June 30, 2025
Orion’s Year-End Shows Losses and Tough Road Ahead
Gross margin uptick can’t hide core sales slide and penny-stock worries
On paper, Orion Energy Systems should be breathing a little easier. The Wisconsin-based lighting and energy firm just posted a gross margin uptick — 25.4% for fiscal 2025, up 230 basis points year over year. There’s even talk of modest growth: management is guiding for a 5% revenue increase in fiscal 2026, with a not-so-bold promise of scraping together positive adjusted EBITDA.
But beneath the quarterly headline sits a familiar tension: Orion’s hard-won operating gains haven’t done much to lift its stock out of penny territory. The company’s share price hasn’t closed above $1 since November 2024 — and with shares now stuck under $0.65, Orion would need a 50% rally by mid-September just to claw back into Nasdaq compliance on its own. Unlikely. So once again, a reverse stock split hangs in the air like a final safety net if the market doesn’t play along.
In August, shareholders will be asked to approve a reverse stock split that could compress Orion’s shares by any whole ratio between 1-for-2 and 1-for-100.
A Cautious Financial Story
The earnings for fiscal year-ending March 31 tells a half-story at best. Orion is still unprofitable — net losses came in at $11.8 million for fiscal 2025, virtually unchanged from last year. The core LED lighting business is limping badly: revenue dropped 22% year over year, down from $61.1 million to just $47.7 million. Even the once-steady maintenance division shrank by 11%. The one bright spot: its EV charging unit delivered 37% growth and a margin rebound, which the company insists will help offset the drag.
Orion’s total revenue for fiscal 2025 was $79.7 million, with the core LED lighting business contributing $47.7 million, EV charging $16.8 million, and maintenance services $15.2 million.
In an effort to right the ship, Orion says it has trimmed $4 million in overhead and is gunning for another $1.5 million this year. It’s also putting fresh hope in newly hired veteran sales leadership to revive its core business and squeeze more out of national accounts. The question, of course, is whether an old-school hire can spark new results in a market that’s been drifting away for years.
Too Small to Fail?
It’s tempting to ask why Orion fights so hard to stay listed at all. The answer: liquidity. A Nasdaq ticker remains one of the few lifelines left for a firm that depends on stock issuance to plug balance sheet holes.
Orion still owes millions tied to the 2022 Voltrek acquisition, payments it can’t comfortably cover in cash. To make it work, Orion has agreed to issue at least $1 million worth of new stock this summer and may settle up to 20% more of what’s due with additional shares down the road. It’s a lifeline that buys Orion breathing room — but every new share further slices the pie for existing investors. If the stock price stays weak, that dilution only gets steeper.
Newly-installed CEO Sally Washlow insists Orion’s reshuffle into two business units — Solutions and Partners — will unlock efficiencies and help the company finally crack channels it has struggled to penetrate for years. Maybe. This will erase any visibility we have into the core LED lighting numbers. But the deeper reality is that Orion’s best hope is to stay just big enough, just liquid enough, and just interesting enough for investors to stick around while it figures out whether EV charging and smart retrofits can outrun legacy problems.
