AeroVironment (AVAV) reports earnings tonight, and drone stocks Red Cat (RCAT) and Ondas (ONDS) rally with it

AeroVironment reports earnings tonight, and it does so as one of the more beaten-down names in defense. The stock has been cut by about two-thirds over the past nine months, hit a new 52-week low last week, and is now bouncing right as the numbers are about to land. Here is where things stand going in.

When the report hits

AeroVironment reports after the market closes today, Monday, June 29. Results usually cross the wire shortly after the 4:00 p.m. Eastern bell, and the company has scheduled its conference call with analysts for 4:30 p.m. Eastern, led by chief executive Wahid Nawabi and chief financial officer Sean Woodward. So the action will be this evening, not during the trading day.

This is the company's fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year report, so it covers more than a single quarter. Wall Street's consensus is around $1.48 per share for the quarter. You can always check a tracked stock's next report on our earnings calendar.

What AeroVironment actually does

AeroVironment (AVAV) is a defense technology company, and its best-known product is the Switchblade, a small loitering munition. That is a drone that can circle an area, wait for a target, and then strike it. The war in Ukraine and the broader shift toward cheap, smart, unmanned weapons put this category front and center, and AeroVironment is one of the public companies most directly tied to it.

The company is bigger than just attack drones now. After absorbing BlueHalo in a roughly $4.1 billion all-stock merger that closed in May 2025, AeroVironment also works in space systems, directed energy, counter-drone defense, and cyber and electronic warfare. It is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, has been around since 1971, and carries a market value of about $7.1 billion. For other names in the drone and defense world, see our look at Ondas (ONDS) and its Lockheed Martin (LMT) deal, and for the newer space side of the business, what every space stock actually does.

The run into earnings, and why Friday's close is misleading

Here is the part worth paying attention to, because the closing prices hide the real move. AeroVironment closed Friday at $137.95, up less than 1 percent on the day, which looks sleepy. But the stock opened Friday at $135.72, basically at its low and right on top of Thursday's 52-week low of $135.20. From that Friday open, it has climbed to around $143 now, a gain of about 5 percent, and it tagged $146.94 this morning, up roughly 8 percent from where Friday started.

So the bounce is bigger than the closing numbers let on, and most of it happened in the two sessions right before the report. This is a pattern worth knowing: stocks often get bid up in the days just before earnings, as traders position for a beat or a pop. It does not tell you which way the actual report will go. It just means some of the optimism is already baked into the price, which can make a solid report land with a shrug and a weak one sting more.

Friday also brought enormous volume, almost 5.9 million shares against a recent average closer to 1.7 million, more than triple the norm. That Friday was the day the Russell stock indexes were rebalanced, when funds that track them trade in bulk to match the new lineup, routinely one of the heaviest-volume sessions of the year. Today the tape is calmer: AVAV opened at $144.05, ran to $146.94, dipped as low as $140.91, and was trading around $143 in the early afternoon.

The rest of the drone group is green too, and AVAV will likely set its direction

AeroVironment is the largest pure-play drone name, so its report doubles as a read on the whole small-cap drone space, and that group is trading higher with it today. The standout is Red Cat (RCAT), up about 8 percent. Ondas (ONDS), which makes drones and counter-drone systems, is up about 2.5 percent, and Draganfly (DPRO) is up around 2 percent. A few others are modestly higher, including Unusual Machines (UMAC), AIRO Group (AIRO) and Kratos (KTOS). It is not unanimous, with Palladyne AI (PDYN) lower on the day.

These small drone stocks tend to trade as a basket, and AeroVironment is the bellwether of the bunch. As the biggest pure-play name, and the one reporting tonight, its numbers and guidance are the clearest read on demand for the whole space, so they are likely to set the near-term direction for the group. A strong print and an upbeat outlook would give the rally room to run and pull names like Red Cat (RCAT) and Ondas (ONDS) up with it. A miss or soft guidance could drag the whole sector back down just as fast. In other words, tonight's report is not just AeroVironment's story, it is a vote on the entire drone trade.

The bigger picture

Step back and the story is a stock that has fallen hard. AeroVironment traded as high as $417.86 last October. From there it slid almost without relief, down through $172 in mid-June and into the $135 area last week, a drop of roughly 66 percent from the high. The company is also not profitable on a trailing basis right now, which is why its price-to-earnings ratio is negative, partly a reflection of costs and accounting tied to the BlueHalo deal. So tonight's report meets a market that has already lost a lot of patience with the name.

What to watch tonight

The headline earnings-per-share number will get the first reaction, but the fuller story is usually in the details: full-year revenue, the order backlog (how much work is already booked), any guidance for the new fiscal year, and how the BlueHalo integration is going. With the stock down this much, the bar is arguably low, which can cut both ways. And because AeroVironment sets the tone for the smaller drone names, watch Red Cat (RCAT), Ondas (ONDS) and the rest to move with it once the numbers hit after the close. None of this is a recommendation to buy or sell. It is a map of what the stock has done and what is on the table, so you can follow tonight's report with the context in hand.