Good morning, everyone. I'm Ryan Pape, Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO of XPEL. I welcome you to the company's 2025 Virtual Annual Stockholders Meeting. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that during today's meeting, including in our question-and-answer session, we may make forward-looking statements regarding expected revenue, earnings per share, results of operations, future plans, opportunities, and expectations of the company. These estimates and plans and other forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. The risks are detailed in our latest Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 28, 2025, and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on May 9, 2025, and in other statements made by the company. The statements made during this meeting are based upon information known to XPEL as of today.
XPEL assumes no obligation to update the information we present to you. Today, we'll first conduct the business of the meeting, and then we will have our question-and-answer session. Also, there are a few procedural matters I'd like to go through. On the meeting web page, you'll find the agenda and rules of conduct for this meeting. In addition, the proposals we are presenting and voting on are listed as well. You may use the "Click Here" to vote your proxy if you wish to vote or change your prior vote during the meeting. In addition, if you log in using your control number from your proxy card, you will then be able to submit questions. We will address the questions after the close of the business portion of the meeting, as I mentioned.
Before we begin our presentations, I would like to introduce the members of the Board of Directors who are with us today on the webcast. In addition to me, you have Stacy Bogart, Richard Crumley, Michael Colani, and John North. Barry Wood, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, is serving as our Inspector of Elections. He has previously signed an oath of office, which has been properly filed in the corporate records. Also participating is Deloitte & Touche, the company's independent registered public accounting firm. Barry Wood will also act as Secretary of the Meeting. I will now ask Mr. Wood to give us the quorum report and also a report on the other administrative matters.
Mr. Chair, as of the close of business on April 15, 2025, the record date, XPEL had 27,664,765 shares of its common stock issued, outstanding, and entitled to vote at this meeting. The stockholders entitled to cast more than 72% of the votes eligible to be cast at this meeting are present or represented by proxy. Therefore, a quorum is present, and the meeting may proceed. In addition, I would like to report that the notice of annual meeting of stockholders dated April 25, 2025, as well as a form of proxy statement and our annual report on Form 10-K were made available on the internet and by mail on or about that date to each of the stockholders of record of the company as of the close of business on the record date.
Mr. Chair, I've provided to you the notice of annual meeting, proxy statement, form of proxy, annual report on Form 10-K, and affidavit of mailing prepared by XPEL's transfer agent, Continental Stock Transfer and Trust Company. I also have a copy of a list of registered stockholders of the company entitled to vote at the meeting, which has been available for the 10 days preceding the meeting and open to the examination of any stockholder for any purpose germane to the meeting.
Thank you, Barry. The affidavit of mailing, the affidavit of the inspector, the stockholders' list, along with the notice of annual meeting, annual report on Form 10-K, proxy statement, and form of proxy will be filed with the minutes of the meeting. With the quorum present, I declare this meeting is duly constituted and convened and may proceed with the transaction of business. We will now read the proposals to be voted upon, after which time we will open the polls. After the polls are open, we'll be pleased to answer your questions about XPEL and the proposals. There are four proposals to be considered by the stockholders. Barry will read the first proposal.
The stockholders are asked to vote on the election of five members to the Board of Directors, with each serving for a one-year term. The nominees for election are Ryan Pape, Stacy Bogart, Richard Crumley, Michael Colani, and John North, who are current directors of the company.
Do I hear a motion for the election? We have a motion from Kim Steiner. Do I hear a second? We have a second from Carlos Alvarez. Barry, please read the second proposal.
The stockholders are asked to vote on a proposal to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche, LLP, as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2025.
We have a motion from Dwayne Gotcha. Do I hear a second? We have a second from Tony Remus. Barry, please read the third proposal.
Stockholders are asked to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of the company's named executive officers.
We have a motion from Mike Mail. Do I hear a second? We have a second from Michael Mejia. Barry, please read the fourth proposal.
The stockholders are asked to approve and adopt the XPEL 2025 Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
Do I hear a motion for approval and adoption of the XPEL 2025 Employee Stock Purchase Plan? We have a motion from Chris Coffey. Do I hear a second? We have a second from Tony Remus. I now declare the polls open for voting of the motions. If you are a stockholder of record and have not voted yet, or if you want to change your previously cast vote and you wish to vote now, you can do so online. You will need your 12-digit control number in order to vote today. We will wait a few moments for vote tabulation, and once complete, we will close the polls and announce the results. I understand the votes are now tabulated. I now declare the polls closed. Barry, please read the Inspector of Elections report on the tabulation of votes.
Mr. Chair, the results based on the voting of shares represented by proxies on file and tabulated at the meeting this morning show the following. The director nominees have received the greatest number of votes of those shares that were represented at the virtual annual meeting and voted for the election of directors, and therefore each of them has been elected as a director to serve for the term expiring on the date of the company's 2025 annual meeting and until his or her respective successor is duly elected and qualified. The proposal to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche, LLP, received a majority of the shares represented and entitled to vote at the annual meeting, and therefore the selection of Deloitte & Touche, LLP, as XPEL's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ended December 31, 2025, has been ratified.
The proposal to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of the company's named executive officers received the majority of the votes cast, represented, and entitled to vote at the annual meeting, and therefore the compensation of the company's named executive officers has been approved. The proposal to approve and adopt the XPEL 2025 Employee Stock Purchase Plan received a majority of the votes cast, represented, and entitled to vote at the annual meeting, and therefore has been approved. Mr. Chair, that concludes the report of the voting. Details of the results will be available for all stockholders in our filings with the SEC within four business days. Stockholders may also obtain the voting results by calling or writing our Corporate Secretary.
With the voting concluded, there is no further business to be conducted at today's meeting, and the meeting is hereby adjourned. Thank you all for attending. Now we'll take a few questions that have come forward, and just a reminder, if you're listening live, you may submit your questions online. The first question was that XPEL has an incredible independent dealer base, and when we think about marketing, do we consider leveraging the creativity and the quality of the content that our independent dealers are creating, and how do we prioritize spending marketing dollars to amplify that content? I think it's a great point. We have an incredible base of independent XPEL installers around the world, and as many know, we have probably the best customers. We tend to have the biggest customers and the best customers.
Core to that is enthusiast roots for a lot of them is incredible creativity and incredible content. We all know how important that is. We do have a process to amplify, leverage, and amplify content that's being created by our customers. We do that a lot through Instagram, sometimes featured in promoted posts, sometimes in reels, and we also will provide a product in exchange in some cases to those that are creating good content to aid them in doing that. It's hugely important. I think we can probably always do more. I think everybody would agree that it's valuable, and it is really a benefit to our customers when we showcase what they're doing as well. In terms of how much do we spend on that directly, I don't know. It's a good question. It's probably hard to quantify.
I think probably more of the expenditures go with trying to support content creation than on the amplification side because the amplification and the channels we have, we already have. Next question was, appreciating the work you've done on manufacturing and localization of production across the globe, has this enhanced your ability or speed to innovate new products faster than before? I would say the answer to that is yes. I think maybe a little bit broader reasons why, though. One, we've created a much deeper technical bench and product team, product manufacturing quality and R&D really over the past five years. So that's certainly one thing that's helped us move faster. Two, we've organized the company with increasing focus on core operating regions and trying to drive a little bit more autonomy and more decentralization of the business into those regions.
You do not have to look too far in trying to decentralize the business to realize where products need to be different in different regions, where product preferences are different in different regions. It could be environmental, it could be cost of labor, various factors, could be other custom. I think that is an internal push to make us innovate faster because now we have got deliverables internally to more leaders who know what they need for their region, and it may be different than somewhere else. The net effect is yes, it has enhanced our ability and our speed, and I think even though this has been a long time coming, I think we are really just seeing a lot of the benefits of it even in more recent time.
The next question is, given the uncertainty in the auto market, has the uncertainty impacted the acquisition environment either in terms of acquisition multiples asked or the number of prospective conversations or our willingness to pursue acquisitions? Yeah, I think it's a great question. Our approach in light of the uncertainty in the auto market and the tariff situation is really first do nothing and change nothing. I think overreaction in any way is unhelpful. These are big, slow-moving problems and challenges, and they don't need us to prognosticate on what's going to happen to the auto market. That's not something we're good at. It's not our job. It's not our competency.
I think when you consider our broader desires for capital allocation, we still want to and intend to invest the majority of our cash flow and then some, perhaps as we can, into the business and M&A being a big part of that. In terms of the things that we're looking at, I think the multiples asked, I mean, this is of concern to us. I think that when we compare our multiple as a business and how our business is perceived versus the expectations of some things we've looked at, our view is that some of these are too high. That is probably why you've seen maybe less M&A activity from us than perhaps we would like. We're not going to overpay for things as a general rule. I just don't think we need to do that. I think the question is really yet to come.
I think if there's really true pain in the automotive sector and if it extends into our space, maybe then we see acquisition multiples come down. Really, that pain as it intersects our sector really isn't here. I mean, you've got in the U.S., you've got good auto sales, maybe people front-running tariffs. That's not a bad thing for our business. I think if there's more pain to come and it's probably going to come later, that'd be the time to maybe see that. Overall, the broader question of does it change our appetite towards pursuing acquisitions? No, I think our appetite is unchanged. I think when you're prudent in your approach and you're not willing to dramatically overpay and you have a strong balance sheet like we do, you don't need to be extremely fearful in this environment, and so we're not.
I'd say we're proceeding ahead largely unchanged, maybe a slight extra dose of caution and conservatism in the things we're looking at, but I would say unlike what some may think, probably a pretty modest impact. With that, I don't see any other questions submitted. The webcast is concluded. We'll wrap it up. Really appreciate the questions and appreciate your attendance today. Thank you very much.
The meeting will go on air at a scheduled time on the meeting webpage.