AEVEX Corp.
🔔 Watch stock
Assessment
Our Rating
A journalistic assessment by our editorial team at the time of the deep dive — it rates the company, not the entry point. Not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell.
The business works in principle, but one material question is open. As long as it stays open, our findings do not carry a quality verdict.
Why this colour
Green is out of reach for lack of repeatability; red is not warranted for lack of any substance risk. The business plainly works: 2025 revenue grew 10.4 percent to $432.9 million, the first quarter of 2026 delivered $216.7 million and $21.0 million of profit, equity is positive at $222.1 million, and the IPO replaced roughly $258.5 million of old borrowings with a $100.0 million term loan, with interest expense guided down to about $13.2 million for 2026. What is open is the decisive operating question: results hang on one large contract whose delivery cut funded backlog by $146.5 million to $356.6 million in a single quarter, 93.0 percent of which is meant to be consumed during 2026. Guidance of $600 million to $620 million, implying $128 million to $134 million per remaining quarter, confirms it. Add $97.6 million of operating cash outflow in 2025 and $10.4 million in the first quarter of 2026, plus a customer supplying 88 percent of revenue who can terminate at will. No annual report (10-K) yet shows any of this over a full year as a public company, so yellow it stays. The decision is yours.
What the thesis turns on
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
AEVEX is a genuine, technically strong defense company with a very short public record: first trade April 17, 2026, one quarterly report, audited annual figures available only from a prospectus. The first quarter of 2026 was spectacular — $216.7 million of revenue after $53.3 million, and $21.0 million of profit after a $27.3 million loss — and the filings attribute it largely to a single program that, in the same quarter, pushed funded backlog from $503.1 million down to $356.6 million. Add $97.6 million of cash consumed by operations in 2025, a customer supplying 88 percent of revenue who may terminate at will, and an ownership structure in which half the company sits outside the traded share. Not investment advice.
Market position & technology
AEVEX is the sole provider on the EUCOM AOR Deep Strike program (contract value above $645.7 million, more than 4,800 aircraft), has delivered over 6,200 systems, and says it is prime contractor on 84 percent of all its programs. Its in-house CompassX software delivers navigation and autonomy without a satellite signal — the capability that makes the difference in contested environments (prospectus filed April 20, 2026).
Earnings trajectory
The turn is real: first-quarter 2026 revenue reached $216.7 million (prior-year quarter $53.3 million), gross margin went from 5.7 percent to 26.1 percent, and net income swung from a $27.3 million loss to a $21.0 million profit. Full-year 2025 also grew 10.4 percent to $432.9 million (Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026; prospectus filed April 20, 2026).
Order book & visibility
Funded backlog fell during the record quarter from $503.1 million to $356.6 million; 93.0 percent of that is meant to be consumed during 2026, leaving only 7.0 percent for 2027 and beyond. Guidance of $600 million to $620 million for 2026 implies an average of $128 million to $134 million per remaining quarter — the first quarter was the peak, not the starting point (as of May 20, 2026).
Cash flow & balance sheet
Operations consumed $97.6 million of cash in 2025 and another $10.4 million in the first quarter of 2026 despite the reported profit — driven by a combined $71.4 million increase in receivables and unbilled work. Against that stands a markedly relieved balance sheet: roughly $258.5 million of old borrowings repaid, a $100.0 million term loan in their place, and interest expense guided to about $13.2 million in 2026 after $32.3 million in 2025.
Customer concentration
88 percent of first-quarter 2026 revenue came directly from the U.S. government, and 71 percent of all outstanding receivables were tied to a single customer as of March 31, 2026. The prospectus states that all government contracts are terminable at will and that part of the work is funded through short-term operational needs statements rather than programs of record.
Structure & shareholder rights
56,470,333 Class A shares become 114,041,700 on full exchange; Madison Dearborn Partners controls roughly 70.0 percent of the voting power, making AEVEX a "controlled company" with relaxed governance requirements. Add a tax promise to the pre-IPO owners illustrated at $392.1 million, an equity plan covering 11,404,170 shares, and a lock-up that expires on October 13, 2026 (prospectus filed June 5, 2026).
Worth Noting
AEVEX reached our research list through our watchlist of newly listed U.S. stocks rather than a scanner: as of July 28, 2026 the stock appears in no list from our in-house stock scanner, because relative strength requires twelve months of price history and the nine-point balance-sheet check requires two audited annual reports filed as a public company. Those lists are recalculated daily.
Data basis and its limits: there is no annual report (10-K) yet, because fiscal 2025 ended before the listing. The audited 2024 and 2025 figures come from the 424B4 prospectus filed April 20, 2026, and the quarterly figures from the Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2026 — the only periodic filing so far. Balance-sheet figures as of March 31, 2026 refer to the operating company before the IPO.
Valuation figures are dated and evergreen: we use 114,041,700 shares (full exchange of all LLC units) and the three anchor prices documented in SEC filings — $20.00 (April 20, 2026), $27.00 (June 5, 2026) and the $15.21 close (July 28, 2026). A market value counting only the 56,470,333 Class A shares leaves out roughly half the company and is deliberately not used here.
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of August 26, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at AVEX since then.
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Price history
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
52-week range: 13.30 $ to 40.50 $ · Last price: 16.70 $ (As of: September 17, 2026)
Key figures
Key figures at a glance
Every figure we hold for this stock, grouped by topic. The question mark next to a label explains what the number means.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 09/18/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
This stock currently pays no dividend.
Quality & Screener
Comparison
Industry comparison
The stock alongside the largest companies in the same group. The median row is the middle value of the companies shown above — not of the whole industry.
Industry: Aerospace & Defense
| Company | Market cap ($B) | P/E | EV/EBITDA | Gross Margin % | EBIT Margin % | Sales Growth (Year) % | Perf. 1Y % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AEVEX Corp. AVEX | 0.9 | 42.5 | 10.6 | 25.4 | 13.7 | 10.4 | – |
| Space Exploration Technologies Corp. SPCX | 1,172.1 | – | 511.6 | 51.9 | – | – | – |
| GE Aerospace GE | 326.7 | 40.1 | 27.6 | 31.1 | 20.2 | 18.5 | 8.8 |
| RTX Corporation RTX | 254.2 | 36.5 | 18.5 | 20.3 | 13.2 | 9.7 | 24.1 |
| The Boeing Company BA | 155.3 | 78.7 | 25.5 | 4.7 | 1.7 | 34.5 | -8.2 |
| Lockheed Martin Corporation LMT | 124.1 | 26.0 | 13.6 | 11.8 | 11.0 | 5.7 | 16.7 |
| General Dynamics Corporation GD | 96.7 | 22.8 | 15.1 | 15.4 | 10.5 | 10.1 | 11.4 |
| Howmet Aerospace Inc HWM | 90.3 | 52.0 | 34.8 | 36.0 | 28.2 | 11.1 | 22.0 |
| Northrop Grumman Corporation NOC | 73.6 | 16.6 | 11.8 | 20.1 | 11.7 | 2.2 | -7.7 |
| Median of companies shown | 124.1 | 38.3 | 18.5 | 20.3 | 12.4 | 10.3 | 11.4 |
Based on the most recently reported figures. Only stocks from the same trading venue are lined up, so the market caps are counted in one currency. Compare in a chart →
Fiscal years
Annual Figures
Fiscal years from the audited annual reports, oldest first. EBIT is the operating profit before interest and taxes; total assets are everything the company owns.
Revenue, operating income and net income per fiscal year $M
Revenue Operating income Net income
| Fiscal Year | Revenue ($M) | EBIT ($M) | Net Income ($M) | EPS ($) | Operating Cash Flow ($M) | Equity ($M) | Total Assets ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 392 | 45 | 79 | 1.62 | 65 | 160 | 557 |
| 2025 | 433 | 4 | -1 | -0.01 | -98 | 246 | 806 |
Quarters
Quarterly Figures
Each bar is one quarter, the last one is the most recent. Use the switch to step through the individual figures.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
Click the chart or tab into it, then use ← and → to step through the periods.
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· Total · per year
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The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026: Q1 | 0.19 | – | 217 | 306.90 | 9.70 | -10 | -12 |
| 2026: Q2 | 0.01 | – | 202 | – | 1.10 | – | – |
What Do These Terms Mean?
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Screening
Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 5 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Breakout & Setup
Research
Risk & Weakness
Only genuine hits from verified scanners count; pure ranking metrics (P/E, P/S, and similar, which just sort the whole universe) don't count as a hit. Scanners marked in red are red-flag signals (risk/short scanners) — appearing there is not a seal of approval. View all scanners
Outlook
Analysts & Price Target
Combined picture of the price targets and recommendations of every analyst covering the stock. Price targets are expectations for the next 12 months, not promises — and they often follow the price rather than predict it.
Estimates by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | EPS Estimate ($) | EPS Range ($) | Revenue Estimate ($M) | Expected Growth | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/31/2026 | 0.34 | 0.25 – 0.43 | 756 | – | 4 |
| 12/31/2027 | 0.83 | 0.83 – 0.83 | 916 | 141.0% | 1 |
Average of the analyst estimates for the coming fiscal years. The range shows how far the most optimistic and the most cautious estimate sit apart — the wider it is, the less certain the expectation.
AI classification
AI Rating
AEVEX verkauft KI als Produktbestandteil: Das gesamte Portfolio unbemannter Systeme beruht laut Börsenprospekt auf der hauseigenen, KI-basierten Sensorfusions-Software CompassX, die Navigation, Autonomie und Zielerfassung in GPS-gestörten Umgebungen liefert.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
„Our UxS portfolio is underpinned by our proprietary AI-based CompassX sensor-fusion engine, which delivers assured positioning, navigation, and timing (“APNT”) and advanced onboard autonomy in GPS-denied environments."
Unser Portfolio unbemannter Systeme stützt sich auf unsere hauseigene, KI-basierte Sensorfusions-Software CompassX, die gesicherte Positionsbestimmung, Navigation und Zeitgebung („APNT“) sowie fortgeschrittene Autonomie an Bord in Umgebungen ohne GPS-Empfang liefert.
424B4 · 2026-04-20 · View SEC filing
„We anchor autonomy with our NAC and CompassX suite, fusing AI, deep neural networks, and multi-sensor inputs with multi-vehicle collaborative autonomy across our UxS portfolio."
Wir verankern Autonomie in unserem Navigations- und Autonomiezentrum und der CompassX-Suite, die KI, tiefe neuronale Netze und Signale mehrerer Sensoren mit kollaborativer Autonomie mehrerer Fluggeräte über unser gesamtes Portfolio unbemannter Systeme verbindet.
424B4 · 2026-04-20 · View SEC filing
„We are particularly encouraged by the sustained customer adoption of our AI-enabled autonomy solutions powered by CompassX, along with our next-generation solutions—capabilities that have been validated in operational use and are increasingly central to customer modernization priorities."
Besonders ermutigt uns die anhaltende Kundenakzeptanz unserer KI-gestützten Autonomielösungen auf Basis von CompassX sowie unserer Lösungen der nächsten Generation — Fähigkeiten, die sich im Einsatz bewährt haben und für die Modernisierungsprioritäten unserer Kunden immer wichtiger werden.
8-K · 2026-05-20 · View SEC filing
Filings Reviewed: 424B4 2026-04-20 · 10-Q 2026-05-20 · 8-K 2026-05-20 · 424B4 2026-06-05
Rated on July 28, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Quality check
AAQS
4/10The AAQS (AlleAktien Quality Score) checks 10 quality criteria on growth, profitability, and balance-sheet strength — per the methodology developed and published by AlleAktien, calculated by us from our own fundamental data. A stock counts as a quality stock from 9 out of 10 points. Where a company has a shorter listing history, we calculate over the fiscal years available (at least five).
- Sales growth 10Y > 5% –
- Exp. sales growth 3Y > 5% 45.4%
- EBIT growth 10Y > 5% –
- Exp. EBIT growth 3Y > 5% 45.4%
- Net debt < 4x EBIT -14.0x
- EBIT positive, 10Y straight –
- Max. EBIT decline < 50% –
- Return on equity > 15% –
- ROCE > 15% 0.6%
- Expected return > 10% 29.0%
View stocks with the full AAQS score · Read the methodology at AlleAktien
Source: fundamental data
The company
About the Company
AEVEX Corp. operates as a defense technology contractor and enabler of the U.S. Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) dominance strategy mission. The company operates in two segments, Tactical Systems and Global Solutions. The Tactical Systems designs and manufactures battle-tested, autonomous, modular, and attritable unmanned systems, including UAS and unmanned surface vehicles with other mission critical products. The Global Solutions provides bespoke mission solutions, including AI-enabled airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), C-UAS, additive manufacturing, and specialized mission aircraft engineering, modification, and testing. The company was founded in 2020 and is based in Solana Beach, California.
- Employees
- 650
- Headquarters
- Solana Beach, CA
- Address
- 440 Stevens Avenue, 92075 Solana Beach, United States
- Phone
- 858 704 4125
- Website
- aevex.com
- IPO Date
- 04/17/2026
- ISIN
- US00835T1079
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Brian Raduenz | Founder & Executive Chairman | 1966 |
| Charles Roger Wells IV | CEO & Director | 1973 |
| Michael Jackson | Senior Vice President of Global Solutions | 1973 |
| Todd A. Booth | Chief Financial Officer | 1972 |
| Manan Patel | Chief Technology Officer | – |
| Jason Michael Gursky | Vice President of Investor Relations & Treasury | – |
| Christine M. Morrison | Chief Legal Officer | 1975 |
| Nelson Erickson | Senior Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development | – |
| Matt Gunn | Director of Marketing | – |
| Rebecca Culjat LCSW | Chief People Officer | – |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Filings
Company Filings (8-K)
An 8-K is the filing a US company must use to disclose material events immediately — takeovers, changes at the top, major contracts or payment troubles, for instance. The links open the original document at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- 09/08/2026 AEVEX Corp. (AVEX): Completion of Acquisition or Disposition of Assets; Regulation FD Disclosure; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
- 08/12/2026 AEVEX Corp. (AVEX): Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement; Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities; Regulation FD Disclosure; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
- 08/12/2026 AEVEX Corp. (AVEX): Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
Data as of: September 17, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.