RF Industries is no longer just a catalog seller of coaxial connectors. The San Diego manufacturer spent two years pushing custom cabling, small-cell enclosures, and Direct Air Cooling systems, the thermal units that replace conventional HVAC at wireless shelters and edge sites, into a larger share of the mix. The fiscal third quarter ended in late July put that shift on the income statement. Net sales reached a company record of $24 million. Operating income more than doubled year over year as fixed costs finally had a larger base to sit on. The market still sold the stock hard on the print, and the reason was not the profit line.
Bookings of $23 million trailed recognized sales, so the order book shrank even as the factory ran hotter. Backlog ended the quarter at $19 million and only partly refilled by the mid-September call. A single wireless carrier still represented a mid-teens slice of quarterly sales, and the small-cell program remains behind the internal plan set at the start of the year. Gross margin reached the mid-thirties. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of $3 million show the operating leverage management has advertised since fiscal 2024. Those figures do not, on their own, prove the new run rate is durable.
The investment debate is whether the record quarter is a new floor or a drawdown of the order queue built in the spring. Shares closed at $8 on the publication date, well below the high printed earlier in the year. Management guided fourth-quarter sales to match or exceed the third-quarter level. The next test is whether new orders refill the book above billed sales before fiscal year-end in October.