ImmuCell (ICCC) Q2 2026 Earnings Call: Sales Rise 11.5%, Capacity Expansion Planned

Key Takeaways

• Q2 2026 product sales increased 11.5% year over year to $7.2 million, despite comparison with Q2 2025 distributor restocking following the resolution of backorders.
• Domestic sales rose 27.7% to $6.2 million, while international sales declined 38.9% to approximately $1 million, primarily due to Canada and the prior-year backorder clearance.
• Gross margin fell to 33.9% from 43.7% a year earlier. Lower manufacturing output, approximately $150,000 of material-related scrap and the shift of former Re-Tain costs into cost of goods sold pressured profitability.
• Q2 net income was $1.8 million, or $0.20 per share, compared with $500,000, or $0.06 per share, in Q2 2025. The 2026 result included a $2 million settlement with the former Re-Tain contract manufacturer.
• First Defense’s U.S. market share among animals receiving a biological scours preventative increased from approximately 15% in December 2025 to 19% at the end of June 2026.
• ImmuCell plans to invest approximately $8 million in freeze-drying and liquids processing capacity. Management expects the expansion to more than triple current capacity and reduce total processing time to less than one month.

Core Financial Data

For the first six months of 2026, product sales rose 20.9% to $17.5 million. Net income doubled to $3.8 million from $1.9 million, while adjusted EBITDA increased to $5.4 million from $3.7 million. Both 2026 profit measures included the settlement.

ImmuCell ended June with $8.9 million in cash, $9.1 million in inventory and $16.6 million in working capital, up from $13 million at the end of 2025.

Business and Operating Performance

Tri-Shield sales grew 25.1% in the first half of 2026. U.S. product sales increased 32.5%, and the functional feed line contributed approximately 20% of total first-half growth.

Distributor sell-through volume rose 28% year over year in Q2 and 24% in the first half. Management said these figures cover all distributors and are intended to measure demand at the producer level.

First Defense’s share of producer spending on biological scours prevention increased from approximately 29% in December 2025 to 38% at the end of June 2026. Management attributed the gain partly to an expanded commercial team and stronger new-customer acquisition.

Manufacturing output averaged approximately 350,000 units per month in Q2, down from more than 450,000 units per month in Q1. The decline was partly planned due to seasonality, maintenance, quality investments and process changes intended to improve future yields. ImmuCell said it still met customer demand and increased finished-goods inventory.

Management Guidance

Management said ImmuCell remains on track to produce nearly 1 million more manufacturing units in 2026 than in 2025.

The company expects to complete its $3.5 million freeze-drying expansion in the first half of 2027. A separate liquids processing investment of approximately $4.5 million is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.

Management expects the combined program to more than triple current capacity, improve long-term product costs and shorten processing time from two to three months currently to less than one month. ImmuCell intends to fund most of the investment with cash on hand and operating cash flow, potentially supplemented by its credit facility.

Risks and Watchpoints

Gross margin remains sensitive to manufacturing throughput and fixed facility costs. The Re-Tain-related cost shift is recurring and mainly reflects utilities, depreciation and non-capitalizable maintenance associated with the building.

Colostrum accounts for approximately half of product costs. Management cited increasing competition for high-quality colostrum and is expanding farm recruitment, payment programs and technical services to support supply.

Execution risks include contamination control, yield improvement, supplier service and completing a major capacity expansion while continuing production. International growth may also take time because the company is still assessing market opportunities, regulatory requirements and go-to-market investment.

Analyst Q&A Highlights

• Re-Tain study: Michigan State is evaluating an additional potential use case. Management expects the study to be completed around the end of September or beginning of October 2026, after which ImmuCell will determine next steps.
• Distribution concentration: Management said shifts among major distributors reflect customer location, ordering patterns and distributor preference rather than an intentional reallocation of volume.
• Seasonality: Dairy customers generally use ImmuCell products throughout the year, while beef demand is concentrated around calving season. This drives peak demand in Q4 and Q1.
• Backorder comparisons: Management said the prior backlog was largely fulfilled by the end of Q2 2025, providing a cleaner year-over-year comparison after Q2 2026.

Full Earnings Call Transcript

Complete Earnings Call Transcript

Management Remarks

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the ImmuCell Corporation conference call to discuss unaudited second quarter 2026 financial results. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Joe Diaz of Lytham Partners. Please go ahead.

Joe Diaz

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome. As the conference call operator indicated, my name is Joe Diaz with Lytham Partners. We are the Investor Relations consulting firm for ImmuCell. I thank all of you for joining us today to discuss the unaudited earnings for the second quarter and 6 months ended June 30, 2026.

Listeners are reminded and cautioned that statements made by management during the course of this call include forward-looking statements, which include any statement that refers to future events or expected future results or predictions about steps the company plans to take in the future. These statements are not guarantees of performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, outcomes or events to differ materially from those discussed today.

Additional information regarding forward-looking statements and the risks and uncertainties that could impact future results outcomes or events is available under the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements or the safe harbor statement provided with the press release that the company filed last night, along with the company's other periodic filings with the SEC. Information discussed on today's call speaks only as of today, Friday, August 14, 2026. The company undertakes no obligation to update any information discussed on today's call. Please note that references to certain non-GAAP financial measures may be made during today's call.

With that said, let me turn the call over to Oliver Te Boekhorst, President and CEO of ImmuCell Corporation, for some opening remarks. Oliver?

P. F. Te Boekhorst

Thanks, Joe, and good morning, everyone. It's my pleasure to welcome you to today's discussion of ImmuCell's results for the second quarter of 2026. Our discussion of results will be accompanied by a few slides that are also part of our updated investor presentation that you can find on our Investor page, immucell.com/investors. In late 2025, ImmuCell made significant changes to better position ourselves for success, including a strategic focus on the calf scours market and investments in leadership, sales force expansion and manufacturing.

Our rationale for this shift was that we compete very effectively with First Defense, our highly differentiated calf scours preventative product in the large growing calf health market and that we believe our portfolio has considerable runway for further expansion domestically, internationally and through selected innovations. Since we introduced this focus on First Defense and enhanced our yield improvement efforts, we have accelerated our growth and increased our share. Our strong commercial results reflect the benefits of restored product availability, investments in our commercial team and product portfolio and a favorable domestic calf market.

As previously discussed, we have been highly focused on ensuring reliable product supply. The team has made a lot of changes across the supply chain, and we are on track to produce nearly 1 million more manufacturing units this year than we did in 2025. We are now well positioned to meet growing customer demand with our current plant while we execute a major capacity expansion program that is expected to more than triple our current capacity and improve long-term product cost.

On today's call, we will discuss the factors affecting gross margin, the actions underway to improve yields and our planned capacity investments. For a company our size, it continues to make a lot of sense to focus on our successful on-market products and solve the supply challenges that have historically constrained our growth, and we're excited to report on our progress today.

I will now turn the call over to Timothy Fiori, our Chief Financial Officer, for a deeper review of our second quarter financial results. Tim?

Timothy Fiori

Thank you, Oliver. I'll start with a short recap of product sales results, which are unchanged from our July 9 press release. All the numbers I'll speak to are approximate and rounded. Product sales for the second quarter of 2026 came in at $7.2 million, an increase of 11.5% compared to the second quarter of 2025. Our growth in the second quarter is particularly significant given the challenging comparison with the second quarter of 2025 when we resolved the backorder situation and benefited from significant restocking orders by distributors.

Domestic sales for the second quarter grew 27.7% compared to the second quarter of 2025 to $6.2 million, while international sales for the second quarter declined 38.9% to about $1 million in the same period. Sales to [ Canada ] accounted for the majority of the decline, which is related to the 2025 backorder clearing. Product sales for the 6-month period ended June 30, 2026, came in at $17.5 million, an increase of 20.9% compared to the 6-month period ended June 30, 2025. Oliver will speak to sales out of distribution, which are both strong and trending in the right direction.

Gross margin as a percentage of product sales was 33.9% in the second quarter of 2026 compared to 43.7% in the second quarter of 2025. This year-over-year decline in the second quarter primarily reflected the shift of costs formerly associated with Re-Tain into cost of goods sold and lower output in one of our manufacturing process subprocesses. Sequentially, gross margin declined 11.1 percentage points from the first quarter, reflecting 7.5 points from lower manufacturing output, 2.1 points from approximately $150,000 of scrap caused by a purchased material and 1.9 points from the Re-Tain cost shift.

The lower second quarter output reflected anticipated sales volumes and planned process changes intended to improve future yields. Despite these pressures, we were able to meet demand and expand finished goods inventory. Reported operating expenses were reduced by the previously announced $2 million settlement with our former Re-Tain contract manufacturer, which is presented on the income statement as other operating income. Sales, marketing and administrative expenses increased to $2.4 million in the second quarter of 2026 compared to $1.4 million during the second quarter of 2025.

This was driven by investments in leadership and expanded commercial activities, both as previously announced. Product development expenses declined from approximately $800,000 in the second quarter of 2025 to approximately $120,000 in the second quarter of 2026, driven by reductions in spending on Re-Tain product development and the previously mentioned shift of former Re-Tain-related expenses to cost of goods sold. Excluding the settlement, operating expenses were $5.2 million in the 6 months ended June 30, 2026, compared with $4.5 million in the 6 months ended June 30, 2025.

To wrap up our income statement discussion, our net income was $1.8 million or $0.20 per share during the second quarter of 2026 compared to $500,000 or $0.06 per share during the second quarter of 2025. For the first 6 months of 2026, net income was $3.8 million compared to $1.9 million during the same period last year. Both the second quarter and 6-month 2026 results include the $2 million settlement received during the second quarter.

As usual, we provided adjusted EBITDA figures in yesterday's earnings release. We believe looking at adjusted EBITDA assists management and investors by looking at our performance across reporting periods on a consistent basis, excluding certain charges from our reported income before income taxes. Adjusted EBITDA was $2.7 million in the second quarter of 2026 compared to $1.4 million in the second quarter of 2025. For the first 6 months of 2026, adjusted EBITDA was $5.4 million compared with $3.7 million during the same period last year. Both 2026 figures include the aforementioned $2 million legal settlement.

To wrap up with financials, let me highlight a few key balance sheet items. Our balance sheet as of June 30, 2026, continues to be in a strong position. We ended the second quarter of 2026 with $8.9 million of cash on hand and $9.1 million of inventory. Working capital increased from $13 million at the end of 2025 to $16.6 million at the end of the second quarter of 2026. The settlement contributed $2 million to our cash and working capital improvement.

ImmuCell recently announced a $3.5 million investment in freeze-drying capacity to build scalable manufacturing capabilities and ensure continued reliability -- reliable supply of First Defense. We expect to complete this initial phase of the expansion in the first half of 2027.

Today, we are announcing our intent to invest approximately $4.5 million in our liquids processing capacity. This phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2027. Both of these investments leverage existing equipment and facilities that have been built for the discontinued Re-Tain product. We expect this capacity expansion will more than triple our current capacity and improve product costs long term. Currently, we intend to finance the majority of this expansion with cash on hand and cash from operations. We may supplement this investment with our line of credit facility as needed.

With that, I will turn the call back to Oliver. Oliver?

P. F. Te Boekhorst

Thanks, Tim. As I mentioned in my initial remarks, ImmuCell made the decision to focus on our scours preventative products, First Defense in late 2025. In the first half of this year, we achieved $17.5 million in product revenue, a 20.9% increase compared to the first half of 2025. Tri-Shield, which is our flagship product that offers the most advanced protection against neonatal diarrhea, had strong 25.1% growth for the first half of the year. And as Tim explained, the U.S. performed particularly well with 32.5% growth in the first half of 2026 compared to 2025.

We're also excited to report that our functional feed line contributed about 20% of that growth. Some of the other metrics we review to measure commercial performance include volume growth at the distributor level and our market share. We access data that shows how much our distributors' out-the-door revenue and volumes from our products changes each month. This gives us a good idea of what our products are doing at a producer level. Our distributors saw 21% and 28% volume growth in the first and second quarter of 2026, respectively, compared to the same quarters last year or 24% for the first half of 2026 compared to the first half of 2025.

We increased our market share as well, defined as First Defense's share of animals treated with a biological scours preventative in the U.S. And we increased that market share from approximately 15% in December 2025 to approximately 19% at the end of June 2026. Our price point is approximately twice that of our competitors, and that means our share of spending by producers rose from approximately 29% to 38% in the same period. We're very proud of our product efficacy, but this market share gain is also the direct result of investments we made to expand our commercial team. We are reaching and converting more producers every day.

As a reminder, we compete in an attractive market supported by significantly higher calf values. The value of a day-old calf has increased from approximately $400 to $1,700 since 2024, strengthening the economic case for preventing scours in those calves. Scours remains a leading cause of death in pre-weaning calves and results in up to $1 billion of annual economic losses in the U.S. More than half of calves still do not receive any biological scours preventative. So we have to show up, ask the right questions and present the health and economic benefits of our solutions in ways that are appropriate for each specific production environment.

Now historically, ImmuCell's growth has been constrained by manufacturing capacity. So relying or ensuring reliable supply remains a strategic priority. From January through July, our team completed an extensive planning process encompassing process design, equipment and facility requirements, cost estimates and implementation planning, and that work supports our decision to move forward with an approximately $8 million investment in freeze-drying and colostrum processing capacity using the facilities and equipment associated with the former Re-Tain program.

The resulting plan combines new equipment with our established expertise in preserving, concentrating and purifying colostrum-derived antibodies. This is not just adding another production line. The project is designed to modernize our manufacturing approach, shorten processing times, expand capacity and improve long-term product economics. The new processes are expected to reduce total processing time from 2 to 3 months today to less than 1 month in the future and more than triple our current capacity. We've signed contracts with equipment suppliers and expect to begin engineering and construction activities shortly.

Currently, as Tim mentioned, we intend to finance the majority of the expansion with cash on hand with the $2 million settlement contributing nicely to our available cash. In the meantime, improving yields from our existing plant remains a primary focus. In the first quarter, we achieved record production of more than 450,000 units per month. And in the second quarter, our output averaged approximately 350,000 units per month, with most of that reduction occurring in the month of June.

Part of the lower output was planned. The second quarter is seasonally our lowest revenue quarter, and our improved planning showed that we could meet demand without running production too far ahead. We also made planned process changes and paused certain activities for quality investments and maintenance work intended to improve future yields. As Tim explained, lower manufacturing output reduced gross margin by approximately 7 percentage points compared to the first quarter. Importantly, we still met customer demand and increased finished goods inventory during the quarter.

As Tim also noted, we incurred approximately $150,000 of scrap related to a relatively minor purchased material. Our quality controls identified the issue early, stopped the manufacturing process and limited the impact. So we remain focused on improving yields, strengthening our process discipline and reliably supporting continued demand growth. I mentioned in our last call that yield improvement is challenging and comes from doing a lot of different things really well every single day, and I cannot thank the team enough for their efforts.

There is still a lot of work to do to stay ahead of demand for the remainder of 2026. We have to stay focused on managing contamination risk. We have to keep providing great service to our colostrum suppliers, and we have to manage yield improvement while we execute a major capacity expansion in our colostrum plant. The progress we are making on yields, together with our 2-phase expansion program, gives us greater confidence in our ability to meet customer demand and establish a sustainable, scalable and reliable supply.

Tactically, with greater confidence in our ability to meet customer demand, we are now prioritizing product cost improvements and strengthening colostrum sourcing capabilities to support scalable growth. Competition for high-quality colostrum is increasing, and we are responding with new payment programs, enhanced technical services and expanded farm recruitment efforts. Colostrum represents approximately half of our product costs, so growing our collections and improving the yields we generate from colostrum are very important drivers of our business.

We have discussed in previous calls that we believe strongly in international opportunity for our products. Our newly hired international business development executive is helping us transition from a reactive approach to a more proactive and strategic approach. We're actively assessing market opportunities and weighing them against regulatory and go-to-market investments. The results from our international strategy will take some time to come to fruition. In the meantime, our 3 new salespeople in the U.S. are getting up to speed and delivering results ahead of plan, as Tim discussed earlier on this call.

Finally, I will repeat what I have communicated on each call. Our top priority at ImmuCell is solid execution across the organization from sales to farm management to vaccine manufacturing and colostrum processing, including all the support functions that make future profitable growth possible. It is a pleasure to work with the team as we execute our focused strategy to deliver today while we secure the future.

And with that said, we will be happy to take your questions. So let's have the operator open up the lines.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And we have a question from [ Tom Fawkes ], a private investor.

Unknown Attendee

I did get a chance to read the Form 10-Q. I do see on there that you guys are continuing investigation studies into Re-Tain. Could you provide any more update on that? Has Michigan State maybe talked to you guys about potential time lines as to when that would be done? Any further insight into how that's all going would be helpful.

P. F. Te Boekhorst

Thank you for your question. Yes, we have asked Michigan State to work with us to investigate a, if you will, an additional use case for the Re-Tain product. And that study is ongoing. Discussions about the interim results are ongoing, and it will not be completed until, I would say, end of September, maybe even beginning of October. And so at that point, when we have the full results, we will be sharing those with the investors.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from [ Frank Gasca ] , a private investor.

Unknown Attendee

Great to see the improvements in revenue and your focus on margins. You actually went in enough detail to satisfy my question on the margins. In your 10-Q, I saw that the 2 primary customers percent went down, and I'm seeing that as evidence of the results in your increased salespeople. Is -- could you elaborate on that? Is that a fair enough assumption?

P. F. Te Boekhorst

So let me -- that's a great question. Let me just start off by describing our commercial structure. So we essentially sell everything through distribution. And then we have a commercial team that is focused on winning new customers who then will order their products through our distribution partners.

So as we are expanding into new segments or new geographic areas, there could be momentary shifts from which distributors are going to -- are the ones that are providing support to those customers. But it's more a question of a little bit of timing and just where those new customers happen to be located and which distributors those new customers prefer to use than a purposeful change on our end. I hope that makes sense.

And the only thing I would add is that we've seen quite attractive customer acquisition results this quarter, and we put that in our investor deck on the website. So you can see the data, but it's been a very good couple of quarters actually of winning new customers.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Joe Diaz

Gentlemen, while we wait for additional questions, I've got a couple of questions here that I think you might want to respond to. Oliver, can you describe your current distribution ordering dynamics? Is everything essentially set the way you want to see it? Any particular issues out there? Can you comment on that?

Timothy Fiori

Yes. Thanks, Joe. I'll actually take that one. So we've talked a lot over the past year about distributor ordering dynamics and also backlog fulfillment ordering dynamics where we would have compares that had fulfillment in them in the prior year. And I do -- we have consistently said we expected to lap that at the end of this quarter -- this past quarter, at the end of Q2 2026, and our view is still that, that is what has happened. So backlog was fulfilled by approximately the end of the second quarter 2025, and now we have a little bit cleaner history to compare to.

Operator

The next question comes from [ John Ravlik ] with -- a private investor.

Unknown Attendee

I'm not sure, has Re-Tain been discussed? I was interested if you've collected the data and set up a package for possible licensing.

P. F. Te Boekhorst

Thank you for your question. So we're, in fact, awaiting the results of the investigational study by Michigan State, which we expect to be completed September, October time frame before we make any further decisions on our Re-Tain product.

Operator

The next question comes from George Melas with MKH Management.

Question-and-Answer Session

George Melas

Thanks for the explanation on the gross margin and also on the expansion. Can you give us a little bit more information on the seasonality of the business between dairy and beef? And I was looking at sales to your distribution, and it seems like when you sell in the beef season, they seem to be -- those 2 distributors seem to be a smaller share of the sales. So is there a different channel partly for the -- on the beef side?

P. F. Te Boekhorst

Thank you. That's a great question. So my summary response would be that, yes, there are different distributors that have strengths in dairy versus beef, although many are, as you can imagine, more geographically focused in their strengths, but different industries will buy from different distributors. That's certainly true.

And what our strategy is to make sure that we have, first of all, distribution coverage for the entire country, which we do. And in many places, we have multiple distributors that can service customers so that we're leaving it up to the customer who they want to buy the product from. And that we then augment our distribution coverage with a focused commercial team that really works on new customer acquisition, which can be a fairly lengthy sales cycle for products like functional feed, somewhat shorter for other products.

And then we add to our commercial team based on where we see the greatest opportunity for short-term sales gain. So that has been our approach. We aren't actively managing the volume that goes through one distributor versus another. We are focused solely on winning new customers. So the result then of the concentration of those 2 big distributors within our overall revenue are really just kind of the results of the ordering pattern at a producer level more than anything else.

To your seasonality question, there is seasonality. Dairy industry tends to use our product all year long at similar levels, whereas beef industry has more of a calving season where a lot of calves are born in the same period of time, which is why we have peak seasons in Q4 and Q1 of the year.

George Melas

Okay. Understood. And then just a follow-up question on -- I think you gave us some numbers on sell-through growth, which was up 24% year-over-year in the first half. Is that from the 2 large distributors? Or is that for the entire -- for all your distribution? And is that something you've been able to track for a long time? Or is that some new data that you have?

P. F. Te Boekhorst

So the 24% growth is volume growth out-the-door by all our distributors. So it covers the entire market. And these are national data that we purchase and have access to and that we've had access to certainly for -- period, I don't know how long. I've only been here since November, but certainly for years, we've had access to this data to show us kind of what's going on at the producer level, which is ultimately how we measure our success.

Operator

And next, we have a follow-up from [ Frank Gasca ], private investor.

Unknown Attendee

Yes. On your margin, your explanation for the decrease, the Re-Tain shift aspect, that's recurring and continuous. Is that fair?

Timothy Fiori

Yes, that's fair. Keep in mind that when we talk -- when I talked about it earlier, onetime was sequential. So what happened is in Q2, it's -- even if it's the same dollars of shift, it's against a smaller amount of revenue, so you get a larger percentage impact. But also the dollars were slightly higher in Q2 than Q1. And there's slight variability. It's the same -- the recurring costs associated with the building essentially, but those can vary a bit.

Unknown Attendee

I mean, is this the extent of that category or understanding it has a continuous impact? And the dollar amount, is that pretty much established and fixed, understanding the percent will change with volume?

Timothy Fiori

Yes. The dollar -- so really, I can be completely transparent about this. This is the cost of the building. So it's utilities, depreciation associated with the building. Those are the 2 biggest pieces. And then any maintenance that the building needs, of course, that isn't capitalizable. So that dollar amount is pretty stable, but it will fluctuate a little bit as utility bills do.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Oliver Te Boekhorst for any closing remarks.

P. F. Te Boekhorst

Thank you for your questions. Before I turn it over to Joe, I would just like to thank the ImmuCell team once again for their hard work and for delivering another quarter of strong commercial growth. Joe?

Joe Diaz

Thank you, Oliver. We thank all of you on the call today for participating. We look forward to talking with you again to review the results for the quarter ending September 30, 2026, during the week of November 9, 2026. Have a great day.

Operator

Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.