What Happened?
Shares of aerospace and defense company AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) jumped 4.3% in the afternoon session after the company announced it had secured a nearly $240 million order for its long-haul laser communications terminals.
The contract, from an undisclosed customer, will see the advanced systems deployed in orbit. These terminals enable the high-speed, high-bandwidth transfer of data between satellites across different orbital altitudes. The company highlighted this as a significant milestone, transitioning its next-generation technology from successful demonstrations in the lab to actual deployment in space. This order validates AeroVironment's capabilities in the growing space communications market and indicates the company is prepared to scale manufacturing to meet customer demand for these advanced systems.
After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $236.49, up 4.7% from previous close.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
AeroVironment’s shares are very volatile and have had 23 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 4 days ago when the stock dropped 5.8% on the news that investors grew cautious ahead of the company's upcoming earnings report, with Wall Street analysts forecasting a significant drop in profitability. Analysts expect the drone manufacturer to post quarterly earnings of $0.34 per share, which would represent a steep 61.8% decline compared to the same period last year. While revenues are projected to increase substantially to around $453.5 million, the focus appears to be on the sharp contraction in earnings.
AeroVironment is up 51.2% since the beginning of the year, but at $236.49 per share, it is still trading 17% below its 52-week high of $284.95 from June 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of AeroVironment’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $3,428.
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