Droneshield Ltd (ASX: DRO) shares are climbing higher again today. At the time of writing on Thursday, the drone operator's shares are up 1.8% to $4.05 a piece.
Today's price increase means the shares are now up 5% over the past month and 21.6% higher over the year to date. The shares have jumped 343% in just 12 months.
Droneshield is one of the few ASX stocks which has actually climbed off the back of the latest geopolitical tensions and ongoing war in the Middle East.
Over the past few months, governments around the world have hiked their budget for defence spending. This includes anything from missiles or submarines, to defence technologies such as drones, AI, and electronic warfare.
And as Droneshield sits firmly as a counterdone electronic warfare business, it is at the centre, ready to absorb the increase in investor interest.
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If I bought $5,000 worth of Droneshield shares 4 months ago, what are they worth now?
After a steep climb in late 2025, Droneshield shares crashed 73% within the space of five weeks. By late November, the shares had dropped to just $1.72 a piece.
The share price climbed slightly to $1.88 on the 2nd of December, but that's still 114.4% below the trading price at the time of writing.
That type of increase over a short four-month period is impressive, however. It's more than double!
It also means that any investor who invested $5,000 into Droneshield shares in very early December would be sitting on $10,720 today.
Meanwhile, investors who bought $5,000 worth of shares 12 months ago would have a huge $22,150 today.
Those numbers are impressive.
Can the share price keep climbing?
The longer that tensions in the Middle East continue unresolved, the more pressure there will be on military spending. It's possible that demand for DroneShield's technology could keep accelerating.
Analysts are mostly bullish on DroneShield's outlook, but the annual increase doesn't look set to continue at the same pace.
TradingView data shows two out of three analysts have a strong buy rating on the defence stock. The third analyst has recently downgraded their rating to neutral.
The average target price for DroneShield shares over the next 12 months is $4.50 a piece. At the time of writing, that implies an 11% upside ahead for investors. Some are more bullish and expect the shares to jump 23% to $5 in the next 12 months.
