Latest news with #KratosDefense&SecuritySolutions
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Drone Makers AeroVironment, Kratos Get Boost From New Pentagon Purchase Push
AeroVironment and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions shares got a lift from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's order to boost the Pentagon's purchase of drones. Hegseth said he was "rescinding restrictive policies" and ordering commanders in all the services to buy American-made drones. Hegseth explained that U.S. military drone purchases had been "mired in bureaucratic red tape," but wouldn't be of military drone makers AeroVironment (AVAV) and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS) took off Friday, a day after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced new government plans to unleash drone production in the U.S. In a video posted on X, Hegseth explained he sent a memo to commanders of all the services explaining that he was "rescinding restrictive policies" on Pentagon purchases, which he said would boost the domestic manufacturing base by producing thousands of U.S.-made drones and prioritizing "buy American," and that service personnel would be armed with low-cost, American-crafted drones. Hegseth added that senior officers had to "overcome bureaucratic risk aversion in budgeting, weaponeering, and training." Hegseth said that while U.S. "adversaries have produced millions of cheap drones, before us, we were mired in bureaucratic red tape. Not anymore." The news sent shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions up 12% to their highest level in 19 years. AeroVironment shares hit an all-time high June 30, and despite tumbling the next day after announcing a $1.35 billion stock and debt sale, the shares have added about two-thirds of their value this year, including a 7% gain Friday morning. Read the original article on Investopedia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Strong Results Lifted Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS)
Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its 'Baron Discovery Fund' first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund was down 6.17% (Institutional Shares), outperforming the -11.12% return for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. The market began strong in February but faded due to Trump's serious tariff enactment, which the market perceives as inflationary and slowing economic growth. The decline accelerated after April 2nd, causing fears of a trade war and global recession. In addition, please check the fund's top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025. In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Baron Discovery Fund highlighted stocks such as Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS). Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) is a technology company, that offers mission-critical products, services, and solutions. The one-month return of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) was 10.31%, and its shares gained 62.71% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 16, 2025, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) stock closed at $35.21 per share with a market capitalization of $5.397 billion. Baron Discovery Fund stated the following regarding Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) in its Q1 2025 investor letter: "Shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS), a disruptive defense technology provider, rose following a strong quarterly earnings report that demonstrated notable strength across multiple segments and guided to faster than baseline growth in fiscal 2026. We believe Kratos is increasingly well positioned to accelerate growth with its exposure to what are arguably the fastest growing segments of the defense ecosystem, including hypersonic missiles, solid rocket motors, and unmanned aircraft solutions. The company is hitting its stride and is making huge investments now to satisfy what it believes to be very visible future demand." A technician in a laboratory carrying out research and development of microwave electronics. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 21 hedge fund portfolios held Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 20 in the third quarter. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) reported revenues of $302.6 million, surpassing its guidance range. While we acknowledge the potential of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the undervalued AI stock set for massive gains. In another article, we covered Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) and shared the list of best military drone stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors. READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kratos to Webcast Annual Shareholders Meeting Featuring CEO Business-Wide Update
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. SAN DIEGO, May 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: KTOS), a Technology Company in the Defense, National Security and Global Markets, today announced it will webcast a special presentation from President and CEO Eric DeMarco as part of its 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The webcast will be open to the public and will take place on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. PDT. During the webcast, Mr. DeMarco will provide a comprehensive business-wide update covering Kratos' strategic priorities, operational highlights, technology initiatives, and market outlook across all divisions. The presentation will also highlight the company's progress in hypersonic systems, unmanned platforms, propulsion, space-based capabilities, and dual-use technologies. Shareholders who have logged into the meeting with their 16-digit Control Number will have the opportunity to submit questions relevant to the matters properly addressed during the meeting after the formal business of the meeting has been conducted. Instructions for submitting questions will be provided to shareholders once logged into the meeting. The Annual Meeting is open to shareholders of record as of March 17, 2025 (Record Date) and/or their designated representatives. Interested persons who were not shareholders as of the close of business on the Record Date may view, but not participate in, the Annual Meeting at Webcast Details: Date: Wednesday, May 14, 2025 Time: 9:00 a.m. PDT Registration Link: Open to: All interested parties About Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: KTOS) is a technology, products, system and software company addressing the defense, national security, and commercial markets. Kratos makes true internally funded research, development, capital and other investments, to rapidly develop, produce and field solutions that address our customers' mission critical needs and requirements. At Kratos, affordability is a technology, and we seek to utilize proven, leading edge approaches and technology, not unproven bleeding edge approaches or technology, with Kratos' approach designed to reduce cost, schedule and risk, enabling us to be first to market with cost effective solutions. We believe that Kratos is known as an innovative disruptive change agent in the industry, a company that is an expert in designing products and systems up front for successful rapid, large quantity, low cost future manufacturing which is a value add competitive differentiator for our large traditional prime system integrator partners and also to our government and commercial customers. Kratos intends to pursue program and contract opportunities as the prime or lead contractor when we believe that our probability of win (PWin) is high and any investment required by Kratos is within our capital resource comfort level. We intend to partner and team with a large, traditional system integrator when our assessment of PWin is greater or required investment is beyond Kratos' comfort level. Kratos' primary business areas include virtualized ground systems for satellites and space vehicles including software for command & control (C2) and telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C), jet powered unmanned aerial drone systems, hypersonic vehicles and rocket systems, propulsion systems for drones, missiles, loitering munitions, supersonic systems, space craft and launch systems, C5ISR and microwave electronic products for missile, radar, missile defense, space, satellite, counter UAS, directed energy, communication and other systems, and virtual & augmented reality training systems for the warfighter. For more information, visit
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Returns On Capital At Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) Paint A Concerning Picture
Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. Although, when we looked at Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes. We've discovered 1 warning sign about Kratos Defense & Security Solutions. View them for free. Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. To calculate this metric for Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, this is the formula: Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities) 0.02 = US$33m ÷ (US$2.0b - US$297m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024). Thus, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has an ROCE of 2.0%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Aerospace & Defense industry average of 10.0%. Check out our latest analysis for Kratos Defense & Security Solutions In the above chart we have measured Kratos Defense & Security Solutions' prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free analyst report for Kratos Defense & Security Solutions . Unfortunately, the trend isn't great with ROCE falling from 4.1% five years ago, while capital employed has grown 65%. However, some of the increase in capital employed could be attributed to the recent capital raising that's been completed prior to their latest reporting period, so keep that in mind when looking at the ROCE decrease. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions probably hasn't received a full year of earnings yet from the new funds it raised, so these figures should be taken with a grain of salt. Also, we found that by looking at the company's latest EBIT, the figure is within 10% of the previous year's EBIT so you can basically assign the ROCE drop primarily to that capital raise. Bringing it all together, while we're somewhat encouraged by Kratos Defense & Security Solutions' reinvestment in its own business, we're aware that returns are shrinking. Investors must think there's better things to come because the stock has knocked it out of the park, delivering a 110% gain to shareholders who have held over the last five years. Ultimately, if the underlying trends persist, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger going forward. On a final note, we've found 1 warning sign for Kratos Defense & Security Solutions that we think you should be aware of. While Kratos Defense & Security Solutions may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (KTOS): Among the Best Military Drone Stocks to Buy Now
We recently published a list of the 10 Best Military Drone Stocks to Buy Now. In this article, we will take a look at where Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) stands against other best drone stocks. Modern warfare is rapidly evolving from being the sole domain of soldiers, tanks, and fighters. Swarms of UAVs, guided by artificial intelligence, now fill the skies and can strike enemy targets with pinpoint accuracy. This revolution in warfare has blurred the lines between man and machine, resulting in a need for reassessment of military capabilities. READ ALSO: 10 Countries with the Most Military Drones in the World and Goldman Sachs Defense Stocks: Top 12 Stock Picks. The demand for drones has surged over the last few years, with countries actively using UAVs for intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance, and target operations. These aerial vehicles offer a bird's eye view of the battlefield, making it difficult for targets to move and hide from the conflict zone. Drones were a prominent feature of the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020. They have been clouding the skies across several towns and cities during the Russia-Ukraine war, which defense experts see as the arrival of a new threat in the aerial defense space. The US has been operating drones for about a century, having first deployed them during World War II and more recently during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2023, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced Replicator, an initiative to build 'attritable autonomous systems' in mass over the next 18-24 months. Moreover, the Air Force is developing drone wingmen to fly alongside its fighter and bomber jets under the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. The first two CCA fighters were unveiled in March this year. However, defense experts view the proliferation of UAVs as a security threat, with American troops increasingly coming under attack from non-state actors in the Middle East. Policymakers in Washington also worry about China getting a leaf out of the Kremlin's book (Ukraine war) and launching similar strikes against US interests in the Pacific. Much work is going into guarding countries against the threats posed by UAVs. In October 2024, the DoD awarded a $250 million contract to Anduril Industries to counter drone attacks against American forces. Under the contract, the US will receive 500 recoverable Roadrunner interceptors, which are reusable drones that can intercept incoming drones or land back on the ground if they are not engaged. With that said, let's head over to the list of the best drone stocks to buy. A technician in a laboratory carrying out research and development of microwave electronics. We sampled stocks from ETFs with exposure to military drones and our previous articles on the subject. Both pure-play military drone makers and defense contractors with drone programs were included in our pool. From there, we selected the 10 stocks with the highest number of hedge fund investors, based on Insider Monkey's database of over 1,000 prominent hedge funds as of Q4 2024. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here). Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 21 Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) develops and fields products and platforms for national security needs. It is involved in various technological areas, such as unmanned systems, C5ISR, satellite communications, warfighter training, and combat systems. In March this year, the Naval Air Systems Command awarded Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) an additional $59.3 million for 70 BQM-177A Subsonic Aerial Target (SSAT) by exercising the contract option for FRP Lot 6. Combined with the base award and exercise of FRP Lot 5, the total value of the contract has exceeded $175 million. Earlier in the year, in January, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) announced a $34 million contract modification to a previously awarded contract from the Marine Corps. Under the agreement, the company will support the XQ-58A Unmanned Aerial Systems mission systems for the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Unmanned Aerial System Expeditionary (MUX) Tactical Aircraft (TACAIR). On February 26, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) reported impressive results for the fiscal year 2024, with a 9.1% organic growth in revenue. GAAP net income for the full year was reported at $16.3 million, compared to a net loss of $8.9 million in 2023. Adjusted EPS was logged at $0.49, growing 17% year-over-year. Full-year revenue for the Unmanned Systems business totalled $270.5 million, reflecting a 25.1% organic increase from fiscal 2023. The company anticipates continued growth for the segment, with the potential to even exceed forecasts if tactical drone opportunities are realized. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) is one of the best drone stocks to buy now. Overall, KTOS ranks 9th among the 10 Best Military Drone Stocks to Buy Now. While we acknowledge the potential of drone companies, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than KTOS but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
