樓氏電子 (KN) 2026 年第三季法說會：精密元件帶動成長，營收成長 20%

Knowles Corporation (NYSE: KN) 公布 2026 年第三季營收達 1.84 億美元，年增 20%，超越財測高標。精密元件（Precision Devices）部門領頭成長，強勁訂單與產能受限則塑造了管理層對 2027 年的初步展望。

重點速覽

• 第三季營收年增 20% 至 1.84 億美元。每股盈餘 (EPS) 成長 15% 至 0.38 美元，營運活動現金流達 4,500 萬美元。
• 受醫療科技 (MedTech)、國防、工業與電氣化市場需求支撐，精密元件營收成長 33% 至 1.17 億美元。
• 精密元件錄得 1.5 的出貨比（book-to-bill ratio），訂單金額近 1.8 億美元。管理層表示，目前訂單排程已延伸至 2027 年上半年。
• Knowles 預期第四季營收為 1.8 億至 1.9 億美元，每股盈餘為 0.39 至 0.43 美元。若取中位數計算，兩項指標均將年增 14%。
• 精密元件大多數產品線的新增產能預計將於 2027 年第一季末開始上線，並於 2027 年下半年全面投產。
• 在年度毛利率擴張與營運槓桿支撐下，管理層預計能在兩到三年內實現 30% 的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率。

關鍵財務數據

除非公司另有說明，否則所有財務引用數據均以非 GAAP（Non-GAAP）持續營運業務為基礎呈現，營運現金流除外。

業務與營運績效

精密元件

精密元件為主要成長引擎。隨著醫療科技、國防、工業與電氣化四大終端市場需求全線上升，營收成長 33%。

在醫療科技方面，脈衝電力薄膜電容器在心臟去顫器與放射治療應用中持續獲取業務。陶瓷電容器則在下一代醫療影像與植入式裝置中贏得設計方案。

國防需求在彈藥與通訊所使用的射頻濾波器、薄膜電容器及陶瓷電容器方面保持強勁。在工業市場上，陶瓷電容器與電容組件擴大了在半導體設備電漿產生器中的應用。

訂單金額近 1.8 億美元，出貨比達 1.5。其中包括先前披露的一筆針對國防客戶的 1,500 萬美元射頻濾波器訂單，預計於 36 個月內交貨。

Knowles 正擴充精密元件大多數產品線的產能。管理層預期首批新增產能將於 2027 年第一季末上線，並於 2027 年下半年全面投產。在此之前，該部門營運接近滿載。

醫療科技與特種音訊

醫療科技與特種音訊營收成長 4% 至 6,700 萬美元。管理層將本季部分需求歸因於聽力健康客戶比往常略早推出具備 AI 功能的產品。

展望 2027 年，管理層預計聽力健康業務將以歷史增速成長。然而，低毛利沖壓業務營收的結束預計將帶來 2% 至 3% 的部門營收逆風，且集中在上半年。儘管面臨此壓力，管理層仍預期全年的部門成長率約為 2% 至 4%，並指出毛利率可能較 2026 年提升約 1 個百分點。

Micro Solutions 業務在 2025 年貢獻了約 100 萬美元的營收，預計 2026 年將接近 300 萬美元。管理層認為有希望在 2027 年達到 500 萬美元以上，並於 2028 年超過 1,000 萬美元。

資本配置與利潤率擴張

第三季期間，Knowles 回購了 2,500 萬美元的股票，並將銀行借款減少 1,500 萬美元，同時持續資助有機成長。

管理層表示，自動化與營運改善正擴大前 Cornell 特種薄膜業務的利潤率。該業務在收購時的毛利率約為 27% 至 28%，預計在 2026 年底將達到 35% 左右，未來有望提升至 40% 以上。

公司也在尋求管理層認為能與有機成長互補的潛在收購機會，但尚未宣布任何具體交易。

管理層財測

取中位數計算，第四季營收與每股盈餘預期均將年增 14%。管理層指出，每股盈餘展望反映了調整後 EBITDA 估計成長 20%，但部分被 2025 年第四季記錄的 0.03 美元單次租稅優惠不復存在所抵銷。

就 2026 全年而言，Knowles 預計在其財測區間中位數下營收成長 16%，調整後 EBITDA 較 2025 年成長 24%。全年資本支出預計約占營收的 5%。

隨 Knowles 擴充精密元件產能，2027 年資本支出預計將增加至營收的 5% 至 7%。管理層預期有機成長將持續高於 2025 年 5 月投資者日上提出的營收目標。

在定價、產能利用率與工廠生產力支撐下，管理層還預期毛利率每年可提升約 100 個基點。額外的 50 至 100 個基點營運槓桿效益，有助於調整後 EBITDA 利潤率從 2026 年底的 25% 以上，在兩到三年內邁向 30%。

風險與關注焦點

• 精密元件產能接近滿載，在新產能於 2027 年期間上線前，可能會限制季增成長。
• 儘管年增率強勁，管理層預期精密元件營收在 2027 年初將與上季大致持平。
• 沖壓業務營收結束將拖累醫療科技與特種音訊的銷售，特別是在 2027 年上半年，不過由於該業務按成本加成方式營運，管理層預期對 EBIT 的影響有限。
• 聽力健康產品提前推出將部分需求拉前至 2026 年第三季，改變了常規的季節性。
• 管理層指出半導體設備屬於工業終端市場，其目前需求的持續性較不確定。
• 後續能源訂單是有可能的，但管理層警示在當前訂單完成後可能會有一段空窗期。

分析師問答亮點

管理層表示，公司 2027 年第一季總營收可能呈季減，分析師預估約下滑 1% 至 2% 被認為是合理的假設。公司仍預期展現強勁的年增率，其中精密元件受到產能限制，醫療科技與特種音訊則受到退出沖壓業務營收的影響。

能源訂單已全面放量，且產出與利潤率表現符合預期。Knowles 預計還將進行六至七個季度的交貨。管理層確認正在討論後續機會，這可能在 2028 年、2029 年及未來帶來上行空間，但尚未提供確切的訂單展望。

針對需求的持續性，管理層表示未發現醫療市場有大幅建立安全庫存的跡象。管理層亦指出，分銷通路夥伴並未持有可媲美 2022 年水平的過剩庫存。據管理層所述，國防需求可能在未來 12 至 18 個月內加速成長，而醫療與國防（包含聽力健康）約占公司營收的 60%。

除了核心產品外，Knowles 特別指出 Micro Solutions、脈衝電力電容器、衰減器與電感器是擴大可服務市場 (TAM) 的潛在貢獻來源。管理層預計將在 2027 年期間提供更詳細的目標。

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管理層陳述

Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Third Quarter Knowles Corporation Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Sarah Cook, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sarah, please go ahead.

Sarah Cook

Thank you, and welcome to our third quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm Sarah Cook, Vice President of Investor Relations, and presenting with me today are Jeffrey Niew, our President and CEO; and John Anderson, our Senior Vice President and CFO. Our call today will include remarks about future expectations, plans and prospects for Knowles, which constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under applicable federal securities laws.

Forward-looking statements in this call will include comments about demand for company products, anticipated trends in company sales, expenses and profits and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially from current expectations. The company urges investors to review the risks and uncertainties in the company's SEC filings, including, but not limited to, the annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, periodic reports filed from time to time with the SEC and the risks and uncertainties identified in today's earnings release.

All forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this call, and Knowles disclaims any duty to update such statements, except as required by law. In addition, pursuant to Reg G, any non-GAAP financial measures referenced during today's conference call can be found in our press release posted on our website at knowles.com and in our current report on Form 8-K filed today with the SEC. This will include a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measure.

All financial references on this call will be on a non-GAAP continuing operations basis with the exception of cash from operations or unless otherwise indicated. We've made selected financial information available on webcast slides, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website. With that, let me turn the call over to Jeff, who will provide details on our results. Jeff?

Jeffrey Niew

Thanks, Sarah, and thanks to all of you for joining us today. To start out, I would like to take a moment to thank the Knowles team for delivering an outstanding third quarter. We had strong performance across our business as demonstrated by our key financial metrics. Revenue was $184 million, up 20% year-over-year and above the high end of our guided range. EPS was $0.38 and cash generated from operations was $45 million, both at the high end of our guided range. These results reflect the strength of our execution and the positive momentum across our business. I believe our results continue to demonstrate that our focus on markets and products where we have significant competitive advantages is paying dividends and positions us well for future growth.

In Q3, MedTech & Specialty Audio revenue was $67 million, up 4% year-over-year. Hearing health OEM customers typically launch new products annually in Q4. This year, however, we believe our customers' new products, which are implementing AI features, drove demand slightly earlier than usual. While this change in seasonality accelerated sales to earlier in the year, we continue to expect the hearing health market to grow at historical rates in 2026.

Precision Devices delivered Q3 revenue of $117 million, up 33% year-over-year with strong demand across every major product line and end market we serve: MedTech, defense, industrial and electrification. Our close collaboration with customers continues to drive a robust pipeline of design wins as customers continue to choose our innovative and differentiated solutions. I believe our year-over-year growth demonstrates the strength of our strategy and the momentum across the business.

On a base of strong revenue growth, orders remained robust. Precision Devices had a book-to-bill of 1.5 in Q3 with broad-based order strength across our key end markets, both among OEMs and with our distribution partners. Q3 orders in the PD segment were nearly $180 million, well above Q2 orders, reinforcing my confidence in continued growth. As noted on the Q2 earnings call, there was a $15 million order early in Q3 for RF filters for a defense customer that will be delivered over the next 36 months.

I will now provide a little more color on the revenue and order strength across our PD end markets. In MedTech, our pulse power film capacitors continue to win in defibrillator and radiotherapy applications, while our ceramic capacitors are securing strong design wins in next-generation medical imaging and implantables. In defense, demand remains strong across all our product categories. Our RF filters, film and ceramic capacitors are in high demand in munitions and communications applications. We also serve a broad range of applications in industrial markets. As an example, our ceramic capacitors and capacitor assemblies are growing in use for plasma generators in semiconductor equipment.

With strong orders, a healthy backlog and continued design wins, we are in the process of adding capacity across most of our Precision Devices product lines to support the demand. I expect this additional capacity to begin to come online in late Q1 with it being fully available in the second half of 2027. Our ability to continue to expand and meet increasing demand for our products is supported by our strong cash generation from operations. We have the ability to invest in growth while returning capital to shareholders and reducing debt.

In the third quarter, we repurchased $25 million in shares and reduced outstanding bank borrowings by $15 million in addition to funding organic growth initiatives. Our strong balance sheet positions us well to support organic growth through disciplined capital investment and still pursue strategic accretive acquisitions.

Before turning the call over to John to cover our financial results and provide our Q4 guidance, I would like to share my initial perspectives on 2027. Our strategy of combining unique technologies to create custom engineered solutions and then quickly ramping them at scale with a world-class operational capability is driving revenue growth in our core products and markets, margin expansion and strong cash flow.

In 2027, as we add capacity, new design wins ramp and we fulfill our healthy backlog within our PD segment and our MSA segment continues to perform at historical growth levels, we expect organic growth to continue to exceed the revenue targets presented at our May 2025 Investor Day. I also believe we will be entering the next phase of revenue growth beyond our core, where we expect to have meaningful expansion of our SAM through the growth initiatives we outlined at our Investor Day.

By following the same playbook we used in our core of investing in innovative technologies, using these technologies to develop customized solutions to solve our customers' problems and then scaling into high-volume production, we expect 3 fundamental paths to supplementing our core growth. First, we are developing new products such as attenuators and inductors for our existing markets. This is a great opportunity to provide a wider array of solutions to the markets and customers we already serve.

Second, we are utilizing existing technologies and capabilities for new customers and markets as we are doing with our [ Micro Solutions ] group and with pulse power capacitors. The breadth of opportunities we are pursuing that leverage our core competencies continues to expand with limited expansion of OPEX to support this new business. Lastly, we are seeing the opportunity to meaningfully grow content with existing products and technology at current customers as we have discussed in hearing health and with integrated capacitor solutions.

All these initiatives are expected to meaningfully expand our SAM, will complement our strong core, and I look forward to providing a more detailed outlook and updates on these initiatives and others in 2027. Now let me turn the call over to John for our financial results and our Q4 guidance.

John Anderson

Thanks, Jeff. We reported third quarter revenues of $184 million, up 20% from the year-ago period and above the high end of our guidance range. EPS was $0.38 in the quarter, up $0.05 or 15% from the year-ago period and at the high end of our guidance range. Cash provided by operating activities was $45 million, also at the high end of our guidance range.

In the MedTech & Specialty Audio segment, Q3 revenue was $67 million, up 4% compared with the year-ago period. Gross margins were 51.9%. The Precision Devices segment delivered third quarter revenues of $117 million, up 33% from the year-ago period. Increased demand from both OEM customers and our distribution channel partners resulted in strong growth in the 4 major markets we serve: MedTech, defense, industrial and electrification. Segment gross margins were 41.6%, up 10 basis points from the third quarter of 2025 on higher volume, partially offset by unfavorable inventory adjustments.

On a total company basis, R&D expense in the quarter was $10 million, up $1 million compared to Q3 2025 on higher project spending in both MSA and PD segments. SG&A expenses were $30 million, up $4 million from prior year levels, driven primarily by higher sales commissions, higher incentive compensation expense and increased headcount as we pulled forward hiring primarily to support increased customer demand and new product initiatives. Interest expense for the quarter was $1.6 million, down $700,000 from the third quarter of 2025 due to lower average debt balances.

Now I'll turn to our balance sheet and cash flow. In the third quarter, we generated $45 million in cash from operating activities and capital spending was $7 million. During the third quarter, we repurchased 695,000 shares at a total cost of $25 million. We exited the quarter with cash of $47 million and $116 million of borrowings under our revolving credit facility. Lastly, our net leverage ratio based on trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA was 0.4x, and we have liquidity of more than $330 million as measured by cash plus unused capacity under our revolving credit facility.

Moving to our Q4 guidance. For the fourth quarter of 2026, revenues are expected to be between $180 million and $190 million, up 14% year-over-year at the midpoint. R&D expenses are expected to be between $10 million and $12 million. Selling and administrative expenses are expected to be within the range of $29 million to $31 million. We're projecting adjusted EBIT margin for the quarter to be within the range of 23% to 25%. Interest expense in Q4 is estimated at $1.5 million, and we expect an effective tax rate of 15% to 19%.

We're projecting EPS to be within the range of $0.39 to $0.43 per share, up $0.05 or 14% year-over-year at the midpoint, driven by a 20% increase in adjusted EBITDA, partially offset by the absence of a $0.03 discrete tax benefit, which was included in Q4 2025. This assumes weighted average shares outstanding during the quarter of 87 million on a fully diluted basis.

We're projecting cash from operating activities to be within the range of $60 million to $70 million. Capital spending is expected to be $8 million. We expect full year capital spending to be approximately 5% of revenues. Looking ahead, we expect capital spending to be above our historic range of 3% to 5%, increasing to 5% to 7% of revenues in 2027 as we continue to make investments in capacity to support increased customer demand in the Precision Devices segment.

The strong growth and financial results we've achieved through the first 3 quarters of '26, combined with a robust backlog and increased order activity, give me confidence in our ability to deliver 2026 revenue growth of 16% at the midpoint of our guidance range and adjusted EBITDA growth of 24% over 2025 levels, with both metrics well above the high end of the target ranges that we provided at our May 2025 Investor Day.

I'll now turn the call back over to the operator for the Q&A portion of our call.

Operator?

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question is from the line of Anthony Stoss with Craig-Hallum.

分析師問答

Anthony Stoss

Congrats again on just solid and continued execution. Jeff, I'd love to hear your thoughts. You gave a little bit of a preamble on 2027. Maybe you can expand on that a little bit in terms of order visibility kind of entering into the first half of 2027. Then I have a couple of follow-ups.

Jeffrey Niew

Yes. So let me just say at a top level, if you look sector by sector or market by market that we're in, what we're seeing is just extremely high design activity. And whether it be for faster, more precision, getting more output, new innovative features, all the applications we're involved in, people are asking for more customized stuff. It's a trend that we're just clearly seeing now. And our product portfolio is well positioned to take advantage of this. I mean it's very well positioned.

Now to take it to '27, let me break it down by the segments, right? First, MSA. MSA, we expect next year, the hearing health business is going to perform at historical levels again. We will have a little bit of a headwind, I'd say, primarily in the first half. I think we mentioned this before on stamping that we had this -- when we sold the consumer business, we have a supplier. We're at the last time buy at the end of this year. There'll be no revenue, and that's about a headwind of about 2% to 3% next year, especially more in the first half, I would say, than the back half. But the Micro Solutions business, as we talked about, should start accelerating in the back half. So overall, we'll still probably be in that 2% to 4% for the full year, although it might be down a little bit in the first half.

Now PD, let's say, the book-to-bill, again, in the second quarter was very strong. But the orders we're taking now, it was 1.5 in Q3. The orders we're taking in Q3 are already being scheduled into the first half of next year. But we are at a point where we are pretty close to capacity constraint. So while we're going to have very strong year-over-year growth in the first half with PD, I think sequentially, it's going to be relatively flat because of capacity constraints.

And so I think that's probably the one thing. And one thing I think on -- just to be clear on the MSA thing, yes, it may be a little bit of a headwind to stamping. But remember that stamping was on a cost-plus basis. It doesn't generate a lot of EBIT. So it won't affect the EBIT and the margin should be better.

John Anderson

Yes. I think gross margins, Tony, this year, we've talked about kind of for MSA in that low 50% range, and expect that maybe a little 1% or so higher in '27 over '26.

Jeffrey Niew

So bottom line is on this, we expect strong year-over-year growth in the first half. But sequentially, it's probably going to be -- especially in the first quarter, might be slightly down, like PD being flat sequentially because of capacity constraints with MSA being slightly down.

Anthony Stoss

Just to be clear, and maybe this is a better question for John. Last year, it seems like seasonal, your March quarter was typically down 5% sequentially. Are you saying it's only going to be down a little bit, like 1%, 2% sequentially?

Jeffrey Niew

I think that's a fair guess, somewhere in that -- it's slightly down sequentially based on the guide that we have...

John Anderson

Tony, were you talking about the MSA segment or total Knowles?

Anthony Stoss

Total Knowles.

Jeffrey Niew

Yes. It will be down slightly sequentially, but still, if you look at the year-over-year number, it's way up. And again, MSA being slightly down, right, because of the stamping business going away, PD being flat capacity constrained because we're pretty much running all out.

Anthony Stoss

Got it. No, it's a good problem to have. And then my last question, Jeff, I'd love to hear kind of an update on the energy order, the trajectory and what you're seeing from that customer.

Jeffrey Niew

Yes. I mean the business is fully ramped. We're outputting like as expected. And so now we've got about 6, 7 more quarters of delivery of this order. I think if I look at the numbers, it's performing in terms of the margins and the output as expected. I really put -- I really call out to the team. I mean this was like a Herculean effort to ramp with this speed and this amount of volume, but it's going very well.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Christopher Rolland with Susquehanna.

Christopher Rolland

Mine is around looking at Knowles kind of through the cycle here. I think everybody is benefiting from the cycle, longer lead times, longer bookings, people worrying about short capacity and perhaps even safety stock building. How much do you think this is a part of your business? Or conversely, do you think what we're seeing here is really more representative of something through cycle? Maybe if you could put the larger picture in focus for us.

Jeffrey Niew

So let me just first say based on the markets. If I think about the markets that we participate in, and I think I said this, in medical, I do not see that there's safety stock or that this is going to grow through a cycle. We've got a lot of great new design wins. I think it's sustainable. We're not seeing in medical that there's a concern here.

Then I go to defense, I would argue that there's probably an opportunity for an acceleration from even where we are in terms of defense in the next 12 to 18 months as budgets around the world are increasing for both the U.S. as well as allies, the replacement of munitions, there's a lot of things going on here that says that this is going to continue to maybe even accelerate. And so that's about 60% of our business or so right there as a company.

Electrification is what it is, and is -- I would say, we still expect growth next year. We have some EV business. We expect that to be up again next year. We've got a lot of great design wins as well as the energy order. I don't see a lot of concerns there. So it really comes back down to industrial. And if you look at it, there are some pockets here where I would sit there and say, okay, maybe this isn't sustainable, like semiconductor equipment, how long will that last?

But we are not really overly reliant on one market. And I can tell you, when I look at our distribution partners, they do not have a lot of inventory. They're not holding excess inventory like we saw happen in '22. And I think this goes back to kind of the discussion of what's different between back then and '22. In '22, we had lead times of 15 weeks and some of the competitors, like say, ceramic capacitor guys had 60-week lead times. Our lead times are now long, not driven by AI. They're driven by our demand in our core markets. And so I think, generally speaking, we're going to be pretty good going forward through the cycle.

John Anderson

Chris, just to clarify, too, that Jeff mentioned roughly 60% of our business is Med and defense and Med includes the hearing health business.

Christopher Rolland

Yes. Yes. Okay. Perfect. And then as I look at some of the implied fourth quarter stuff around gross margin, it looks like that's up nicely. Maybe any puts and takes into next year as well, that would be appreciated.

John Anderson

Chris, you're right. I mean in terms of gross margin, if you kind of take the guidance, the components of the guidance that I gave, you can back into gross margin, and it's just above 46% at the midpoint of the guidance that I gave. I think there's room to continue to expand gross margins. Our target is 100 basis points a year. But kind of exiting this year, again, the guidance I provided is just a touch above 46%, but there is room to increase that next year.

Jeffrey Niew

Yes. I would just add one more thing, Chris, on that, as I'm kind of looking at the numbers here. I think we're going to exit above -- well above 25% on EBITDA margins this year. And I think John said this before, but I mean, we clearly see the path over the midterm now to get to 30% EBITDA margins.

John Anderson

Yes. If you take what I said, the gross margin alone, we think there's 100 basis points of improvement annually. And then we're going to get operating leverage of 50 to 100 basis points with the growth that we have. So yes, you can see a path there within 2 to 3 years going from where we are just a little north of 25% this year to 30%.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Tristan Gerra with Baird.

Tyler Bomba

This is Tyler Bomba on for Tristan. Looking into 2027, could you give us a sense of which of the newer growth platforms that you outlined in the prepared remarks are closest to contributing meaningful revenue? Are you starting to get production orders that give you better visibility on the timing across those different platforms?

Jeffrey Niew

Yes. So here's what I'd say is I'll give you a little bit of color on this, but I think this is going to be a great topic for an Investor Day sometime next year, right, as we kind of move forward. But let me kind of talk about it a little bit.

First, I'd say if you look at our Micro Solutions group from MSA, we really have now a list as long as my arm of opportunities. We're really starting to actually have to kind of push back on customers. We talked about this. We had about $1 million worth of revenue in 2025. We'll have $2 million to $3 million, probably going to closer to $3 million this year. I see a clear path north of $5 million next year. And then if you look in '28, it should be north of $10 million and maybe even more. And so I'd say that one is really coming along well.

I would sit there and say the pulse power opportunity, it's a matter now of really of our execution. There are so many new applications, whether it be downhole applications, there's all different types of things in terms of even beyond the energy that we've discussed kind of a lot. So I think -- and that's ready to go. And I mean, it's a question of when the customers will start ordering in some of these new applications.

I'm really encouraged. I mean, like we have not talked about this at all. We introduced a line of attenuators, now this is primarily for defense, takes some time, but super encouraged by the initial reaction we're getting from attenuators. I'm super encouraged by inductors. So a lot of good stuff coming here.

I think I would just say this, what we're seeing is a meaningful expansion of our SAM with all these things we're doing beyond the core that will supplement that growth. And that's why we're feeling more and more compelled to kind of call that out. I think we'll raise some numbers around that probably sometime in the new year.

Tyler Bomba

Great. Well, looking forward to that. With -- for my follow-up, with the energy order now fully ramped, are you seeing discussions around follow-on orders or similar applications with different customers that could sustain growth beyond this initial $75 million order?

Jeffrey Niew

Let me give you the short answer. Yes. Let me give you a little more color, a little bit longer answer. I think we're still 6 to 7 quarters out from completing this order. I think there's a possibility that we get another order like that follows right on, but there may be a small gap. I think from my perspective, we have so many growth opportunities that are even beyond this energy order. I think not that I don't want to focus on this because this could be a big upside to our numbers in '28, '29 and beyond. But I mean, it's a great opportunity for us. And hopefully, we'll -- as we get further along in delivering this order, we'll be able to talk more about what the next -- what comes beyond.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Bob Labick with CJS.

Bob Labick

Congratulations on really strong results. Also exciting news that you're adding capacity here due to all the demand and that you're kind of bumping up. And obviously, we've talked about the energy order on the call already. You've stood up a fully automated production facility recently kind of state-of-the-art for this energy order. What have you learned from that process? And how can you apply that to the incremental capacity you want to add and also just other Knowles facilities already in the footprint of manufacturing?

Jeffrey Niew

I mean that's a great question, Bob. I think what we've learned from the whole ramp-up of this automation is that we have a lot of margin expansion opportunity within that factory. I think that's what we've learned. I think part of that, John has kind of alluded to that within the Cornell, former Cornell business, that we acquired, the specialty film business, we think there are great opportunities for margin expansion.

I don't know if it applies as much because we really are applying these kind of learnings to every one of our facilities as we go along. But for sure, in this area, we're going to be adding more automation in order to improve yields, lower our overhead and make the Cornell business more profitable.

I think we've alluded to this when we bought that business. It was in the 27%, 28% gross margin. It's exiting the year in the mid-30s now with a clear path above 40%. And so we're seeing all the things that we expected from that. I think what we're hoping is we can find another acquisition that is a 1 plus 1 equals 3 and be a real home run that is like another Cornell over the next year or two that really makes sense for us.

Bob Labick

And then obviously, you gave a nice initial look to 2027. And in general, in the economy and kind of the macro, there's obviously a lot of inflationary pressures right now. How is Knowles positioned based on the kind of current inflationary market? And how would this project into 2027 for you, if at all?

Jeffrey Niew

I think we're positioned very well. I think just to state, first off, we have an excellent operations team globally that focus on value creation every year. So they're looking for ways to reduce costs, reduce -- improve yields. We have that going on. That's an ongoing thing.

I think we've alluded to this. I think the pricing environment is positive and the direction we're heading with the customers with. Generally speaking, we are a critical piece of the bill of materials, but we're not an overly large portion of our bill of materials to our customers. And so moderate pricing every year increases are pretty much what we do.

I wouldn't say we do it with every customer across every single segment, but we are looking at this on a continual basis. And I think, generally speaking, we're in a very good position to be able to handle inflationary pressures. I don't know...

John Anderson

Yes. Bob, just to add to that. I mean, I talked about the potential to increase gross margins 100 basis points. The levers are really price, capacity utilization and productivity on the factory floor. Those are the 3 components. And there's a piece of both of those that will benefit us in 2027.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.