The Droneshield Ltd (ASX: DRO) share price dropped 5.5% to close the day at $3.95 a piece on Wednesday afternoon. For the year to date, the drone operators' shares have jumped 18.6% higher, and they're still an enormous 537.1% higher than this time last year.
While Droneshield was the best performer in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) and one of the fastest-growing stocks on the planet in 2025, it's well known that Droneshield shares plummeted late last year. After reaching an all-time high of $6.60 in early-October, the share price crashed nearly 74% in a six week window.
Before this week, the drone operator was making incredible progress this year, but the latest share price drop has sparked concerns about volatility for the year ahead.
If you bought 100 Droneshield shares today, its not clear exactly how much they'd be worth at the end of the year. But if you'd bought 100 Droneshield shares five years ago, they'd be worth a fortune today.
Image source: Getty Images
Just how much upside have Droneshield shares had over the past five years?
At the time of writing, after the ASX close on Tuesday, Droneshield shares are 2,095% higher than five years ago. That means that 100 shares, purchased at the January 2021 trading price of 18 cents per share, would cost a total of $18.
Today that $18 would be worth $395!
That's a huge increase.
So what's next for Droneshield shares this year?
After a couple of setbacks it looks like Droneshield's share price hit the bottom in 2025. I'm hoping that after this latest blip, it will keep climbing higher in 2026.
The good news is that the business has a strong growth strategy in place for the next 12 months, including scaling its manufacturing capacity, expanding its global footprint and growing its customer base.
What do the experts think?
Analysts are pretty bullish that there is a decent upside ahead for Droneshield shares in 2026. TradingView data shows that analysts consensus is for a strong buy rating on the stock with agreement for a target price of $5.00. This implies a 26.58% upside for the shares this year, at the time of writing.
The team at Bell Potter recently confirmed their buy rating and $5.00 price target on the shares. The broker said that the company's sales growth was stronger than it was expecting and that the company has a competitive advantage going forwards. Bell Potter believes 2026 will be an inflection point for the global C-UAS industry with countries poised to unleash a wave of spending.
