Weak guidance for the current year was proving a drag on the share price of unmanned aircraft systems specialist AeroVironment Inc (NASDAQ:AVAV).
The shares opened at around US$45.26 on Wednesday, down from US$50.53 overnight, before recovering to US$46.83 after the company said it expects earnings per share in the current financial year will fall in the range of 45 to 65 cents.
The consensus forecast prior the company's statement was 73 cents.
The company said it continues to expect to generate revenue of between US$280mln and US$300mln in fiscal 2018.
The weak guidance overshadowed better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter numbers.
The drones maker said revenues in the three months to January 27 rose 20% to US$63.9mln from US$53.2mln a year earlier.
“The AeroVironment team continued to execute our fiscal 2018 plan effectively, increasing third-quarter revenue by 20% year-over-year and generating funded backlog of US$123.5 million, which gives us full visibility to the midpoint of our annual revenue guidance range of $290 million,” said Wahib Nawabi, the company's chief executive officer.
“In the third quarter, we entered into a US$100 million joint venture with SoftBank Corp to launch our global, stratospheric broadband communication business. Our joint venture has signed a US$65 million contract with AeroVironment to demonstrate the next generation solar High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellite, or HAPS,” Nawabi revealed.
“Our core unmanned aircraft systems business secured its largest-ever international contract, valued at US$44.5 million, reflecting continued strong international demand for our market-leading small UAS family of systems. We remain committed to delivering transformational innovations to our customers and creating significant value for our stockholders,” he added.