Telos Corp (TLS) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

DATE

Monday, Nov. 9, 2026

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• President and CEO - Mark Griffin
• Executive Vice President and CFO - Mark Bendza
• Executive Chairman - John Wood

TAKEAWAYS

• Total Revenue -- $55.2 million, representing 7% growth and exceeding the guided range of $49.2 million to $50.6 million due to performance in Telos ID.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $10.6 million, reaching the highest quarterly level since the 2020 initial public offering and exceeding the guidance of $6 million to $6.8 million.
• Adjusted EBITDA Margin -- 19.2%, reflecting disciplined execution on fixed-price programs.
• Full-Year Revenue Guidance -- $198.2 million to $200.7 million, raised from a previous range of $187 million to $200 million following business wins in Information Assurance and higher TSA PreCheck volumes.
• Full-Year Adjusted EBITDA Guidance -- $32.3 million to $34.1 million, increased from the original guidance of $20.6 million to $28 million.
• GAAP Gross Margin -- 37.9%, exceeding management expectations due to revenue outperformance on higher-margin programs.
• Cash Gross Margin -- 43.1%, driven by favorable revenue mix and efficient execution of fixed-price contracts.
• Free Cash Flow -- $7.4 million, representing a 13.4% margin and the seventh consecutive quarter above 12%.
• Cash Flow from Operations -- $9.4 million, resulting in a 17.1% margin.
• Share Repurchases -- $5.7 million, utilized to buy back more than 1.2 million shares at an average price of $4.59 per share.
• New Business Bookings -- $58 million, consisting of net new Xacta and professional services bookings within the Information Assurance business.
• New Win Revenue Contribution -- $6 million in 2026 and $20 million in 2027, forecasted from the $58 million in new bookings.
• Third-Party Software Phaseout -- $32 million revenue headwind expected in 2027, as the company exits low-margin resale of third-party software.
• Phased Revenue Headwind Detail -- $7.5 million to $8.5 million in each of the first two quarters of 2027, rising to 10 million in the third quarter and decreasing to less than $6 million in the fourth quarter.
• Projected Gross Margin Expansion -- 600 basis points of lift expected on a full-year run rate basis in 2027 following the elimination of low-margin software resale.
• TSA PreCheck Margin Impact -- 400 basis points of sequential improvement expected from the first half to the second half of 2027.
• Q4 Revenue Guidance -- $47.5 million to $50 million, representing forecasted growth of 2% to 7% year over year.
• Q4 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance -- $7 million to $8.8 million, with a projected margin of 14.7% to 17.6%.
• Q4 Cash Gross Margin Guidance -- 43% to 44.5%, reflecting a favorable revenue mix.

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RISKS

• Bendza warned that the phaseout of low-margin third-party software "is forecasted to create a $32 million year-over-year revenue headwind in 2027," representing an exit from business streams that do not align with the company's target margin profile.

SUMMARY

Telos Corporation (NASDAQ:TLS) reported third quarter results that exceeded guidance across revenue and profitability metrics, leading management to raise the full-year outlook. The company is undergoing a transition in its revenue mix, planning to phase out $32 million in low-margin third-party software resale starting in the fourth quarter to focus on higher-margin proprietary solutions. Management highlighted $58 million in net new bookings within the Information Assurance segment, driven by adoption of the Xacta platform and its artificial intelligence capabilities. Leadership also confirmed a CEO transition, with Mark Griffin succeeding John Wood, who moved to the role of Executive Chairman.

• CEO Griffin stated that customers increasingly view the company as a strategic partner in cybersecurity risk management rather than a provider of compliance software.
• Management stated that artificial intelligence adoption within the Xacta platform is a primary driver of new customer wins by improving automation and manpower efficiency.
• CFO Bendza noted that the company anticipates up to 10 percentage points of margin lift in the second half of 2027 from the software phaseout and TSA PreCheck contract adjustments.
• The company reported expanded engagements with several federal agencies, including the Air Force Intelligence Community and the Department of Health and Human Services.
• CEO Griffin indicated that the $58 million in new business wins consists of recurring type awards, including renewals and upsells of Xacta.io and Xacta.ai.
• Executive Chairman Wood noted his transition was partly due to personal health reasons, stating he will continue as a significant shareholder and provide guidance on strategy.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• FedRAMP: A U.S. government-wide program providing a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services.
• GRC: Governance, risk, and compliance; a strategy for managing an organization's overall governance, enterprise risk management, and compliance with regulations.
• IT GEMS: The company's legacy third-party software resale business currently being phased out.
• TSA PreCheck: An expedited security screening program for air travelers; Telos provides enrollment services for the program.
• Xacta: A platform for automated cyber risk management and security compliance, including specialized modules for governance (360), data integration (io), and artificial intelligence (ai).

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Telos Corporation's Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker today, Allison Phillipp. Please go ahead.

Allison Phillipp: Good morning. Thank you for joining us to discuss Telos Corporation's Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results. With me today is Mark Griffin, President and CEO of Telos; and Mark Bendza, Executive Vice President and CFO of Telos. Let me quickly review the format of today's presentation. Mark Griffin will provide opening remarks on our operations and priorities and Mark Bendza will discuss our third quarter results and full year outlook. We will then open the line for Q&A. The third quarter financial results were issued earlier today and are posted on the Telos Investor Relations website, where this call is being simultaneously webcast. Additionally, we have provided presentation slides on our Investor Relations website.

Before we begin, we want to emphasize that some of our statements on this call, including all of those relating to 2026 company performance, plans and operations are forward-looking statements and are made under the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could materially differ for various reasons, including the factors described in today's financial results summary and the comments made during this conference call and in our SEC filings. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements.

In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful as supplemental and clarifying measures to help investors understand Telos' financial performance. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results. You can find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations with comparable GAAP results in our third quarter results summary and on the Investor Relations portion of our website. Please also note that financial comparisons are year-over-year unless otherwise specified. The webcast replay of this call will be available on our company website under the Investor Relations link. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mark Griffin.

Mark Griffin: Thank you, Allison and good morning, everyone. This is my first earnings call as CEO of Telos and I'm honored by the Board's confidence. I'm grateful to John Wood for his leadership and for the partnership we have built over the past 35 years. As Executive Chairman, John will continue to provide valuable guidance on our product road map, customer relationships and long-term sales strategy. Telos enters this next chapter with meaningful momentum.

Since the beginning of the third quarter, we have announced new and expanded engagements across the Air Force Intelligence Community, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the National Archives and Record Administration (sic) [ National Archives and Records Administration ], the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Commerce Inspector General and the Department of State. These awards demonstrate that customers increasingly view Telos as a strategic partner in managing cybersecurity risk, not simply as a provider of compliance software. Organizations need continuous visibility into their security posture, the ability to integrate data from multiple security tools and practical automation that helps their teams make faster and better informed risk decisions.

Our Xacta platform is well positioned for this environment. Xacta 360 supports the governance and authorization life cycle. Xacta.io brings together enterprise security data and enables continuous monitoring and Xacta.ai applies artificial intelligence to automate manual activities and generate actionable insights. Together, these capabilities provide a more complete approach to cyber governance, risk and compliance. Importantly, we are seeing Xacta adopted across defense, intelligence and civilian agencies, often through expanded relationships with existing customers. That customer intimacy, combined with our deep mission knowledge and FedRAMP High authorization, gives Telos a differentiated foundation for growth. We also see an opportunity to sharpen how we bring these capabilities to market.

AI is most valuable when it is embedded in solutions that address a clearly defined customer problem. For Telos, that problem is helping security teams understand risk, sustain compliance and protect mission-critical systems in increasingly complex environments. As CEO, my priorities are straightforward: execute well for our customers, expand our market opportunities, continue improving operational performance and translate our technology investments into durable, profitable growth. We will remain focused on building a more integrated product portfolio across cyber risk, identity and related security services. I'm confident in the strength of our people, our customer relationships and our technology.

I look forward to working with our employees and partners to build on Telos' recent return to growth and deliver long-term value for shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to Mark Bendza to review our third quarter results.

Mark Bendza: Thank you, Griff and good morning, everyone. We're pleased to report another strong quarter, highlighted by results that exceeded the high end of our guidance range, continued strong cash flow generation to fund share repurchases and an increase in our full year guidance. Let's turn to Slide 3. Total company revenue grew 7% year-over-year to $55.2 million, exceeding our guidance range of $49.2 million to $50.6 million, driven by stronger-than-forecasted performance in Telos ID. GAAP gross margin was 37.9% and cash gross margin was 43.1%, both above our expectations, reflecting disciplined execution on fixed-price programs and revenue outperformance on higher-margin programs.

Adjusted EBITDA exceeded the high end of our guidance range, reaching $10.6 million compared to guidance of $6 million to $6.8 million and representing the highest quarterly adjusted EBITDA since our IPO in 2020. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 19.2%. Cash flow from operations was $9.4 million or a 17.1% margin. Free cash flow was $7.4 million or a 13.4% margin and represented the seventh consecutive quarter above 12%. During the quarter, we deployed $5.7 million to repurchase over 1.2 million shares at an average price of $4.59 per share. Let's turn to Slide 4 to discuss fourth quarter guidance. For the fourth quarter, we forecast revenue in a range of $47.5 million to $50 million, up 2% to 7% year-over-year.

We expect cash gross margin to be approximately 43% to 44.5%, up year-over-year due to favorable revenue mix. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $7 million and $8.8 million, representing a margin of 14.7% to 17.6%. Let's turn to Slide 5 to discuss our updated full year outlook. Based on our third quarter outperformance and fourth quarter guidance, we are raising our full year revenue guidance to a range of $198.2 million to $200.7 million, which brackets the top end of our original revenue guidance range of $187 million to $200 million.

Our strong revenue performance compared to our original guidance is primarily the result of significant new business wins in our Information Assurance business and outperformance on TSA PreCheck transaction volumes. We are also raising our adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of $32.3 million to $34.1 million, significantly above our original guidance of $20.6 million to $28 million. The significant increase in adjusted EBITDA guidance is primarily the result of revenues at the top end of the range, higher cash gross margins on fixed-price programs and better-than-expected revenue, partially offset by higher operating expenses. Turning to 2027.

As previously discussed on our second quarter earnings call, starting in the fourth quarter, we expect the resale of low-margin, third-party software to begin phasing out. While this revenue stream contributes meaningful revenue, it carries only a single-digit gross margin and is not consistent with the margin profile we're building across the company. The phaseout of this revenue stream is forecasted to create a $32 million year-over-year revenue headwind in 2027 with only a modest profit impact. The new business wins in our Information Assurance business that Griff discussed in his opening remarks represent $58 million of net new Xacta and professional services bookings in that business.

We forecast those bookings will generate approximately $6 million of revenue in 2026 and $20 million of revenue in 2027 with normalized margins. And lastly, together with our prime partners, we continue to make progress on the pending proposals that we've discussed on prior earnings calls. We still expect to hear award decisions in the coming months, which could contribute meaningfully to 2027 revenue and profit. Let's turn to Slide 6 to wrap up. The third quarter reflects the continued execution of our strategy. We're pleased with our year-to-date performance, confident in our updated full year outlook and remain focused on executing our strategy to drive profitable growth, generate steady cash flow and create long-term value for our shareholders.

With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

Mark Griffin: Thank you, Mark. This is Mark Griffin. And before we open up the line for questions, I wanted to have John Wood, Telos Executive Chairman, who has joined us by phone to say a few words. John?

John Wood: Mark, thanks a lot. Hey, everybody. I just wanted to say thank you to all the shareholders for your participation today. I also wanted to spend just a couple of minutes and reflect on the decision that was made by Telos to -- and me to move to an Executive Chairman function. Mark and I have worked together for over 35 years. I've gotten to see him work in very difficult situations, very interesting situations and really, really big opportunities. I personally believe we're at that stage where we have great, big opportunities in front of us.

And I asked Mark whether he'd be willing to take on the role of CEO because I was that sure he could do it for me. As many of you know, I've been CEO for many, many years. And I unfortunately made a decision with a little bit of heartburn because it meant that I had to go deal with some personal issues. And one of those personal issues was my health. I had to go to the hospital and deal with my heart and some other things and it's been a really big deal for me. So again, I'm not going anywhere.

I plan on being a shareholder and continue to be a shareholder of size over the coming years. So again, thank you so much. And what Mark is doing around identity as a service with TSA PreCheck and what we're doing around our AI activity with Xacta.ai, is nothing short of a miracle in terms of the time it takes to get these jobs done. So anyway, best of luck, guys. I have complete faith in Mark Bendza and the rest of the team because I think they're really capable and they're really good. And they've gotten us through the hard part, now comes the fun part.

Thanks, everybody and I look forward to hearing from you in the future and feel free to reach out any time. But as it relates to day-to-day activities and getting to those hills that we need to take, Mark is the man. See you, guys.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Rudy Kessinger with D.A. Davidson.

Rudy Kessinger: I want to dive into these new business wins, $58 million in new business wins. Could you share a bit more color on these wins just with respect to how recurring they are in nature versus more onetime project-oriented wins? Just trying to get a sense of that $20 million in revenue you expect for '27, is that a recurring $20 million we should expect well into the future? Or is there any onetime kind of contract stuff in there?

Mark Griffin: Rudy, Mark Griffin. These are definitely reoccurring type awards. So we put out press releases, as you know and you saw the size and number of these. So these are customers who have Xacta, whether it be the base core product of Xacta 360 or the io and in many cases, they're adding the AI component to it. So they see the value and the efficiency with which -- they're getting for these products. So you'll see these reoccurring or renewals coming up for the foreseeable future. So we're very proud of where the direction Xacta is going but these aren't onetime deals.

Rudy Kessinger: Great. That's great to hear and congrats on that. Is there -- Mark, is there any -- I know you didn't give any preliminary outlook for '27. But just as we think about '27, we update our models here, you've got about a $30 million headwind from the wind-down of the third-party software. You've got $20 million at least from new business wins. You have other potential new business wins you could win this quarter. How should we be thinking about 2027 revenue versus '26? Is it possible we could still see you grow the top line even with that $30 million headwind?

Mark Bendza: Yes, Rudy, I do think we have a really good shot of seeing growth even with that headwind. And the Information Assurance wins helped to offset a good chunk of that headwind. And those new wins are coming in at, as you can imagine, significantly better margins than the $30 million of revenue that's going away. And then as you referenced, we have significant additional opportunities to add revenue through ongoing strength in Information Assurance new wins next year, as well as the other submitted proposals that we've talked about on prior earnings calls.

Rudy Kessinger: Okay. And then last one for me. Just any updated color on maybe gross margins into next year and what those might look like on a full year basis and particularly in the second half once you renew the TSA PreCheck contract?

Mark Bendza: Yes. So we'll guide more detail on the March earnings call. But just to reiterate a couple of things that I said on the last earnings call. The elimination of the [ IT GEMS ] third-party software, that should give us about 600 basis points of gross margin lift on a full year run rate basis. And then in addition, TSA PreCheck in the second half of 2027, we're expecting about 400 basis points of sequential margin improvement from the first half of '27 to the second half of '27. So by the time you get to the second half, there could be as much as 10 percentage points of margin lift from those 2 items.

Now, between now and then, of course, there's going to be a bunch of other puts and takes but those are 2 notable items from a margin accretion perspective.

Rudy Kessinger: And Mark, congrats on the new CEO role as well.

Operator: Our next question comes from Erik Suppiger with B. Riley Securities.

Erik Suppiger: And to John, we wish you the very best and congratulations, Mark. And congrats on a great quarter for getting out of the box. First off, on the $33 million, how much of that is falling into Q4? And then the rest -- the rest all hit in -- can you talk about how that -- the trajectory is in '27?

Mark Bendza: Yes. So in terms of the year-over-year headwind, in each of the first and second quarters, there's about $7.5 million to $8.5 million of revenue headwind. And then in the third quarter next year, that steps up to closer to $10 million. And then in the fourth quarter, it's a little under $6 million.

Erik Suppiger: Okay. And Mark, are there particular changes that you anticipate making in light of your position? Are there strengths that you bring? Or are there any strategic changes in strategy that you plan to implement any different than what had already been underway?

Mark Griffin: Erik, the current strategy and vision that we have in place is working for us currently. You've seen significant growth this year. The expansion as we continue to roll out sites and perform on TSA PreCheck. So the identity business is performing well. The -- with the Xacta and the Xacta.ai component and the adoption we're now seeing from multiple agencies in the GRC market are working well. So no, not immediate changes. What John and I have worked together for 35 years putting in place is showing progress. We'll continue to refine and continue to look at additional AI adoption throughout the company.

But right now, the cornerstones are the Telos ID business area and the Xacta areas, where we're seeing great pickup right now. So we expect that growth momentum to continue into '27.

Operator: Our next question comes from Matt Calitri with Needham & Company.

Matthew Calitri: This is Matt Calitri over at Needham. And I'd like to echo my congrats to Mark and best wishes to John. I wanted to make sure I'm clear here. So the Xacta wins in the quarter, which was great to see, obviously, those are completely separate from the pipeline proposals we've talked about in past quarters.

Mark Griffin: Matt, Mark Griffin. Yes, they are separate from what we had referenced in previous quarters. So they are generated in one but they are different than the pipeline that we previously talked about.

Matthew Calitri: Okay. And so what does -- well, I guess, like you alluded to the FedRAMP approval and some of the differentiation there. But what exactly is driving that strength in Xacta? And what do you see in that pipeline continuing forward?

Mark Griffin: Primarily, what we're seeing in that pipeline is efficiency, automation and not just process improvement. So it's the proliferation of the product building upon the 360 and the io platform. And when you introduce AI, you get further efficiencies and manpower savings. And so the customers are seeing the value for this area other than just pedestrian compliance software automation. And when you rack and stack our solution against the competitors, we're seeing customers themselves evaluate and think highly of the solution, which is signified by the recent contract wins. And the pipeline is still robust and we'll see additional wins as we move forward.

Operator: Our next question comes from Nehal Chokshi with Northland Capital Markets.

Nehal Chokshi: Congratulations on a astounding beat and raise quarter. And congratulations, Mark and best wishes, John. Guys, it feels like every week, you're putting out a press release announcing a new Xacta 360, io or ai win here. What's the catalyst here that's been -- appears to be driving this massive wave of wins?

Mark Griffin: Nehal, Mark Griffin. The catalyst is, when we launched the AI product last year in the September time frame, we had to educate and let the customers kick the tires on the solution and start seeing firsthand the value of it. And once we started, it started gaining excitement in the community and the users of the solution. And so it took -- it's taken a little bit of time to get these customers to embrace the solution. But once they did, they started issuing their RFPs and their quotes and we started to respond to those and the excitement around the product is continuing. So we have a few more opportunities that we hope land this year.

And then the pipeline for 2027 is also full of opportunities. So initially, if you go back to your current customer suite and you show them the enhancements and the dashboards and the efficiencies they can gain by the tool and once they start seeing that and then the users start seeing how easy it is to adopt and implement and how much better it is than our competitor's solution, it kind of sells itself at that point.

Nehal Chokshi: Got it. That's fantastic. Just to be clear, that net new revenue, does that include value from renewal? Or is that just purely upsell?

Mark Bendza: It's all new revenue.

Nehal Chokshi: Okay. Got it. And then the implied incremental EBITDA margin that you're guiding for calendar '26 equates to a range of 78% to 96%. Can you help explain why it's so high? I mean it's great but would love to understand why it's still high.

Mark Bendza: It's primarily driven by -- well, it's a couple of things. It's the incremental revenue itself is high-quality, high-margin revenue with really high incremental margins. And our OpEx is also down slightly year-over-year.

Nehal Chokshi: So as we think about how these wins layer into revenue for not just '27 but '28 and et cetera, right, is that the type of incremental EBITDA margins we should be thinking about from this incremental stream that's turning on?

Mark Bendza: I don't think -- I want to get into too much margin level detail on a specific revenue stream. But I think what we've shown over the last couple of years is that we have a lot of operating leverage in our OpEx. And as we bring on these higher-margin revenue streams, we're able to book them at very attractive incremental adjusted EBITDA margins. So feel really good about that. Obviously, there's going to be a lot of puts and takes between now and the end of next year. So I don't know that I can really isolate the variable fully. But yes, I think we've been showing that we can grow the top line at very attractive incremental margins.

Operator: This will conclude the question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call over to Mark Griffin for closing remarks.

Mark Griffin: Thank you, operator and thank you to everyone who joined us today. We are pleased with the progress Telos is making toward building a stronger, more profitable and more cash-generative business. We are bringing together our capabilities across cybersecurity risk, identity and related security services to address the evolving needs of our customers and we see meaningful opportunities ahead. We remain focused on serving our customers, executing well and building long-term value. I want to thank our employees, customers, partners and shareholders for their continued support. Thank you.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's presentation. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.

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