Art's-Way Manufacturing Co., Inc., a diversified manufacturer and distributor of equipment serving agricultural and research needs, announces its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2026.
Marc McConnell, the Company's President, CEO, and Chairman, reports, "We are pleased to have started the new year off showing significant improvement in both business units. While the Agricultural Product segment continues to face ongoing challenges, we are experiencing a meaningful improvement in demand for several of our key product categories, as evidenced by growth in our revenue and backlog. Similarly, our Modular Buildings segment has maintained the strong momentum we've seen in recent quarters and helped our overall profitability significantly. With improving performance and solid demand in both business units, we have reason for optimism moving forward despite tremendous uncertainty in the economy today."
Consolidated - Q1 fiscal 2026 compared to Q1 fiscal 2025
- Sales increase of $1,499,000 or 29.2%.
- Gross profit as a percentage of sales declined by 0.3%.
- Operating expenses decreased by 5.2% as a percentage of sales.
- Net income of $196,000 for the three months ended February 28, 2026, a $252,000 improvement from the same period in fiscal 2025.
Agricultural Products - Q1 fiscal 2026 compared to Q1 fiscal 2025
- Sales of $3,754,000 for Q1 of fiscal 2026, a 27.3% increase.
- Gross profit as a percentage of sales increased by 7.8%.
- Operating expenses decreased by 7.8%.
- Net income of $7,000, an improvement of $353,000.
We have experienced increased demand this quarter, as compared to the same period in 2025, with increased sales on grinder mixers, manure spreaders and bale processors. While row crop commodity prices have increased from their lowest point in 2024, they remain substantially below the peak levels experienced in 2022. The slight increase in commodity prices and product availability did, however, lead to improved results for the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Livestock prices remained elevated through the first quarter of fiscal 2026 and are driving most of the demand for our agricultural products, as a large portion of our customer base raises livestock and row crops. Sugar beet prices declined in the first fiscal quarter of 2026 and we are expecting less demand for our sugar beet equipment for the remainder of fiscal 2026. To offset some of the anticipated decrease in demand, we are deploying a product specialist into our primary beet territory to drive new customer activity and technological development as we unveil a new product in that market for fiscal 2026. Our fall early order program ended with a 62% increase in orders on our non-beet equipment, while our beet orders were down 63%. Overall order book from the early order program was up 11%, which leads us to believe the agricultural market is entering a recovery despite continued increasing input costs. Our grinder mixer sales were up $909,000 year-on-year and was our most profitable product line for the first quarter of fiscal 2026. We continue to carry strong grinder mixer backlog into the second quarter of fiscal 2026 and foresee steady shipments in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. Steel prices continued to rise in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 and will challenge our strong first fiscal quarter margins.
Modular Buildings - Q1 fiscal 2026 compared to Q1 fiscal 2025
- Sales of $2,886,000 for Q1 2026, up 31.6%.
- Gross profit as a percentage of sales declined by 11.0%.
- Operating expenses declined by 1.5% as a percentage of sales.
- Net income of $189,000 for the three months ended February 28, 2026, a decline of $102,000.
We carried strong modular building backlog into fiscal 2026, unlike a year ago, which drove the revenue increase this year. We experienced continued strong demand for our buildings on both the livestock and research sides in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Current backlog is expected to carry us well into the third quarter of fiscal 2026, which is somewhat unusual given the sales life cycle in our Modular Buildings segment. Our leads remain abundant and we continue to be optimistic about the future prospects and continued success of this business segment. Our margin decrease in the first fiscal quarter of fiscal 2026 is due to the selling of a warrantied agriculture modular buildings at cost and project overages on site work while completing current contracts.
Income (Loss) per Share: Income per basic and diluted share for the first fiscal quarter of 2026 was $0.04, compared to a loss per basic and diluted share of $0.01 for the same period in fiscal 2025.
