There is a long history preceding some of the most significant drone stocks today. It may be a surprise to know that the first uncrewed aerial vehicle was created in 1938. This year, the Good Brothers started the Big Guff, the first remote-controlled airplane. However, corporations and the military only lately began to recognize the possibilities of remote control technology, autonomous vehicles, and drones.
The development of drone technology has increased in recent years. The FAA has registered around 372,000 commercial drones and 500,000 non-commercial drones. In addition, the market for uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) is anticipated to reach $58.4 billion by 2026.
Consumers, businesses, and the military all utilize drone technology for various applications. At 400 feet, consumers primarily desire to use drones for fun and record great movies, and businesses want to employ them to save expenses and improve product delivery. And the military is interested in employing unmanned aerial drones to collect intelligence and undertake vital missions without endangering human lives. Drones are one of the fascinating disciplines of modern technology, given their numerous applications.
However, it can be somewhat challenging to locate drone stocks for purchase. The majority of consumer drone manufacturers are not publicly traded. To discover the finest drone stocks, we must concentrate on defense contractors and technology businesses that employ drone technology.
Passenger Drone Stocks
Throughout 2021, passenger drone companies (sometimes known as "air taxis") garnered considerable attention, which was reflected in both investment amounts and stock markets. Six-passenger drone firms are listed on three distinct stock exchanges, albeit our infographic does not include Astro Aerospace (OTC: ASDN). Three of these six are located in the United States, two in Europe, and one in Asia/China. Almost all of them have a market capitalization exceeding $700.0 million. At the time of writing, four of these firms have a market capitalization of over $1 billion, but we can anticipate significant changes until their goods reach the market, ideally by 2024.
Given their 52-week range, the three highest-priced commercial drone stocks (Ehang, Vertical Aerospace, and Joby) have also suffered the most incredible volatility. Given their enormous market capitalization and the fact that only Ehang has been publicly traded for more than a year, it will be fascinating to observe how their values continue to move over the next year.
Potentially worth mentioning are two firms associated with passenger drones that may also be worth monitoring. These companies include Eve Air Mobility (NYSE: EVEX), whose commercial drone stock will begin trading in the second quarter of 2022, and helicopter service provider Blade Urban Air Mobility (NASDAQ: BLDE), which is already listed on stock markets and aims to increase its involvement in electric air taxi flights.
Hardware/Software Business Drone Stocks
The majority of companies in this category produce hardware and software for their products. Two of these enterprises are located in North America, two in Europe, two in Asia/Oceania, and one in the Middle East, a highly even geographic distribution. The two firms (AeroVironment and ACSL) with the largest market capitalization and share price for drones are also the ones whose prices have fluctuated the most over the previous 52 weeks. AeroVironment recently made news about the usage of its drones to aid Ukraine, and the high cost of their commercial drone stock is likely because it is also a military drone stock. ACSL, the drone company with the second-highest market capitalization, has recently introduced an LTE-compatible drone.
Draganfly offers hardware, software, services, and even logistical assistance. A recent order for medical services and search and rescue in Ukraine grabbed headlines. Parrot SA, another company on the list with a long history, decided last year to concentrate its efforts on quadcopter microdrones, picture metrics, and analytics software. Airobotics offers a drone-in-a-box solution for inspections, mapping, and other imaging jobs that are supposed to be autonomous and end-to-end. It recently stated that it would pursue type certification for its autonomous drone. DroneShield, the leading anti-drone technology on this list, has recently expanded its partnership with Thales and attained SAPIENT compliance in the United Kingdom.
Drone Delivery of Stocks and Additional Services
Even while firms such as Amazon have attempted drone deliveries and are publicly traded, these are not actual "drone delivery stocks." This article aims to classify the finest commercial drone stocks, yet many leading drone delivery companies do not issue stocks. This implies that unless there is an IPO for Zipline or Swoop Aero, we cannot produce an article only about delivery drone stocks.
Consider Drone Delivery Canada for those primarily interested in drone delivery stock. The organization specializes in freight transportation but is also involved in deliveries for the healthcare, retail, and other industries and was recently permitted to deliver "hazardous items." Similarly, in Europe, Nordic Unmanned is engaged in over 13 European nations and offers freight and maritime transportation and security missions, and infrastructure inspections (among other services). It selected the UAS Denmark Test Center as its future site for pilot training and development.
AgEagle in Kansas, United States, provides hardware, sensors, software, and services on a more general level. After the acquisitions of senseFly, MicaSense, and Measure, the company currently serves the energy, construction, and government industries in addition to agriculture. U.S. Department of Defense recently selected its subsidiary senseFly as a Blue UAS Approved Drone. Volatus Aerospace (offering inspections and imaging, training, cargo delivery, and security services in addition to hardware/software) and Elsight are two other service firms that provide commercial drone stocks (supplying BVLOS connectivity for drones).
Red Cat Holdings is a third firm supplying commercial drone stocks that is somewhat difficult to identify. Red Cat, as a holding company, does not sell hardware, software, or services directly; instead, it manages the stock of other drone firms (namely: Drone Box, Rotor Riot, Skypersonic, Fat Shark, and Teal Drones, which recently secured a purchase order for drones in Ukraine by a NATO country). ONDAS Holdings is a comparable firm in this sector. Even though their portfolio is not unique to drones, they recently purchased Ardenna to strengthen their offering for drone inspections in the rail industry.
1. Boeing Co. (ticker: B.A.)
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the value of defense stocks has risen. Military, space, and security accounted for almost 40 percent of Boeing's overall sales in the fourth quarter, or $5.9 billion. Boeing makes a variety of unmanned and autonomous technology, such as the ScanEagle, Integrator, and MQ-25 drones. According to analyst Burkett Huey of Morningstar, the extended grounding of Boeing's 737 MAX has hurt the company's narrow-body business. As the globe recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, he predicts global demand growth, especially in emerging areas, will resume. Morningstar has a "buy" recommendation and an estimated fair value of $249 for B.A. shares, which closed on March 16 at $188.99.
2. AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc (UAVS)
AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. is a primary provider of commercial drone technology, services, and solutions. They give the analytics, tools, and strategies required to implement solutions with drones. AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. provides drone-enabled solutions to people like you and me who can profit from them. AgEagle Aerial Systems aspires to be the premier company in the United States for commercial drone design, engineering, manufacturing, assembly, and testing. In addition, it focuses on gaining people's trust by being the world's most reliable provider of turnkey drone delivery services and solutions.
Investors regarded AgEagle Aerial Systems as a penny stock, and the company was valued at less than $10 million. When news spread in 2020 that AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. was developing a retail delivery drone with Amazon, the stock's fate was altered. The price of Ageagle Aerial Systems has increased by an incredible 1600 percent from last year.
3. AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV)
AeroVironment, an American defense contractor business founded in 1971, specialized in unmanned aerial vehicles. Currently, they have several contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense to manufacture drones, missile systems, and satellite technologies. It is the leading provider of small drones to the Pentagon, supplying significant types such as the Raven, Wasp, and Puma.
However, the corporation has just begun selling drones to consumer markets. This is a vital move for the corporation to diversify its portfolio and access a bigger market. It purchased a German robotics startup named Telerob and a maker of massive drones called Arcturus in the past year.
Despite disappointing some investors with its low stock performance in September of 2021, the firm anticipates growth due to its recent expansions and the increased demand for more advanced drones. The stock price of AeroVironment has decreased by -9.60 percent so far this year.
4. EHang Holdings (NASDAQ: EH)
EHang Holdings may be the company you're searching for if you're the type of investor who wants to invest in a firm that could be the market leader in a whole new market segment. The next logical step for drones is uncrewed passenger flights, and EHang Holdings is one of the firms working relentlessly to make this a reality.
This Chinese startup, founded in 2014, debuted its drone technology online in 2018, anticipating that its passenger drones would be integrated into smart cities worldwide. China's Civil Aviation Administration certified EHang's commercial passenger drones in 2020. This has prompted other nations to begin testing with EHang to export their drones abroad. In addition, EHang recently announced a successful test flight of a passenger drone in Japan and several test flights. With all of these advancements, it seems just a matter of time before passenger-carrying drones revolutionize urban travel, if not international travel as well.
Even though the company had a tumultuous few months, most businesses operating during the epidemic experienced similar difficulties. Nonetheless, EHang appears to be on the upswing, with shares up 3.39 percent year-to-date.
5. Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
High-end graphics processing unit (GPU) processors from Nvidia provide processing power for various cutting-edge technologies, such as online gaming, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, the metaverse, autonomous vehicles, and drones. The Nvidia Jetson platform provides engineers with the resources necessary to construct robots, drones, and other autonomous machines driven by artificial intelligence. Vivek Arya asserts that the world is still in the infancy of A.I. adoption. According to him, A.I. will continue to fuel between 30 and 40 percent of Nvidia's annual growth in its data center business. Bank of America has a "buy" rating and a $375 price objective on NVDA shares, which closed on March 16 at $244.96.
6. Parrot (OTC: PAOTF)
French drone manufacturer Parrot produces some of the most popular hobby drones globally. People purchase Parrot drones to capture breathtaking shots for photography or pure enjoyment.
With the debut of the ANAFI USA – built for professional applications such as firefighting and security - the firm is also attempting to cater to military and professional customers, even if the majority of the company's annual revenue comes from ordinary people.
Since the military is by far the most significant consumer of drones, this is a wise move on the side of the firm. Many investors consider Parrot to be a bargain company, despite the stock's volatility, because it is still priced at less than $10.
7. Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
Alphabet, the parent firm of Google, the world's most popular search engine, is one of the world's largest companies and most closely watched stock market picks.
Google is involved in creating numerous sorts of technology, but they are making significant progress in the field of drone technology. Specifically, the company is constructing Wing, a drone delivery service operating in the United States, Australia, and Finland. There are ultimately intentions to spread the program to additional countries worldwide.
The Wing concept intends to enable small businesses to offer drone delivery to local clients as an option. The Wing program's drones can rapidly cover short distances, making them perfect for delivering perishable food products. The Wing program has already eclipsed Amazon's drone delivery capabilities in Australia.
Alphabet's share price has increased by over 60 percent since the beginning of 2021, even though it is not a pure-play on the drones market, demonstrating that it can consistently produce for investors.
8. Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC)
Northrop Grumman should be your first choice if you're searching for a company that specializes in manufacturing military drones. It is one of the world's top arms companies and military hardware suppliers, with over 90,000 personnel and over $30 billion in yearly sales. They also produce a variety of high-tech drones for the United States Air Force. The Global Hawk, a surveillance model used for intelligence and data collection, is their most unique product.
The company offers military-grade drones to NATO and NASA, and the U.S. military. With a price of nearly $90 million per drone and governments as its primary clientele, this company's stock is generally more stable than that of other drone manufacturers.
Because the company's stock price has been near all-time highs during the past year, it is safe to infer that it is doing quite well financially. Space technology is a significant contributor to this expansion, with Northrop Grumman recently securing a $1 billion contract to construct a moon outpost.
9. Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)
Lockheed Martin is among the largest defense contractors in the United States. The company's portfolio of advanced autonomous systems employed by the United States military on land, air, and water is extensive. The Indago 3 unmanned aerial vehicle, the Condor XEP UAS, and the Stalker UAS are popular Lockheed products. As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, CFRA researcher Colin Scarola predicts that U.S. defense expenditures will likely increase. Scarola expects that Lockheed's share price will continue to rise. The company's stock is up approximately 20 percent this year, but Scarola believes there is more upside potential. LMT shares, which closed March 16 at $421.34 on the NYSE, have a "buy" rating from CFRA and a $515 price target.
10. Draganfly Inc. (NASDAQ: DPRO)
The stocks of Draganfly, a Canadian company that has been developing drone devices for over two decades, are currently regarded as penny stocks.
Penny stocks are the inexpensive shares of small companies that can be purchased. If the company expands and performs well over the ensuing years, you would realize enormous returns with a tiny initial investment. However, that is a large "if." Before investing in any penny stock, you should always proceed with care regardless of how enticing.
Draganfly had an excellent third quarter with growth in all areas despite this. They manufacture drones for the military, law enforcement, agriculture, and energy industries. In addition, they provide clients with specialized engineering, training, flight and data services, and more.
Conclusion
And those are the top ten most promising drone stocks for 2022. It is just a matter of time before drones become a standard part of our society, ignoring that there is still some distance to travel. The market is already undergoing a rapid transformation due to drones, and governments throughout the world are looking to drones to tackle a variety of non-military challenges.
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