Critical Review: Axon Enterprise (AXON) vs. Its Peers

Axon Enterprise (NASDAQ:AXON) is one of 229 public companies in the “Aerospace & Defense” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Axon Enterprise to related companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Axon Enterprise and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Axon Enterprise	6.19%	2.84%	1.36%
Axon Enterprise Competitors	-289.58%	-47.50%	-4.35%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Axon Enterprise and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Axon Enterprise	0	2	14	1	2.94
Axon Enterprise Competitors	2151	8240	12729	579	2.50

Axon Enterprise currently has a consensus target price of $688.38, suggesting a potential upside of 62.92%. As a group, “Aerospace & Defense” companies have a potential upside of 22.69%. Given Axon Enterprise’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Axon Enterprise is more favorable than its competitors.

Risk and Volatility

Axon Enterprise has a beta of 1.44, suggesting that its share price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Axon Enterprise’s competitors have a beta of 1.34, suggesting that their average share price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Axon Enterprise and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Axon Enterprise	$2.78 billion	$124.66 million	175.33
Axon Enterprise Competitors	$8.45 billion	$569.01 million	25.49

Axon Enterprise’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Axon Enterprise. Axon Enterprise is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

79.1% of Axon Enterprise shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.5% of shares of all “Aerospace & Defense” companies are owned by institutional investors. 4.2% of Axon Enterprise shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 11.8% of shares of all “Aerospace & Defense” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Axon Enterprise beats its competitors on 10 of the 13 factors compared.

About Axon Enterprise

Axon Enterprise, Inc. develops, manufactures, and sells conducted energy devices (CEDs) under the TASER brand in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Software and Sensors, and TASER. The company also offers hardware and cloud-based software solutions that enable law enforcement to capture, securely store, manage, share, and analyze video and other digital evidence. Its products include axon officer safety plan; taser 10, taser7, taser X26P, taser X2, taser 7 CQ, and civilian series; cameras, such as axon body, axon flex, axon fleet, axon air, axon signal sidearm, axon signal vehicle, axon interview, and axon interview portable kit; software, including axon records, evidence, standards, commander, performance, auto-transcribe, justice, investigate, respond, and justice, my90, and redaction assistant; mobile applications, and training services, as well as hardware extended warranties; and Axon docks, cartridges, and batteries. The company sells its products through its direct sales, distribution partners, online store, and third-party resellers. Axon Enterprise, Inc. has a strategic partnership with Fusus, Inc. to expand bility to aggregate live video, data, and sensor feeds. It serves law enforcement, federal, correction, fire, EMS, campus, justice healthcare, retail, private security, and personal safety industries. The company was formerly known as TASER International, Inc. and changed its name to Axon Enterprise, Inc. in April 2017. Axon Enterprise, Inc. was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.