss of investor confidence.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking forward, NetSol aims for full-year revenue growth of 5-7%, emphasizing the development of its AI-powered Transcend platform. The company is optimistic about its stronger sales pipeline, which includes more qualified opportunities. Despite the current financial setbacks, NetSol's leadership remains committed to balancing investment with operational efficiency.

Executive Commentary

CEO Najeeb Ghauri emphasized, "Despite these short-term challenges, our business fundamentals remain solid." He further added, "We are executing a clear strategy for growth, innovation, and customer success." CFO Roger Almond reassured stakeholders, stating, "Our cash position of $22.7 million provides ample liquidity to support ongoing growth initiatives."

Risks and Challenges

• Macroeconomic pressures, including credit tightening and rising auto loan delinquencies.
• Increased selling and marketing costs, impacting profitability.
• Tariff impacts and restructuring within European automakers.
• Transition challenges from a license-heavy model to a SaaS-based model.
• Competitive pressures in the global auto finance market.

Q&A

The earnings call concluded without any questions from analysts, leaving some market participants seeking further clarity on the company's strategic direction and financial outlook.

Full transcript - NetSol Technologies Inc (NTWK) Q1 2026:

Unidentified Moderator, NetSol Technologies: Good morning, and welcome to the NetSol Technologies first quarter of fiscal 2026 earnings conference call. On the call today, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NetSol Technologies, Najeeb Ghauri, Chief Financial Officer, Roger Almond, Senior Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, Patti McGlasson, and Chief Marketing Officer, Erik Wagner. I'd like to now turn the call over to Patti, who will provide the necessary disclaimers regarding the forward-looking statements made during today's call. Patti, please go ahead.

Patti McGlasson, Senior Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, NetSol Technologies: Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. After we review the company's business highlights and financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, we will open the call for questions. Before we begin, I'd like to provide the customary caution regarding forward-looking statements that may be made during today's discussion. Please note that all information presented on this call is subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our remarks may include forward-looking statements that reflect management's current expectations regarding future events and operating performance. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those projected.

We encourage you to review the cautionary statements and risk factors contained in NetSol's press release issued earlier today, as well as in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. I'd also like to note that today's discussion will include certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these measures to their most direct comparable GAAP figures can be found in the press release issued earlier today. Lastly, please remember that this call is being recorded and will be available for replay on our website at netsoltech.com, as well as through a link included in today's press release. I'd like to reiterate that at this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q&A session.

I'll now hand the call over to our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Najeeb Ghauri. Najeeb.

Najeeb Ghauri, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, NetSol Technologies: Thank you, Patti. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining NetSol Technologies' earnings call to review our results for the first quarter ended September 30, 2025. For the first quarter, we delivered year-over-year revenue growth of 2.8%, driven by a 9.4% increase in subscription and support revenue, as we continue to expand our base of recurring revenue. Our bottom line, however, reflected the impact of intentional investment and a more challenging operating environment. I'll spend a few minutes on key strategic developments and the drivers behind our results, and then I will turn it over to Roger for more detail on the financials before we open the call for questions. First, on strategic progress, we continue to strengthen our position as a trusted partner for digital automotive retail for leading dealership groups in the U.S.

During the quarter, NetSol was selected by Sonic Automotive, a Fortune 500 automotive dealership group, to lead a discovery engagement focused on defining the requirements and roadmap for an omnichannel digital retail solution powered by our Transcend retail platform. The engagement will help Sonic Automotive further enhance the customer experience and streamline dealer operations across its Echo Park automotive network. This new partnership reflects our increasing momentum in the U.S. market and highlights the trust major industry players place in our technology and expertise. Second, our ongoing investments in artificial intelligence reflect our commitment to shaping the future of intelligent automation and asset finance and automotive retail. We recently announced the launch of CheckAI, our AI-powered credit decisioning engine designed to improve the speed and consistency of the credit underwriting process. CheckAI automates key workflows, accelerates decision-making, and supports more accurate underwriting by leveraging data-driven intelligence.

The platform combines intelligent automation with human-in-the-loop oversight to help ensure fairness, transparency, and regulatory compliance. By integrating AI into our Transcend platform, we're not only enhancing decision-making and efficiency but also creating new opportunities for innovation and long-term growth. Third, in the Asia-Pacific region, we achieved important milestones that demonstrate both our market reach and our deep understanding of regional customer needs. NetSol China participated in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin, where we signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tianjin Pinhai Smart Group and the Dongjiang Free Trade Cold Zone Government. This partnership focuses on integrated financial services for the automotive industry and cross-border data services, service areas that align closely with China's growing emphasis on digital transformation and global expansion. We have proved to maintain a sizable market share in the Chinese auto finance market.

We also became the partner of choice with Chinese OEMs and asset finance companies who are looking to expand abroad. We are one of the few vendors operating in the Chinese market who have a strong global resume. This is highlighted by a recent go-live in Indonesia, where a major Chinese leasing company deployed our Transcend finance platform as part of a greenfield implementation to launch its operations in that market. This deployment showcases NetSol's ability to support Chinese companies expanding internationally while highlighting our localized expertise and readiness to deliver solutions that meet regional regulatory and operational standards. Our long-standing presence in the Asia-Pacific region, combined with our cultural fluency and proven technology, continues to make NetSol a partner of choice for global OEMs and asset finance companies.

Our subsequent two-quarter end, we hosted a summit in Beijing that brought together leading Indonesian and Chinese asset finance executives, reinforcing our role as a bridge between China and the broader international asset finance ecosystem. These important developments during the first quarter reflect solid strategic and operational momentum as we continue to strengthen our position in key global markets. As we move forward, we remain committed to executing our strategy with discipline, balancing investment and innovation with a continued emphasis on operational efficiency and long-term profitability. Despite these significant developments, I want to recognize that the first quarter has been a challenging one for NetSol. While our total net revenue was up 2.8% year-over-year, our bottom-line results reflect the impact of several strategic investments and external macroeconomic headwinds.

On the expense side, we saw a 36% increase in selling and marketing costs, driven primarily by our decision to expand and strengthen our global sales organization. We made key hires at the senior levels of leadership, building the foundation needed to support future growth across our product portfolio. The timing of these decisions reflects both the stronger demand environment we are seeing and our intention to invest ahead of that demand in a disciplined way. We are seeing a meaningful increase in qualified leads and business opportunities, and we expect this expanded sales capacity to support higher bookings and revenue over time. Our reported revenue in Q1 is seasonally lower due to summer holidays, combined with macroeconomic uncertainty, including credit tightening and rising auto loan delinquencies, tariff impacts, and restructuring challenges among European automakers. The operating environment has been difficult.

However, these dynamics also create opportunities where NetSol's offering can help clients drive efficiencies. It is also important to note that we do not always have full control over when revenue is recognized, as it depends on the timing of customer milestones and implementation schedules. In addition, we continue to transition from a license-heavy model to a predominantly SaaS-based model. This shift improves the quality and visibility of our revenue over time, but it also changes the timing of how revenue is recognized and can make quarterly growth patterns less linear, especially in the near term. As this mix shift continues, we expect a higher proportion of recurring revenue and greater long-term predictability, even if individual quarters can be uneven.

For these reasons, we view the losses we experienced in the first quarter as primarily the result of front-loaded growth investments, seasonal patterns, and foreign exchange volatility, rather than a change in the fundamental earnings power of the business. Despite these short-term challenges, I want to emphasize that our business fundamentals remain solid. Our sales pipeline is stronger than it has ever been, reflecting growing global demand for our solutions that are part of our unified AI-powered Transcend platform. Compared to the same quarter last year, we are noticing stronger momentum and more qualified opportunities. We expect to achieve new milestones, and despite a slow start, we are targeting full-year revenue guidance of 5-7%, which is above last year's level, supported by a growing pipeline and the investments we made in our go-to-market and AI-enabled platform. NetSol has navigated many cycles of change in the past.

We are executing a clear strategy for growth, innovation, and customer success, and I remain confident in our ability to deliver sustainable long-term value to our shareholders. Thank you. I will now ask Roger Almond to discuss the financial results in more detail.

Roger Almond, Chief Financial Officer, NetSol Technologies: Thanks, Najeeb, and good morning, everyone. Let me share the results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026. Total net revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 increased 2.8% to $15 million, compared with $14.6 million in the prior year period. This was driven by a 9.4% increase in subscription and support revenues. On a constant currency basis, total net revenues were $15.1 million. Total subscription, SaaS, and cloud and support revenues increased 9.4% to $9 million, compared with $8.2 million in the prior year period. Total subscription and support revenues on a constant currency basis were $9.1 million. Total services revenue were $6 million, compared with $6.4 million in the prior year period. Total services revenues on a constant currency basis were $5.9 million.

Gross profit for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 was $5.9 million, or 39.4% of net revenues, compared to $6.6 million, or 45% of net revenues in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. On a constant currency basis, gross profit was $5.9 million, or 39.1% of net revenues as measured on a constant currency basis. Operating expenses for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 were $7.8 million, or 51.6% of sales, compared to $7.3 million, or 50.2% of sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2025. On a constant currency basis, operating expenses were $7.8 million, or 51.5% of net revenues as measured on a constant currency basis. Loss from operations for the quarter was $1.8 million, compared to a loss from operations of $760,000 in the first quarter of fiscal 2025.

GAAP net loss attributable to NetSol for the quarter totaled $2.4 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, compared with GAAP net income of $71,000, or $0.006 per diluted share in the prior year period. It's important to point out that included in our net loss for this quarter was a loss on foreign currency exchange transactions of $287,000, compared to a gain of approximately $543,000 in the prior year period. Because we operate in several geographical regions, a significant portion of our business is conducted in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. A decrease in the value of the U.S. dollar compared to foreign currency exchange rates generally has the effect of increasing our revenues, but it also increases our expenses denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Similarly, as the U.S.

Dollar gains strength relative to foreign currency exchange rates, it tends to reduce our revenues, but it also reduces our expenses denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Moving to our non-GAAP metrics, non-GAAP EBITDA for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 was a loss of $1.8 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, compared with non-GAAP EBITDA of $301,000, or $0.03 per diluted share in the prior year period. Turning to our balance sheet, our cash and cash equivalents were $22.7 million as of September 30, 2025, compared with $17.4 million as of June 30, 2025. Working capital was $24.9 million as of September 30, 2025, compared with $26.6 million as of June 30, 2025. Total NetSol stockholders' equity as of September 30, 2025, was $35.8 million, or $3.03 per share.

While the first quarter reflects a higher operating expense ratio and a temporary compression in gross margins, we remain committed to balancing strategic investment with cost discipline. Our cash position of $22.7 million provides ample liquidity to support ongoing growth initiatives, and we continue to prioritize investments that enhance recurring revenue streams and scalable digital solutions. The progress in subscription and support revenues underscores the resilience of our business model, and we are taking proactive steps to optimize operational efficiency as we navigate short-term headwinds, keep our focus squarely on long-term profitability, and shareholder value creation. I'd like to now hand the call back over to Najeeb.

Najeeb Ghauri, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, NetSol Technologies: Thank you, Roger. Although this quarter brought some challenges, our vision and priorities remain very clear. We are continuing to expand our global footprint via our unified AI-powered Transcend platform that is built to simplify and optimize every stage of the asset, retail, and commercial lifecycle. We are committed to improving operational efficiency and remaining focused on our customers' needs in the quarters ahead. We believe these efforts will drive stronger performance and long-term value creation. We remain deeply appreciative of our shareholders' continued trust and support as we execute our long-term strategy.

Unidentified Moderator, NetSol Technologies: Operative.

Roger Almond, Chief Financial Officer, NetSol Technologies: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star and 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press Star and 2 if you'd 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. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while we poll for questions. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press Star and 1. As there are no questions in the queue.

Unidentified Moderator, NetSol Technologies: Okay, Roger.

Roger Almond, Chief Financial Officer, NetSol Technologies: Go ahead, sir.

Unidentified Moderator, NetSol Technologies: Yes.

Najeeb Ghauri, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, NetSol Technologies: That's fine. We sincerely appreciate your participation in today's call and your continued interest in NetSol. We look forward to keeping you informed of our progress in the quarter ahead, wishing you good health and all the best.

Roger Almond, Chief Financial Officer, NetSol Technologies: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference of NetSol Technologies has now concluded. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.