The DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO) share price is pushing higher during afternoon trade following a business update from the company.
At the time of writing, the drone technology company's shares are swapping hands for 17 cents, up 3.03%.
What did DroneShield announce?
In its statement to the ASX, DroneShield advised it recorded $7.4 million in customer receipts for the second quarter of 2021. It's an all-time record for the company, despite COVID-19 continuing to impact business performance.
Over the first half of FY21, DroneShield achieved $9.1 million in customer sales, up 600% over the prior corresponding period.
The diversity in its quarterly cash receipts primarily came from Australia, the United States, and Middle Eastern customers. This consisted of payments across multiple product lines such as DroneShield's $3.8 million contract with the Australian Department of Defence. The first payment of $1.9 million was received last month for a 2-year R&D contract in the Electronic Warfare/Signals Intelligence arena.
In addition, DroneShield is actively engaging in its US$50 million contract with a Middle Eastern customer. However, details remain sketchy as to who the deal is with and what it involves.
The company noted it has more than $200 million in its sales pipeline across the globe. This is a relatively small fraction of the $6 billion addressable market for counter-drone, electronic warfare and signals intelligence products.
Despite a substantial inventory investment of $5 million, DroneShield declared a healthy cash balance of $14.2 million, with no debt.
About the DroneShield share price
Over the last 12 months, the DroneShield share price has jumped by more than 54% but remains flat in 2021. The company's shares reached a 52-week high of 25 cents in September last year.
At today's price, DroneShield presides a market capitalisation of around $67 million, with close to 394 million shares outstanding.
