AeroVironment, Inc. AVAV is slated to report third-quarter fiscal 2025 results on March 4, 2025, after market close. 

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The company boasts a four-quarter average earnings surprise of 54.69%. Solid revenue growth expected from the majority of its segments must have bolstered its fiscal third-quarter earnings amid impacts of higher expenses.

AeroVironment, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

AeroVironment, Inc. price-eps-surprise | AeroVironment, Inc. Quote

AVAV’s LMS Unit to Post Solid Sales

Increased global demand for AVAV’s loitering munitions systems, backed by the current global conflicts as well as need for resupply of these systems from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) must have bolstered the top line of the Loitering Munitions Systems (“LMS”) segment. 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the segment’s quarterly revenues is pegged at $92.3 million, indicating a solid 60% increase from the top line reported a year ago.

AVAV’s MacCready Works Unit Also Holds Potential

Solid service revenues, due to an increase in customer-funded research and development and engineering services efforts, are likely to have boosted revenue growth for its MacCready Works (“MW”) business segment.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the segment’s fiscal third-quarter revenues is pegged at $21.1 million, indicating 35% growth from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.

AVAV’s UxS Unit Likely to Post Dismal Figures

Declining product shipments of AVAV’s family of small unmanned aerial systems as well as UGV product systems due to lower international sales to Ukraine might have had an adverse impact on the overall top-line performance of the company’s Uncrewed Systems (UxS) business unit. 

Fiscal Q3 Expectations

With two of AeroVironment’s three business segments expected to report solid top-line improvement, the overall revenue growth prospects of AVAV remain bright. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal third-quarter revenues is pegged at $189.3 million, which suggests a 1.4% rise from the year-ago quarter’s level.

Such a solid top-line projection is likely to have aided AVAV’s quarterly bottom line. However, an increase in sales and marketing expense, caused by an increase in bid and proposal activity along with employee-related costs due to an increase in average headcount, might have put a downward pressure on its operating margin, thereby adversely impacting its overall earnings. An increase in deal and integration costs is likely to have hurt AVAV’s quarterly bottom-line figures. 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at 58 cents per share, which indicates a decline of 7.9% from the prior-year reported figure.

What the Zacks Model Unveils for AVAV

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for AeroVironment this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat, which is not the case here, as you will see below.

Earnings ESP: AVAV has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Currently, AeroVironment sports a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. 

Recent Defense Releases

Teledyne Technologies Inc. TDY reported fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings of $5.52 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5.23 by 5.5%. Total sales were $1.50 billion, which beat the consensus estimate of $1.45 billion by 3.7%.

Textron Inc. TXT reported fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings of $1.34 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.25 by 7.2%. The company reported total revenues of $3.61 billion, which missed the consensus estimate of $3.74 billion by 3.5%.

Hexcel Corporation HXL reported fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings of 52 cents per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 51 cents by 2%. The company’s net sales totaled $473.8 million, which beat the consensus estimate of $471 million by 0.6%.
 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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