Greetings, and welcome to the inTEST Corporation Second Quarter 2023 Financial Results Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Sean Southard, Investor Relations for inTEST Corporation. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate your interest, and thank you for sharing your time with inTEST Corporation. Here with me are Nick Grant, our President and CEO, and Duncan Gilmour, our Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. You should have a copy of the second quarter 2023 financial results release, which we released earlier this morning. If not, you can access the release, as well as the slides that will accompany our conversation, on our website at intest.com/investor-relations. After our presentation, we will open the lines for Q&A. Please turn to slide two. I will review the safe harbor statement. You should be aware that we may make some forward-looking statements during the formal discussion as well as during the Q&A session.
These statements apply to future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties, as well as other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from what is stated here today. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors are provided in the earnings release, as well as in other documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents can be found on our website or at sec.gov. During today's call, we will also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures. We believe these will be useful in evaluating our performance. You should not consider the presentation of this additional information in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. We have provided reconciliations of non-GAAP measures with comparable GAAP measures in the tables that accompany today's release and slides. With that, please turn to slide three, and I'll turn the call over to Nick.
Thank you, Sean, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us for our second quarter 2023 earnings call. Once again, the inTEST team has delivered strong results through execution of our 5-point strategy for growth. I want to take a moment to recognize our team members and to thank them for their commitment and dedication to our strategy and their hard work delivering the plan. Their outstanding performance allowed us to achieve record revenue of $32.6 million for the second quarter. This growth reflects strength in a number of our markets. Our thermal test solutions had some nice wins in the defense aerospace market. Sales of our analog mixed signal back-end semi test solutions remain robust. We also continue to have strong shipments of our front-end semi induction heating solutions for the silicon carbide and epitaxy crystal growth.
I believe these results are a reflection of our success diversifying into new target markets, capturing additional market share through go-to-market and innovation investments, and the broader market opportunity we gained with the acquisitions we made in 2021. We are delivering on our efforts to expand our presence globally. For example, our Environmental Technologies division was recently in Japan for the Automotive Engineering Exposition, promoting our thermal solutions. While a competitive market, our participation informs us of new ideas on product development, value-added engineering requirements, and opens up new opportunities. The division also landed a new customer in Guadalajara, Mexico, for several ThermoStream precision temperature systems in the quarter. This is an example of our efforts to further penetrate the market in Latin America, where medical device manufacturers have a good presence.
Innovation, of course, is a key element of our growth, and our Electronic Test division had a number of wins for its new SuperSet high voltage, high current interface and new LSL automated manipulator. These wins helped to keep sales robust to our back-end semi space, even as others have reported experiencing moderated capital equipment sales. Our Process Technologies division continues to win new customers that create opportunities for further growth. For example, we announced earlier in the quarter the win at a utility industry customer, which is replacing its natural gas preheating system with our environmentally preferred and electric induction heating system to preheat metals in the preparation for welding. Our systems provide a green solution and improve quality and throughput. This initial win is for systems to be used in multiple production lines in our customer's operation and has the potential to expand into additional facilities.
We are seeing more opportunities for this application of our induction heating systems as companies embrace greener factories. As we're growing, we are demonstrating our strengthening earnings power as well. Our 10% increase in sales versus a year ago contributed to our 11% growth in gross profit, 23% increase in operating income, and 32% growth in net earnings. We believe these results demonstrate our operating leverage potential as we scale the organization. As for new business booked in the June quarter, we saw strong demand in our defense, aerospace, industrial, and security markets, with second quarter orders of $31 million, up 2% sequentially. We ended the quarter with a backlog of approximately $45 million. A slight decline both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, we believe, is a reflection of the supply chain returning to more normal trends.
Customers are no longer ordering far in advance of their needs with improving lead times. Before I turn it over to Duncan, I'll just comment that I'm pleased with the success of our recently completed $20 million at-the-market equity offering. The just over $19 million raised enhances our balance sheet and provides us with additional capital to support our organic and inorganic growth ambitions. With that, let me turn it over to Duncan to review the financials in more detail. Duncan, over to you.
Thank you, Nick. Starting on slide four, as Nick noted, revenue for the second quarter was a record $32.6 million, up 10.1% versus the same period last year, and at the upper end of our Q2 guidance range of $31 million-$33 million. The $3 million year-over-year revenue growth reflects strong demand for induction heating solutions in front-end semi, traditional testing applications in back-end semi, thermal test chambers and flying probe test systems in the defense aerospace industry, and industrial-grade image capture technology in the security industry, as well as a variety of our solutions in other markets. Moving to slide five, gross margin of 46.2% in the quarter increased 40 basis points compared with the prior year period, driven by better product mix and improved pricing.
Compared with the trailing quarter, gross margin declined, primarily due to an especially favorable product mix in the first quarter. Our trailing 12 month gross profit of $59 million grew $5.6 million, reflective of success of scaling the business. Trailing 12 month gross margin of 46.2% is in line with our outlook for full year gross margin of approximately 46%. As you can see on Slide six, our operating expenses as a percent of sales improved by 70 basis points to 35.9% as compared with the prior year period. On a dollar basis, operating expenses increased $866,000 as a result of annual merit increases and continued investments in engineering, sales, and marketing. Turning to Slide seven, you can see our bottom line and Adjusted EBITDA results.
We had net earnings of $2.8 million, or $0.24 per diluted share for the second quarter, which is up from $2.1 million, or $0.20 per diluted share in Q2 2022. Adjusted EBITDA was $4.8 million, up from $4.2 million last year, and Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 50 basis points to 14.7%. On an adjusted basis, non-GAAP EPS was $0.28 per diluted share, compared with $0.25 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2022. Adjusted EPS reflects adding back tax-affected acquired intangible amortization. On an after-tax basis, acquired intangible amortization amounted to $434,000 in the second quarter. We expect after-tax intangible amortization for the third quarter to be similar. Slide eight shows our capital structure and cash flow.
We raised $19.2 million in net proceeds from an at-the-market equity offering during the quarter. This increases our share count such that our weighted average diluted common shares outstanding will be approximately 12.4 million for Q3 2023. We also generated $2.9 million in cash from operations in the quarter. Given our modest capital requirements to grow the business, free cash flow was $2.5 million, or about 89% of net earnings. Cash and equivalents at the end of the second quarter were $37.4 million, up $22 million from the trailing quarter, reflecting the $2.9 million from operations and $19.2 million from the offering. As Nick indicated, our capital priorities remain focused on organic and acquired growth. We have $30 million available with our delayed draw term loan and $10 million available under our untapped revolver.
Our current leverage ratio is below one at just 0.73, giving us considerable flexibility. As we have done in prior quarters, we repaid $1 million of debt, bringing total debt down to $14.1 million. Note that repayment of debt does not increase funding available under the terms of our term loan facility. Turning to Slide nine, our second quarter orders of $31.4 million were up 2% sequentially on the strength in orders from security, defense, aerospace, automotive, EV, industrial, and other markets. Specifically for EVs, orders were strong for our chillers for testing and production of high-powered traction inverters. For the industrial markets, orders were strong for our induction heating solutions as companies seek out more environmentally friendly solutions for their production needs.
Order levels in 2023 have become more normalized, given improvements in the supply chain and the resulting reduction in lead times. Backlog at June 30th, 2023, was $44.6 million, 3.1% lower than the prior year and down 2.5% compared with the trailing quarter. Approximately 45% of the backlog is expected to ship beyond the third quarter of 2023. Turning to slide 10, we will review our updated outlook for 2023. Coming off a strong second quarter, we remain excited about the remainder of 2023. We believe we're on track to achieve high single digit to low double-digit organic growth and reach our full year revenue target. For the third quarter of 2023, we expect revenue and gross margin to be similar to the second quarter.
Third quarter operating expenses, including amortization, are expected to be similar to Q2, which was approximately $11.7 million. Intangible asset amortization after tax is expected to be approximately $430,000. We expect third quarter interest expense of approximately $175,000, and our effective tax rate to be between 16% and 17%. EPS for the third quarter should be in a range of $0.20-$0.24 per diluted share, while Adjusted EPS should be in a range of $0.23-$0.27 per diluted share. As a reminder, we simply adjust for tax-affected amortization expense. Looking further ahead, we believe demand will remain strong across our technology offerings and markets. Additionally, we continue to pursue strategic acquisitions and partnerships to extend our reach and expand our portfolio.
Based on our results for the first half of 2023, we are updating our revenue outlook for 2023 to approximately $127 million-$131 million. Based on our backlog and forecast, we are narrowing the range of our gross margin outlook for 2023 to approximately 46%, and our expected operating expenses to be $46 million-$47 million, raising the low end by $1 million. This includes tax-adjusted intangible asset amortization expense of approximately $1.7 million for determining adjusted earnings. Our expected effective tax rate remains approximately 16%-17%. Our capital expenditures for 2023 are expected to continue to run between 1%-2% of sales. As usual, our guidance does not include the potential impact from any unusual non-operating expenses that may occur from time to time.
With that, if you'll turn to slide 11, I will now turn the call back over to Nick.
Thanks, Duncan. On slide 11, we would like to highlight the solid progress we are making towards our stated 2025 revenue goal of $200 million-$250 million. We expect to continue driving high single-digit revenue growth with our base business in the coming years, and we anticipate future acquisitions will complement our organic growth to reach our 2025 revenue goal. Our pipeline of acquisitions and partnership opportunities remains active, and with the net proceeds from our recent ATM equity offering, we believe we have the sufficient flexibility with our capital structure to execute on our plan. Slide 12 shows how we expect our revenue growth will translate into strong earnings growth. Our plan is to deliver divisional operating income of over $40 million, Adjusted EBITDA of over $30 million, and improved earning power to over $20 million in 2025.
Our strategy is primarily focused on scaling the company while maintaining our margin profile. Let me sum up on slide 13. As I have noted throughout my prepared comments, our five-point strategy is delivering results for shareholders. Our engineered solutions are in high demand as they enable our customers to improve productivity or create more effective solutions within their own portfolio of products. Our technology-segmented organization structure has generated focus, and we are driving greater collaboration across the company. As a good example, a few weeks ago, I was up at our new Acculogic facility outside of Toronto, and I saw one of our flying probe systems preparing to be shipped that included three of our Videology cameras. Providing these types of broader solutions supports our growth plan and enables us to provide more value to our customers.
We could not have created this kind of synergistic sale even a year ago. I'm pleased with what our team has been able to accomplish. We continue to unleash the potential of inTEST on our journey to becoming a supplier of choice for innovative test and process technology solutions. We are driving organic growth while actively pursuing acquisition opportunities to enhance our product offerings, expand our addressable markets, and deepen our presence in targeted industries. With that, operator, let's open the line for questions.
Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question- and- answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two 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. Our first question comes from the line of Jaeson Schmidt with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I just want to start on your commentary regarding the supply chain. It sounds like those pressures continue to ease, and I was just curious if they at all caused any sort of headwinds in the quarter, any demand you were unable to ship? I guess relatedly, would you expect the pressures to continue to ease here in the second half of the year?
No major impact on the quarter. I would expect these pressures to continue to normalize. Like I said, I mean, I think the pain and suffering of 12 months ago, or 12-18 months ago is, is kind of behind us.
It's great, Jaeson, that it's allowing us to kind of free up our, our engineering resources, our, our, our manufacturing engineers to focus more on new products, on cost-out initiatives and, you know, activities that, that really will deliver a lot of value rather than requalifying suppliers or new, new components, et cetera. It's good to get back to normalized supply chain.
Okay. No, that's, that's good to hear. Just following up on your comments on the security market. I know it's a smaller piece of the pie, but it does sound like you're seeing some increasing momentum there. I was just wondering if you guys could provide some more color on what's sort of driving that momentum. Is it just that you've had more time with it under the inTEST umbrella? Is it new customers? Any additional thoughts there?
It's a combination. It's absolutely some of what you described there. It's some new products that we, that we've launched with updated sensors into the cameras. It's, you know, improving supply or, or go-to-market with added distribution channels on that. Yeah, it's really across the board in our efforts to scale the business there.
Okay, perfect. Then just the last one from me. When you look at sort of the pricing environment, are you guys planning to implement any price increases going forward?
I mean, I think as I've talked about before, I mean, always looking at our pricing and our input costs, and to the extent, you know, those things are increasing, and we need to kind of price up for that. You know, we're looking at that. You know, we're not just 1 a year kind of price increase, kind of rotation, if you will. Something we're constantly looking at.
Okay. Sounds good. Thanks a lot, guys.
Thanks, Jaeson.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Peter Wright with Intro-act. Please proceed with your question.
Great. Thank you for taking my question, and congratulations on a fantastic quarter.
Thanks, Peter.
My, my first question, Nick, when you gave some, some great color on the innovation development in the quarter on the utility scale induction heating. Any color you can share on how big this opportunity you think can be? That sounds, that sounds quite significant. Maybe some thoughts around the, the average sale, you know, that, that goes there. Is it a much bigger ticket item than, than your average sale? Then also, you, you gave great color on innovation in global. Any, any case study or comment on the service side of your business as well? Then I've got one follow-up.
Okay. Yeah, this, this, as noted in the pre-prepared remarks there, the, this greener trend that we're seeing, is gaining more momentum out in the marketplace there. Companies are, are, you know, as they expand capacity or update their automation on their production lines, they're looking for greener alternatives, and our induction heating solutions are, are, you know, becoming more and more popular out there. As to how big it can be, I mean, it, it really just depends on how much of that mega trend of, around green technology adoption, you know, plays out there. But we're, we're well positioned. Our...
As for the size of the sale, our, our induction heating systems range from, you know, $25,000 low end, if you will, relative to, like, our EASYHEAT systems, more tabletop to, to, you know, $200,000-$300,000 for larger systems out there. It's a pretty wide gamut, depending on the application and the systems that sold into it.
Wonderful. On the service?
As for service side of things, you know, so far, year- to- date, we're, our service is stuck in about 9%-10%.
Yeah, that's right.
We're, we're seeing some, some, you know, improvement, as a percent of sales there. You know, we, of course, like to get that 15%-20%, so we're continuing to drive that. You know, service, initiatives are, are underway across all, all the businesses.
Fantastic. My second question is really around kind of, you've given a model now that you've raised some, the equity in the quarter of around a $2 earnings power number on your 2025 guidance. Here's, here's my question: If you just continue to organically grow 10%, it suggests about a $65 million gap at the midpoint for acquisitions. Historically, you know, you bought that at one-ish time sales. Can you validate kind of the expectation there? I guess the question is, you know, with $37.5 million of cash and $40 million of borrowing capacity, do you think you've got the sufficient capital already raised where no dilutive capital will be required to achieve kind of your acquisition goals over the next two years?
I mean, you certainly kind of we've talked before about the need to be, you know, ballpark $50 million of inorganic activity to get to our, you know, top-line goals for 2025. You know, you're kind of exactly right there. Obviously, you're raising money in the second quarter there, you know, helps us, helps our balance sheet, helps us from a cash position. Just, you know, further increases our financial flexibility.
I mean, obviously, and we'll continue to look, you, you know, even kind of beyond 2025, you know, we, we do kind of envision continuing to, you know, be an acquisitive company and continuing to look, you know, for opportunities which would mean we would have to continue to look at your equity as well as debt as we look further kind of down the road.
Yeah. As for, you know, our approach on, on acquisitions, you know, we, we remain disciplined to our, our objectives on, you know, returns on you know, multiples in market, market multiples out there. That so we feel confident that we can identify and achieve the right strategic acquisitions to support our plan, you know, in, in ranges that make sense for our shareholders.
Very last question just on that. The EBITDA leverage ratio, you think, could tick above 1 x for the right acquisitions, and debt would be an increasing mix of capital choice?
Yeah. I mean, we've talked a number of times about the fact we'd be comfortable going up as much as 2.5x trailing 12 months EBITDA in terms of total leverage, you know, depending on, again, you know, debt, equity, cash, et cetera. You know where we are just now at 0.73, you know, we have plenty of room to take on additional debt.
Fantastic. Congratulations, guys.
Thanks, Peter.
Thank you. Ladies, and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you'd like to join the question queue, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Ted Jackson with Northland Securities. Please proceed with your question.
Thanks. Yeah, that, train of thought on M&A was actually what I really wanted to auger into with this call, but I have a couple other questions for you guys, and congratulations on the quarter.
Thanks, Ted.
I'm gonna circle back into the supply chain. you know, on supply chain, you know, there's two fronts to it. One is the stuff that's coming in to you, and then the other is your ability to send stuff out. You know, I mean, you're seeing an improvement in velocity, viscosity, whatever it is you wanna call it, for the supply chain, and it's, you know, allowing you to, you know, you see your backlog kind of trend down because you're being able to deliver things in a more timely manner. you know, I, I've had some companies that I've, you know, that I follow and pay attention to in the last few weeks. You know what? The other side of that is, is that, you know, their customers are able to get your...
Your customers are able to get to your products a little bit quicker, too. I guess my question is, is, you know, are you finding that any kind of, not necessarily cancellation of orders, but maybe deferral of deliveries as your ability to deliver solutions to your customers is, perhaps, you know, faster than maybe they had built within their plans? Do you understand what I'm saying? Then beyond that, you know, I mean, you yourself have, you know, brought up your inventory levels to compensate for the supply chain issues you've had in terms of the suppliers to you. I know, plenty of other companies that I deal with that have done the same thing.
Do you have any concerns that you could have sort of a, you know, sort of a, a two waves, one where, because of, you know, your ability to deliver things faster, that they are just kind of deferring orders, and then you might end up later on seeing more deferrals as people start bringing their inventory levels down? Just more of a conceptual, are you seeing any of that, and how do you think about that as we probably roll through the rest of this year and into 2024? Then I got a follow-up. Thanks.
Okay. I mean, let me take a kind of crack at that, Ted. I mean, you're exactly right. Lead times for our raw materials, material inputs have come down, right? Which helps us then reduce our own kind of lead times to, to customers. You know, there's just improved sentiment out there with respect to trusting the overall global supply chain, which means your customers are more comfortable, you know, ordering in a more traditional kind of lead time, I guess, versus where we were, you know, six, nine months ago, where people were wanting to get their place in the queue and, and were placing orders, you know, well in advance of, quote, unquote, "normality." You know, that's certainly... You know, that's when we talk about the kind of overall normalization effect.
I, and I think as you indicated, many companies out there are, you're talking about that and seeing that. We did increase inventory somewhat to help overcome many of the challenges we saw there. You know, we have seen, I mean, inventories come down here, you know, a little bit here in kind of Q2 versus Q1. We are seeing the, you know, the impact of that normalization on our balance sheet, you know, as well. As I indicated, I mean, I mean, I'd say our results have been relatively kind of stable the last, you know, couple of quarters. Our guidance, you know, indicates another kind of stable kind of quarter from an activity standpoint.
All of that is, there's, there's a lot of normalization there that, that I'm, that, you know, that I'm kind of talking to. You know, I think you're, you're kind of exactly right.
Yeah, as for delays, I, I would say we, you know, we really haven't had customers push, push things. You know, the fact that they're getting, getting their systems more, in line with their project timings, et cetera, and that, that, you know, so we're not the longest lead time item, so our deliveries are usually, you know, pretty well dialed in on that side of it there. No, no major delays in shipments or, the, you know, push outs, if you will, from customers.
Yeah, I think you touched on cancellations. I mean, we never really saw any major cancellations at, at any point during, you know, the last, you know, 18 months or so. That's not something we, you know, we have really seen.
Yeah, I mean, I, I don't. You know, the sense I get with what I'm listening to with different companies is, it's less, it's not that let's call it, the markets are all softening or, you know, it's a recession or anything. It's just more of, you know, kinda, you know, the like an ebb and flow, kinda like traffic on a, on a highway. It's all moving, but you know what I'm saying? It's like that as, as we kind of, these things kinda normalize out, you know, you know, things are just a little, maybe a little, for lack of a better term, like a little backwash. Duncan, listening to you talk before, it sounds like, you know, perhaps you are seeing that, but it's not that it's, like, causing, you know, your sales to fall off.
It's just maybe moderating the sequential, you know, say, sequential growth that you're experiencing right now, as you know, as things kinda normalize. Do you know what I mean? It's not an underlying demand thing. It's not causing any kind of reset for your business. But perhaps if supply chains were, say, you, you, you know, were not going through this readjustment, that, you know, some of the, the growth that inTEST has had, might have been even just a little bit better. Is that a fair way to sort of summarize the, the response?
In some ways. I mean, I look at it, I look at it as... I mean, you know, for example, 12, 24 months ago, if you wanted to buy a car, you'd have to wait forever, right? You know, now you don't need to wait forever. You know, you're not gonna place an order for a car for delivery in, you know, two years time, and, and get your place in the queue. We're just seeing customers returning to normal buying patterns of buying, you know, a few months ahead of when they need equipment, instead of, "Oh, my goodness, I need to buy 12 months, or I need to get my order in now because I'm concerned that this thing isn't gonna be available." You know, that's sort of the change.
If anything, that backlog is normalizing, if you will, a lot of normalization here, and doesn't extend out as far, because people aren't as concerned about the ability to deliver.
With our improved lead times, you know, we're able to capture more book-and-ship in the quarters, and that. There are, you know, that's where the, the, the, the growth opportunity-
The decline in backlog, I'm not worried about that. I mean, that it makes sense to me. I mean, it's like I, I expect every company I cover to see their backlog numbers go down. I mean, it's just they're all at levels that are, you know, like, if you said that you were gonna have those kind of backlogs three years ago, people would've laughed at you, you know?
Yeah.
Let's move on. The next question, then I'll get, I'll, I'll step out because I'm guessing there's probably more people around. It's, I just kind of talk about, you know, the longer term and margin gains and things like that. You know, one thing that has worked its way into the global economy is wage inflation. You know, the cost of actually, you know, people is, is clearly gone up. Those are, you know, usually pretty sticky things that, you know, they don't go the other way once they happen. And I'm kind of curious, it's, it's something that came up in, in a call earlier this week that I'd never thought about: Do you ever have any kind of, Do you have any kind of, like, supply contracts that are longer term in nature?
You know, a lot of things like that, you know, you'll build in, you know, cost riders and passthroughs for commodity costs. You know, I mean, I, I don't think anyone really thinks about it from, you know, cost of people. You know, you get into, you know, some markets, I mean, particularly when you get into Europe, you know, where they, you know, like, there's European legislation that's passed where, you know, there's mandatory, like, 10%-15% wage gains, and you see what I'm saying? If you don't have things like that structured into your contracts, it's kind of an issue. It just kind of, you know, made me think in terms of, like, a train of thought. What's going on with regards to, you know, the ability to actually compensate people, and how does that flow through within your margins?
Is there any issues with regards to that kind of stuff and, you know, your ability to kind of, you know, continue down the path of reaching your, you know, the leverage goals that you have in your business plan? That's my last question. Thanks.
Yeah. I mean, obviously, wages are one of the bigger kinda line items, if we kinda break down our, our costs. You know, we talked a little bit in the discussion on operating expenses about, you know, merit being one of the, you know, the bigger headwinds in our operating expenses. Obviously, we factor that in. It's a big input cost. We think about it in relation to pricing. Touched on pricing a little bit earlier. When we're looking at price increases and what do we have to do to maintain margins, then, you know, it's one of the bigger components, you know, from an overall cost base perspective. It's something we're always thinking about.
We're also always wanting to make sure we're paying our employees fairly, and, you know, making sure that we're, you're kind of doing the right thing for, for them as well as kind of the shareholders. I mean, it's a constant cycle. I wouldn't say there's anything special or unique that we face there. I, I'm not aware of us having any constraints around mandated increases in any, any of the jurisdictions that, that where we have employees. You know, I don't think that's an item yield any particular concern. I mean, I mean, that's the way I think about it, Ted. I, I don't think there's anything unique there, you know, for us.
Ted, I, I just add, you know, you know, 12, 18 months ago, when we were getting these blanket orders placed on us for, you know, four quarters or, or longer, and that, you know, that's where we kinda got behind the eight ball, where we couldn't pass price along to certain customers with higher volumes or what have you. You know, now that things are more normalized, you know, we're in a better position to be able to capture, you know, price adjustments on the next orders that come through, et cetera, because, because they're coming in more frequently on that side. It's a better position out there.
Yeah, absolutely, focused to make sure we, we have the, the people on board to be able to deliver to our plans and meet our customers' expectations out there on, on that. Wages is something we watch carefully.
Great. Thanks for taking my questions, and then a shameless plug. I look forward to seeing you all at the Northland Securities Conference in September. Anyone on the phone that wants to come and meet some great companies, including this one and the management team, please come to Minnesota. The weather is fabulous in September.
There's a fee for the advertising.
You kinda stole my, stole my thunder. We got that coming up, too. Thanks, Ted.
Thank you. Ladies, and gentlemen, this concludes our question- and- answer session, and I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Grant for final comments.
Thank you, Melissa. Before we close, I want to express my gratitude again to our global team as they continue to deliver outstanding results. Finally, we will be participating in Oppenheimer's Virtual 26th Annual Technology, Internet, and Communications Conference on August 8th, in the Needham Virtual Semiconductor and SemiCap Conference on August 22nd. We'll be in Chicago on August 23rd for the Midwest IDEAS Investor Conference. Looking into September, we'll be participating in the Lake Street BIG7 Conference in New York, and as Ted noted, the Northland Capital Markets Institutional Investor Conference in Minneapolis. For the first time, since Duncan and I have taken over at the helm here, we'll be participating in the LD Micro Conference in early October in L.A.
We hope to connect with you at these events, and we appreciate you taking the time to join us on our call today and for your interest in inTEST. Thank you all, and have a great day.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.