Al Root

Drone maker AeroVironment reports fiscal third-quarter earnings on Tuesday evening at an interesting time for the company and its industry, amid rising geopolitical tensions and fighting in Iran.

Wall Street is looking for the company to announce earnings per share of 68 cents from sales of $476 million. A year ago, AeroVironment reported earnings per share of 30 cents from sales of $168 million.

Sales are growing organically, up 21% year over year in the fiscal second quarter. There is inorganic growth, too. AeroViroment also completed the acquisition of defense contractor BlueHalo in May 2025.

All of the growth has helped. Coming into Tuesday trading, AeroVironment stock was up 84% over the past 12 months, boosted by rising defense spending worldwide and an increased focus on autonomous battle solutions.

Shares, however, were also down about 8% year to date, falling 17.4% on Mar. 2, the first trading day after fighting broke out in Iran. That conflict wasn't responsible for the decline. Instead, investors were worried that the U.S. Space Force would reopen a contract related to tracking spacecraft from Earth.

The program is called the Satellite Communications Augmentation Resource, or SCAR, program. It's a big program, worth some $1.7 billion. AeroVironment's backlog totals about $3.5 billion.

Investors will want details about SCAR and how much of the contract is already in backlog. They will also want a guidance update, even though there is only one quarter in the company's fiscal year after the coming report.

In December, the company said it expected fiscal 2026 earnings per share of about $3.48 from sales of just under $2 billion. Wall Street projects EPS of $3.31 from sales of just under $2 billion, according to FactSet.

A guidance boost would be welcome, especially with so much drone-based fighting in Iran, which is putting the spotlight on unmanned technologies, the kind AeroVironment specializes in.

AeroVironment stock was down 2.3% in early trading on Tuesday at $221.77, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were both down about 0.5% and 0.6% respectively.

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March 10, 2026 10:19 ET (14:19 GMT)

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