Aviat Networks Guides Fiscal 2027 Adjusted EBITDA to $50-$55 Million, a Jump It Must Earn Back From Squeezed Gross Margin

by Carter Whitfield · August 27, 2026

Equities Reporter, The SmallCap Signal

Aviat Networks, the Austin-based maker of microwave and millimeter-wave transport gear for wireless carriers and utilities, closed its fiscal year with a quarter that looked very different depending on which accounting convention you read it in. According to a StockTitan summary of the company's fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results, released Aug. 27, revenue for the quarter was $120.9 million, up 4.8% from a year earlier, while full-year revenue was $439.7 million, up 1.2%.

On a GAAP basis the quarter was a loss. The same summary puts fourth-quarter GAAP net loss at $1.3 million, or 10 cents a share on a diluted basis. On a non-GAAP basis the quarter was a solid profit: non-GAAP net income of $8.3 million, or 64 cents a share diluted. The 74-cent gap between the two per-share figures is the number worth holding onto, because it is wider than the entire GAAP result for the full year.

For the twelve months, GAAP net income was $2.5 million, or 19 cents a share diluted, against non-GAAP net income of $21.6 million, or $1.66 a share diluted, per the same summary. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, was $11.9 million in the quarter and $36.7 million for the year.

The margin problem management says it can price its way out of

Gross margin went the wrong way. Fourth-quarter GAAP gross margin came in at 30.8%, down 340 basis points year over year, with non-GAAP gross margin at 30.9%, down 380 basis points, according to the results summary. For the full year, GAAP gross margin was 31.5% and non-GAAP gross margin 31.8%.

On the earnings call, per a transcript published by Investing.com, chief financial officer Andy Schmidt said the year-over-year change in gross margin is "typically due to volumes, regional and product mix, and so on," and added that "our current period gross margin was negatively affected by component shortages and associated price inflation." Chief executive Pete Smith told analysts, "we're going to go out to our customers for more price." That is a stated plan, not a completed action, and neither the results summary nor the transcript quantified how much of the fiscal 2027 outlook depends on those increases sticking.

A guidance bridge that is steeper than the revenue line

Aviat guided fiscal 2027 revenue to $455 million to $470 million and adjusted EBITDA to $50 million to $55 million. Set those against the year just reported and the arithmetic is stark. The revenue midpoint of $462.5 million is about 5.2% above fiscal 2026's $439.7 million. The adjusted EBITDA midpoint of $52.5 million is roughly 43% above the $36.7 million just delivered.

Put another way, adjusted EBITDA margin would need to move from about 8.3% of revenue to about 11.4% - roughly 300 basis points - on a mid-single-digit revenue increase. That implies the margin compression reported in the fourth quarter reverses and then some. Investors will not have a clean read on whether that is happening until the December quarter.

Backlog, one large order, and the balance sheet

The company reported year-end backlog of $367 million, up 14% from fiscal 2025, and said its trailing-twelve-month book-to-bill ratio was above 1. Management also disclosed a $25 million to $30 million multi-dwelling-unit order from a U.S. customer that it expects to recognize within fiscal 2027, with the ramp beginning in the second quarter, according to the Investing.com transcript.

The geographic split was lopsided. North America revenue was $68.3 million in the quarter, up 17.8%, while international revenue was $52.6 million, down 8.3%. For the full year North America contributed $220.0 million, up 6.0%, and international $219.7 million, down 3.2% - meaning essentially all of the year's growth came from one region while the other shrank.

On the balance sheet, the company reported $72.8 million of cash as of July 3, 2026, against total debt of $97.0 million, for net debt of $24.2 million. It also repurchased $2.2 million of stock at an average price of $16.55 a share. Aviat characterized the year as its sixth consecutive fiscal year of revenue growth, a company framing rather than an independently verified claim.

The market's first read

Aviat shares rose in premarket trading following the results, according to an Investing.com article on the earnings call published Aug. 27. The Signal is not citing the specific premarket level that article carried: the page attaches no as-of time to the quote itself, and this desk does not publish a market figure it cannot timestamp from the source. The regular session was under way as this article was published, and Aviat’s trading level at any point today may differ materially from any premarket snapshot.

Analysts on the call pressed on the timing of the multi-dwelling-unit ramp, on the opportunity created by a European competitor's exit - management described conversion cycles of six to 18 months - and on the company's modeling of the federal BEAD broadband program, which it said it is treating conservatively with an expected impact in the December quarter, per the transcript.