Earnings call transcript: SurgePays Q4 2025 sees stock surge despite revenue miss

SurgePays Inc. reported its Q4 2025 earnings, revealing a revenue miss against forecasts but demonstrating strong cost management and strategic diversification. The company’s stock price rose 15.07% to 0.75 USD in aftermarket trading, reflecting investor optimism about its future growth prospects despite the immediate revenue shortfall.

Key Takeaways

• SurgePays missed its revenue forecast of 25.96 million USD, reporting 16.2 million USD for Q4 2025.
• The stock price increased by 15.07% in aftermarket trading, indicating positive investor sentiment.
• The company reported significant cost reductions and improved margins year-over-year.
• Diversification efforts have reduced dependency on the expired ACP program.

Company Performance

SurgePays experienced a 6.4% year-over-year decline in total revenue for 2025, attributed mainly to the expiration of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). The company’s revenue for the last twelve months as of Q3 2025 stood at 50.37 million USD, reflecting a sharper 39.75% revenue decline over that period. The company has successfully diversified its revenue streams, notably through its point-of-sale and prepaid services, which saw a year-over-year increase of approximately 26.1 million USD.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue for Q4 2025: 16.2 million USD
• Total revenue for 2025: 57.0 million USD, down from 60.9 million USD in 2024
• Net loss from operations: 30.7 million USD, a 26.6% improvement from 2024
• Cost of revenue: Reduced by 10.1% to 67.6 million USD
• General and administrative expenses: Reduced by 26.9% to 20.1 million USD

Earnings vs. Forecast

SurgePays’ Q4 2025 revenue of 16.2 million USD fell short of the forecasted 25.96 million USD, marking a significant miss. This miss reflects the challenges of transitioning away from ACP-dependent revenue streams.

Market Reaction

Despite the revenue miss, SurgePays’ stock rose by 15.07% in aftermarket trading, closing at 0.75 USD. This increase highlights investor confidence in the company’s strategic direction and cost management. The stock’s performance contrasts with its 52-week low of 0.65 USD, indicating a rebound in market sentiment. Yet the broader picture remains challenging, with the stock down 70.85% over the past year and 74.19% over the past six months. According to InvestingPro analysis, the stock appears slightly overvalued relative to its Fair Value—placing it among considerations for investors monitoring the Most Overvalued stocks. For comprehensive analysis including advanced metrics and expert insights, investors can access the detailed Pro Research Report available for SurgePays, one of over 1,400 US equities covered.

Outlook & Guidance

SurgePays is focusing on expanding its LinkUp Mobile prepaid wireless service, which is expected to be a primary revenue driver in 2026. The company plans to leverage its existing retail network and digital acquisition capabilities to support growth. Management did not provide specific numerical guidance but emphasized a strategy of capital discipline and controlled growth.

Executive Commentary

CEO Brian Cox expressed confidence in the company’s strategic shift, stating, "We believe we are positioned to execute and look forward to updating you on our progress." This reflects management’s focus on leveraging diversified revenue streams and improving operational efficiency.

Risks and Challenges

• Continued reliance on capital raises to support operations.
• The competitive nature of the prepaid wireless market.
• Managing cash flow amidst a working capital deficit of 16.2 million USD.
• Economic sensitivity of the target market, which includes underserved and underbanked populations.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the company’s strategy to mitigate the impact of the ACP expiration and its plans for scaling LinkUp Mobile. Management reiterated their focus on diversifying revenue streams and enhancing operational efficiency to drive future growth.

Full transcript - Surgepays Inc (SURG) Q4 2025:

Conference Call Operator: Greetings. Welcome to the SurgePays Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Valter Pinto, Investor Relations at SurgePays. You may begin.

Valter Pinto, Investor Relations, SurgePays: Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the SurgePays 2025 fourth quarter and full year financial results conference call. Today’s date is April 14th, 2026, and on the call today from the company are Brian Cox, President and CEO, and Chelsea Pullano, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone that this call may contain forward-looking statements as they are defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, please see SurgePays’ most recent filings with the SEC. All forward-looking statements made today reflect our current expectations only, and we undertake no obligation to update any statements to reflect the events that occur after this call.

Copies of today’s press release are accessible on SurgePays Investor Relations website, ir.surgepays.com. SurgePays Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2025, will also be available on SurgePays Investor Relations website. Now I’d like to turn the call over to President and CEO, Brian Cox.

Brian Cox, President and Chief Executive Officer, SurgePays: Thank you, Valter. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, I will walk through our 2025 performance and what we proved operationally and how that directly translates into our outlook for 2026. For the full year 2025, we generated approximately $57 million in revenue, including $16.2 million in the fourth quarter. As you review our results, it’s important to understand the progression of the year. We saw steady growth from Q1 through Q3, with revenue increasing from approximately $10.6 million in Q1 to $11.5 million in Q2, and then reaching $18.7 million in Q3. That third quarter was an inflection point that demonstrated the scalability of our platform when capital is deployed into subscriber growth. Q4 of 2025 is best understood in the context of what we demonstrated in Q3.

In Q3, we deployed capital into subscriber acquisition and saw a clear step function and increase in revenue. That quarter proved the scalability of our model when capital is applied. In Q4, we made the decision to pull back on that level of spend and focus on capital discipline and efficiency. As a result, revenue in Q4 declined sequentially from Q3, but remained significantly higher than Q4 of 2024. That is the key point. We proved we can scale, and we demonstrated discipline in how we manage that growth. Just as importantly, Q4 included items that are not indicative of our current operating run rate, including legal and certain non-cash expenses. For the full year, total General and Administrative expense declined to approximately $20.1 million from $27.5 million in 2024.

That reduction reflects the cost actions we began taking as we exited the ACP period and repositioned the business. At the same time, we continued to invest in the core infrastructure of the business, including our retail distribution network, our wireless platform, and our digital acquisition capabilities. Today, we are not reliant on a single subsidized program. We have multiple revenue channels, including government subsidized wireless, LinkUp Mobile prepaid, wholesale MVNE relationships, and our point-of-sale fintech and data platforms. We believe that diversification fundamentally changes the quality and durability of our revenue. We are not demand constrained. We are capital disciplined. This leads directly into how we are thinking about 2026. Many of our investors remember what occurred during the ACP period. We leveraged existing capital relationships to fund subscriber acquisition, and the result was revenue growth and meaningful stock appreciation.

We are now executing a similar strategy, but with a materially stronger foundation. We have multiple independent revenue streams, we have an established retail footprint of more than 9,000 locations, we have a customer acquisition engine through programbenefits.com, and we have additional monetization layers, including wholesale and in-store media platforms. That combination should allow us to deploy capital into growth while also improving the underlying economics of the business. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended 2025 with approximately $1.7 million in cash. Since year-end, we have taken additional actions to reduce our operating expense base and improve efficiency across the organization. Based on actions already taken, we estimate our current monthly cash burn at the end of Q1 2026 to be approximately $250,000-$300,000.

This is a meaningful shift from the cost structure exiting 2025 and reflects an even more disciplined operating model as we move forward in 2026. The key takeaway is this. We have already demonstrated that when we deploy capital, we can scale revenue quickly. Now, we are combining that capability with a more efficient cost structure and multiple revenue streams. We believe that positions us to drive growth in a more controlled and repeatable way. With that, I will turn the call over to Chelsea to walk through the financials in more detail.

Chelsea Pullano, Interim Chief Financial Officer, SurgePays: Thank you, Brian, and good afternoon, everyone. I’m honored to step into the role of interim chief financial officer at such an important time for Surge Pace. I want to thank Brian and the board for their confidence. I’m excited about the opportunity to help support the company’s next phase of growth by strengthening financial discipline, improving transparency, and helping drive our path towards profitability. Now turning to the results. For the year ended December 31st, 2025, total revenue was approximately $57 million, compared to $60.9 million in 2024. The decrease was primarily driven by the expected decline in subsidized revenue following the expiration of the Affordable Connectivity Program in mid-2024. Despite that, we saw strong performance in our point-of-sale and prepaid services segment, which increased by approximately $26.1 million year over year, partially offsetting the decline in MVNO revenue.

Cost of revenue for 2025 was approximately $67.6 million, compared to $75.2 million in 2024. Gross loss improved to $10.6 million, compared to $14.3 million in the prior year. We expect continued improvement in gross margins as we scale higher-margin revenue streams and benefit from the cost structure already put in place. Selling, general, and administrative expense, excluding depreciation and amortization, declined to approximately $19.2 million from $26.3 million in 2024. This reflects reductions across multiple expense categories, including compensation, professional services, and contractor expenses. Net loss from operations was approximately $30.7 million, compared to a $41.8 million in 2024, representing a significant improvement year-over-year. Net cash used in operating activities was approximately $21.3 million for 2025, reflecting the transition period following the end of ACP and the investments made to reposition the business.

Net cash provided by financing activities was approximately $10.5 million, primarily from the use of our at-the-market facility and additional capital raises during the year. As Brian mentioned, we’ve taken meaningful action since year-end to reduce our operating expenses, and we are seeing those improvements reflected in our current run rate as we move through the first quarter of 2026. It’s important to note that in the fourth quarter, our SG&A included approximately $2.3 million of non-recurring expenses, including legal costs and non-cash items, which are not indicative of our ongoing operating expense run rate. At December 31st, 2025, we had a working capital deficit of approximately $16.2 million, compared to a surplus of $11.8 million at the end of 2024. This reflects a shift in the business following the expiration of ACP and the timing of liabilities and capital deployment.

We continue to actively manage our liquidity and capital structure with a focus on supporting growth initiatives while maintaining financial discipline. Overall, 2025 was a transition year for the company. We repositioned the business, reduced operating expenses, and established the foundation for a more diversified and scalable model. As we move into 2026, our focus is on executing against that foundation, improving margins, and driving growth across our core revenue channels. I will now turn the call back to Brian for closing remarks.

Brian Cox, President and Chief Executive Officer, SurgePays: Appreciate it, Chelsea. I want to close with this. 2025 was about proving the model and resetting the foundation of the business. We demonstrated that when we deploy capital, we can scale revenue quickly. We also made the necessary adjustments to operate more efficiently and build a more durable business. We are now moving forward in 2026 with multiple revenue streams, a significantly improved cost structure, and a clear path to growth. We understand the market’s concerns around capital and execution. Our focus is on showing, not telling. You will see that in how we manage expenses, how we deploy capital, and how we grow the business. We believe we are positioned to execute, and we look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year. Thank you for your time and continued support. I will now pass it back to the operator for questions.

Conference Call Operator: Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Once again, please press star one if you have a question or a comment. Our first question comes from Ed Wu with Ascendiant Capital. Please proceed.

Ed Wu, Analyst, Ascendiant Capital: Yeah. Congratulations on all the progress, Brian. I had a question. I know you’re not giving out guidance, but what should we be most excited about of the various products you have that’s going to be the biggest driver for revenue this year?

Brian Cox, President and Chief Executive Officer, SurgePays: Hey, Ed. Thanks for the question. I think as we look forward, interestingly enough, we’ve got the subsidized wireless, we’ve got LinkUp Mobile, and we’ve got some other kind of exciting things we’ve talked about that are going to start showing up on the financials. If you had to pin me down right now, LinkUp Mobile’s doing really well. Starting an MVNO, a prepaid wireless company, from scratch, the team’s done a phenomenal job. It’s definitely a grind getting traction in the market. Keep in mind that while some of that is sold online, the majority of it is sold through dealerships, setting up relationships with dealers and sending out point-of-sale materials, getting SIM cards, training folks, and then that store has your product and usually, let’s say, three other prepaid companies as well.

That’s a big deal for us, and it’s a staying power, and that’s cash flow. I think that’s going to be the one that you’ll start seeing some pretty significant numbers off of. I think we’ve got some pretty exciting news coming up with LinkUp Mobile that I wish we had crossed a couple of thresholds before today so we could talk about it today. It’ll give us something to talk about in the upcoming months.

Ed Wu, Analyst, Ascendiant Capital: Great. One last question I have is, you guys, like I said, serve the underserved markets through your convenience store operators. What are you hearing from these operators in terms of the economy? How are their customers? Are they doing better? Are they worse? Are they open to new products, et cetera? Thank you.

Brian Cox, President and Chief Executive Officer, SurgePays: I love this question. As you know, most of the folks on our team have been in this prepaid, subprime, underserved, underbanked. There’s a lot of words for it, and there’s different scopes. The largest scope would be the subprime market. Our market, at a time of where things are difficult and maybe more expensive in the economy, as they say, too much month, not enough check, there’s always going to be a segment on the lower end of that socioeconomic that’s not really affected. They’re already lower income. It doesn’t really hit them as much. When certain things, your essential services are taken care of by the government, you’re kind of below the water break line, if you think about the ocean, where waves are crashing, the ups and downs. You’re a little bit below that break line.

What’s interesting, as we’ve expanded the scope of our company and our target market into the subprime market, we do push up into people that do spend money, that do have money, that don’t specifically rely on the government, who are getting squeezed. I think what we’re seeing, the ebbs and flows of all the folks on our team. We talk about this often. 20 years we’ve been doing this. When times in the economy get a little difficult, that’s when people take a step back and are more aware of their spending, more aware of value. We’ve always done the best and had our best runs when things in the economy were tough, because that’s when people will listen to you if you’re offering a better value. Otherwise, it’s just a rut in the road.

I’m going to pay $40 a month for my wireless service because that’s just what I do, and I just pay it, and I do it, two 20s on the countertop, boom. But when things are tough and putting two 20s on the countertop at the convenience store kind of pulls a little bit more for me, it feels a little heavier when I lay it down. Well, then if I look over and say, "Hey, wait a minute. I got a company here that’ll give me the exact same thing for 30 bucks. What is that? Tell me about Linkup." So I think that it’s actually an opportunity for us, and it opens people’s eyes. They’re looking up. They’re aware of their finances. They’re aware of other value. And we look to capitalize on that.

We never wish ill on the economy, but historically, we’ve done our best and had our best runs when there’s, I don’t want to say blood on the streets, that’s not accurate, but when the economy’s going through a difficult time.

Ed Wu, Analyst, Ascendiant Capital: Thanks for answering my questions, and I wish you guys good luck. Thank you.

Brian Cox, President and Chief Executive Officer, SurgePays: Thanks, Josh.

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