LightPath Technologies shares fell 4.6% on Thursday, closing at $9.68. The company's new annual filing shows why the numbers are hard to reduce to a simple growth story: revenue nearly doubled, gross margin improved sharply, and operating cash flow moved further below zero.
For the twelve months ended June 30, revenue rose from $37.2 million to $71.7 million. Gross profit grew faster, reaching $25.8 million from $10.1 million, and gross margin expanded to 36.0% from 27.2%. The red ink did not follow: operating loss widened to $19.7 million from $11.8 million, while diluted shares rose to 53.4 million from 40.9 million.
The cash account did swell to $93.2 million from $4.9 million, but the 10-K does not present that increase as operating cash generation. Operating cash flow was negative $10.2 million, compared with negative $8.3 million a year earlier. LightPath also spent $6.3 million on capital expenditures, nearly five times the prior year's $1.3 million.
Management puts much of the operating-cash use in two buckets: an acquisition payment and the cost of supporting the bigger business.
"The cash used in operations for fiscal 2026 was primarily due to the following: (i) payment of the first earnout payment for the acquisition of G5 Infrared, of which $3.8 million was classified in operating activities, representing the amount in excess of the contingent consideration liability recognized as of the acquisition date; and (ii) investments in working capital of $9.6 million, largely driven by accounts receivable and inventory due to the growth in revenue, as well as supplier prepayments for critical materials with long lead times."
LightPath Technologies, 2026 Form 10-K, filed September 11, 2026
That makes the cash shortfall partly acquisition-related and partly tied to expansion. Inventory rose 40.0% to $18.0 million, while accounts receivable rose 59.8% to $15.1 million. The 10-K attributes the working-capital investment to revenue growth and supplier prepayments; it does not give a separate explanation for the larger receivables balance.
The revenue increase itself came mainly from infrared components, assemblies, and modules. LightPath also points to uneven timing in one product group:
"This increase was primarily driven by Visimid’s contract with Lockheed Martin, where the timing and dollar value of deliverables is not always consistent, which causes revenue for this product group to fluctuate from period to period."
LightPath Technologies, 2026 Form 10-K, filed September 11, 2026
That caveat matters because a large annual increase can contain both broader demand and lumpy delivery timing. The company says defense and industrial sales in the US and Europe also contributed, while its China business has faced an economic downturn that continues to weigh on revenue and bookings.
LightPath's own annual record supplies some context. Revenue had declined in fiscal 2022, 2023, and 2024 before rising 17.3% in fiscal 2025, so fiscal 2026 was a much larger step up rather than the first sign of any growth at all. Yet the business remains loss-making, and the share count rose 30.6% year over year, adding another difference between sales growth and per-share progress.
The unresolved detail is whether the $9.6 million working-capital investment and the elevated capital spending moderate in LightPath's next reported period. For now, the filing's trade-off is unusually plain: more sales, better gross margin, and more cash tied up in getting there.
LightPath's 2026 10-K: more sales, better gross margin, and more cash tied up in getting there.