The DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO) share price had a month to remember.
While it was a volatile period with plenty of ups and downs, a huge rally on the final day of the month ensured that the counter drone technology company's shareholders were smiling as July closed.
And why wouldn't they when this market darling recorded a gain of approximately 64% for the period.
Why did the DroneShield share price rocket in July?
Investors were scrambling to buy the company's shares again in July thanks to the release of a series of positive announcements.
Early in the month, Droneshield revealed that it had won a $11.7 million follow-on research and development contract with the Five Eyes Department of Defence. This followed the successful completion of an earlier $9.9 million contract.
Then in the middle of the month, investors responded very positively to news that the company was expanding its research & development capabilities.
DroneShield advised that it plans to make a $13 million+ initial investment via a multi-year lease and fitout commitment into a brand new 3,000sqm production facility in Sydney's Alexandria.
Commenting on the plans, DroneShield's CEO, Oleg Vornik, said:
In response to rising threats and multiple wars taking place across the globe, Australia's allies are increasing investment in modern defence capabilities. We are stepping up to meet this demand by investing in state-of-the-art facilities here and abroad, and in sovereign Australian skills development to provide the most modern and effective counterdrone capabilities in the world.
Our new facility in Alexandria will epitomise the value Australian engineering can bring to a changing geopolitical landscape.
The company estimates that this will expand its own annual production capacity to $900 million by mid-2026 and a combined total annual manufacturing capacity to $2.4 billion by the end of 2026.
What else?
The good news kept rolling in, giving the DroneShield share price boost after boost.
This includes the Minister for Defence Industry awarding the company a contract under Project LAND156 to supply handheld counter-drone equipment to the Australian Defence Force (ADF), and the release of its quarterly update.
The latter revealed that DroneShield achieved a massive 480% increase in revenue to $38.8 million for the three months ended 30 June. This was a quarterly record for the company.
In addition, management points out that a total of $176.3 million of revenue has already been received or is under committed purchase orders (POs) for 2025 delivery.
This means that DroneShield has secured 3x its entire record annual FY 2024 revenue of $57.5 million. Any new POs announced from now, will be in addition to this. And with a $2.3 billion sales pipeline, it seems quite likely that it will add to this in the coming months.
Following July's impressive gain, the DroneShield share price is now up 400% since the start of the year.
