DroneShield shares dive after swing to FY loss
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More news: DroneShield shares fell nearly 10% after the anti-drone tech company swung to a full-year loss, as a lack of sales conversions weighed on revenue.
DroneShield shares were down 9.2% to 79 cents at 2:50pm AEDT, having retreated from an all-time high of $2.34 in July last year.
DroneShield back in the red as sales pipeline slows
The news: DroneShield has swung back into the red with a full year loss of $1.3 million, blaming slower than expected sale conversion for its sluggish revenue growth.
The numbers: The anti-drone tech company grew revenue to $57.5 million from $54.1 million the year prior, attributing the lack of sales conversions to its customers' internal approval processes.
Two months into the new year, the company said it was off to a "strong start" having recognised or received committed purchase orders to the value of $51.6 million.
Staff tripled from 90 last year to 275 today with 74% of those being engineers working on DroneShield's hardware and software products.
What they said: Chair Peter James said pipeline projects were taking longer than expected to complete.
"This was driven by a number of factors including still-nascent procurement processes for the counterdrone industry, and a greater number of approval steps for larger sized customer contracts," James said.
The context: DroneShield became a favourite amongst retail investors in 2024 as its market cap swelled to $2 billion. However, as sales failed to materialise the company's valuation fell sharply and short sellers began taking larger positions in it.
The company is hopeful that much of its promised 2024 growth will materialise this year as it looks to increase the number and size of repeat orders from its growing number of partners. It is also vying to be selected as a vendor by the Australian government for its LAND156 program — a counterdrone rollout valued at up to $500 million.
The source: ASX announcement
