Start here if you're new
what it is
Nortech builds complex electronic parts and assemblies for medical, defense, and industrial customers.
how it gets paid
Last year Nortech Systems made $128M in revenue. Printed circuit board assemblies was the main engine at $38M, or 30% of sales.
what just happened
Revenue hit $88M, but EPS still landed at -$0.41.
At a glance
C balance sheet — red flag territory — real financial stress
10/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
17.2% return on capital — nothing to write home about
-$0.47 fy2024 eps est
$128M fy2024 rev est
xvary composite: 19/100 — weak
What they do
Nortech builds complex electronic parts and assemblies for medical, defense, and industrial customers.
This is a small company that does annoying, hard-to-switch work. If your product needs cables, circuit boards, testing, and final assembly, moving suppliers can delay shipments and create fresh certification headaches. Nortech spreads that work across 7 facilities and 701 employees, which gives customers one vendor instead of a relay race.
How they make money
$128M
annual revenue
Printed circuit board assemblies
$38M
+4.4%
Wire and cable assemblies
$30M
+3.0%
Electromechanical box builds
$24M
+4.4%
Engineering, testing, and prototyping
$18M
+3.0%
Supply chain and post-market services
$18M
+3.0%
The products that matter
cables and wiring assemblies
Complex Interconnect Solutions
part of a $128M revenue base
these assemblies sit inside the core manufacturing operation, and the whole company only kept 14.7% gross margin. that tells you pricing power is thin.
mid-teen margin
circuit board manufacturing
Printed Circuit Board Assemblies
medical and defense exposure
the boards are more technical than basic assembly work, but the business still ran at a -0.5% operating margin. complexity has not translated into clean profitability yet.
-0.5% operating margin
design and technical services
Value-Added Engineering
supports a $64M medical segment
this is the part meant to keep Nortech from being just another assembler. the problem is simple: $64M of medical revenue still sits inside a company that needed a credit waiver.
differentiation attempt
Key numbers
23%
debt load
Long-term debt is 23% of capital. Plain English: about a quarter of the funding stack is borrowed money, which matters more when operating margin is only 1.6%.
1.6%
operating margin
Jargon: operating margin → profit after core business costs → so what: on $128M of sales, Nortech kept only about $2.0M before interest and taxes.
17.2%
return on capital
Jargon: return on capital → profit earned on the money used in the business → so what: the assets can produce decent returns when operations are steady.
$8M
long-term debt
Against a market cap near $26M, $8M of debt is real. Deadpan version: lenders have a claim on almost a third of what the stock market says this company is worth.
Financial health
C
strength
- balance sheet grade C — very weak — significant financial distress
- risk rank 5 — safer than 5% of stocks
- price stability 10 / 100
- long-term debt $8M (23% of capital)
C — below average. watch for debt servicing and cash burn.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for NSYS right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
missed estimates
Revenue hit $88M, but EPS still landed at -$0.41.
Sales surged 189% vs. prior year, yet gross margin was only 14.7%. More volume helped the top line, but the bottom line still looked like a leak.
$32M
revenue
$0.41
eps
14.7%
gross margin
the number that mattered
14.7% gross margin mattered most because a contract manufacturer with thin margins can add a lot of revenue without creating much profit.
source: company earnings report, 2026
Get this snapshot in your inbox
This page, delivered free — plus weekly updates when the numbers change. plain english, no spam.
weekly updates
earnings alerts
plain english
no spam
What could go wrong
the #1 risk is another lender problem tied to the Feb. 27, 2026 credit waiver. this is not abstract balance-sheet theory. it already happened once.
high
Credit covenant pressure
Nortech defaulted on its credit agreement and entered a waiver and amendment on Feb 27, 2026. That tells you the capital structure is now part of the operating story.
Impact: if lender terms tighten again, even a business with only $8M of long-term debt can lose flexibility fast because margins are already thin.
high
Chronic unprofitability
Trailing 12-month net margin is -2.25%, and the recent operating margin was -0.5%. A manufacturer keeping only 14.7% gross margin does not have much room for cost misses.
Impact: all $128M of revenue is exposed to execution slippage when the profit buffer is this thin.
med
Medical customer concentration
Medical accounts for $64M, or half the business. That is a stabilizer if demand holds. It becomes a problem fast if a key program slips or a large customer leaves.
Impact: a stumble in the largest segment would hit both revenue and factory utilization at the same time.
med
Institutional retreat
Institutions own just 3.05% of the stock, and holdings fell 21.47% last quarter. This is not deep sponsorship.
Impact: when ownership is this light, small-cap volatility gets amplified because there are fewer patient holders to catch the tape.
you own a manufacturer that lost money on $128M of sales and already needed a waiver from its lender. that combination does not leave much room for another bad quarter.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
credit
any update to the waiver language
The waiver on Feb 27, 2026 is the live wire. If your next filing still reads like a lender negotiation, the turnaround has not earned much trust.
margin
gross margin holding above 14.7%
This is the first number to watch. With operating margin already at -0.5%, even a small gross-margin slip can wipe out the restructuring story.
earnings
Q4 2025 and FY2025 results
You want two things from the next report: cleaner profitability and plain disclosure on lender terms. If you do not get both, the market will keep pricing stress first.
customer mix
medical staying near $64M of the revenue base
Medical is half the business. If that segment weakens while aerospace and industrial stay at $32M each, the diversification story gets a lot less comforting.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
10 / 100
in human-speak, forecasts deserve a discount because the business is thin-margin, loss-making, and now dealing with lender pressure.
price stability
10 / 100
this stock does not trade like a calm industrial. it trades like a small cap where every filing can reset the story.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for NSYS is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$10
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
Want the deeper analysis?
The full deep dive: dcf model, scenario analysis, competitive moat breakdown, and quarterly tracking — everything on this page, taken further.
see plans from $5/moThe deep dive