DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO) shares enjoyed another strong run on Tuesday.
With no fresh news out from the S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) drone defence company, shares still closed the day up 7.7% at $4.06 apiece.
That represents a new all-time closing high for the stock. And it means investors who bought shares at the beginning of 2025 will be sitting pretty today.
How pretty?
I'm glad you asked!
Image source: Getty Images
DroneShield shares flying high
On 2 January this year you could have bought DroneShield shares at their intraday trading price of 73 cents.
So, a $10,000 investment then would have gotten you 13,698 shares (excluding potential brokerage fees).
At Tuesday's closing price of $4.07, those shares were worth a rounded $55,751. That's a gain of 457.5%, or $45,751, on your $10,000 investment at the beginning of the year.
Boom!
What's been sending the ASX 300 defence stock soaring?
As you may recall, DroneShield shares hit turbulent headwinds in the latter half of 2024 after being labelled as "overvalued" by a number of prominent analysts following the stock's sharp run higher over the prior year.
This saw the stock crash 73% from mid-July 2024 through to late December.
But the stellar performance in 2025 has seen investors recap those losses and a whole lot more.
In fact, at Tuesday's closing price, shares were back up 72% from the 12 July 2024 "bubble" levels.
Justifying its valuation, this year has seen the company deliver a steady stream of new contract wins and other positive announcements.
And we need look no further than the DroneShield's record setting second quarter results, reported on 30 July, to see the sum of those recent achievements.
For the three months to 30 June, the company reported revenue of $38.8 million. That was up 480% and marked the company's highest ever quarterly revenue.
And cash receipts in Q2 were up 208% year-over-year to $43.9 million.
Further stoking ASX investor interest in DroneShield shares, the company revealed it had a total of $176.3 million of revenue already received or under committed purchase orders for 2025.
Looking ahead, management flagged further potential growth into 2026 amid strong global demand for counter drone technology. DroneShield also stands to potentially benefit from the ongoing revolution in artificial intelligence (AI).
The company said its sales pipeline is worth some $2.3 billion, which management said can be delivered on short notice.
DroneShield shares closed up 7.1% on the day the company reported.
