Zebra Technologies Corporation
🔔 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
The business holds up: Zebra leads a niche with high switching costs, gross margin runs at 48.1 percent, the $917 million of operating cash flow in fiscal 2025 comfortably exceeds reported profit, the equity ratio is 41.6 percent and the Altman Z is 6.69. No sign of a solvency problem. What is open is an operating question, and it is weighty enough for yellow: earnings are not tracking revenue — revenue rose 8.3 percent in 2025 while net income fell 20.6 percent — while goodwill from acquisitions now exceeds total equity and $2,004 million of debt awaits refinancing in 2027. Whether the acquisitions lift profit or only revenue will be settled in the next few quarters. The decision is yours.
What the thesis turns on
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
Zebra Technologies has put the 2023 collapse behind it: $5,396 million of revenue in fiscal 2025, up 14.3 percent in the first quarter of 2026, $917 million of operating cash flow, a 48.1 percent gross margin. The turnaround in the numbers is real. It was paid for with $1,365 million of acquisitions, a cash pile shrunk from $1,053 million to $114 million and buybacks funded on the credit line — while $2,004 million of $2,660 million in debt matures in 2027 and three distributors deliver 59 percent of revenue. Profit is not keeping pace with revenue: $419 million after $528 million. Buying here means buying a strong market position and an open bill for 2027. Not investment advice.
Business model and market position
Zebra is one of the two pacesetters in automatic data capture worldwide, and the business carries real switching resistance: more than 10,000 channel partners in 179 countries, an installed base that pulls services, supplies and software behind it, and $264 million of services and software revenue in the first quarter of 2026 alone. Gross margin ran at 48.1 percent in fiscal 2025.
Turnaround in the numbers
After the 2023 collapse (revenue $4,584 million, down 20.7 percent, with $4 million of operating cash outflow) the business is running again: $4,981 million in 2024, $5,396 million in 2025, up 14.3 percent to $1,495 million in the first quarter of 2026. All four regions grew double digits, Asia-Pacific fastest at 21.9 percent. The $917 million of operating cash flow in 2025 is real money.
Profit per revenue dollar
More revenue, less profit: revenue grew 8.3 percent in 2025, but operating income fell from $742 million to $700 million and net income from $528 million to $419 million. Operating expenses climbed from 33.5 percent to 35.1 percent of revenue. In the first quarter of 2026 net income of $135 million still trailed the $136 million of the prior-year quarter — on $187 million more revenue.
Customer concentration
Three distributors accounted for 29, 15 and 15 percent of fiscal 2025 revenue — 59 percent combined, or roughly $3.18 billion. The largest was still at 18 percent in 2023. Resellers order in waves: in 2023 that cost a fifth of revenue without end demand moving anywhere near as far.
Balance sheet after the acquisitions
As of April 4, 2026 the balance sheet carries $4,709 million of goodwill and $765 million of other intangibles against $3,470 million of equity — on a tangible basis equity is negative. Cash fell from $1,053 million (September 27, 2025) to $114 million. This is not a solvency risk: Altman Z 6.69, equity ratio 41.6 percent, all debt covenants met. But the cushion for a second 2023 is thinner.
The 2027 maturity wall
Of $2,660 million in debt, $2,004 million matures in 2027, with the term loan due May 25, 2027 at a floating 5.02 percent. At the same time $500 million went into buybacks, funded per the quarterly report by increased borrowings under the credit facilities. No refinancing has been announced as of July 26, 2026.
Worth Noting
Hook: our in-house stock scanner “Turnaround Candidates”, rank 29 of 60 U.S. hits, turnaround check 6 of 8, measured live on July 26, 2026. These lists are recomputed daily; rank and score are a dated snapshot, not a permanent state.
Cross-check on the mandatory pillar “at least 50 percent below the all-time high”: the price history confirms it. Highest closing price $614.55 on December 10, 2021 against $259.92 on July 24, 2026 — minus 57.7 percent. Above roughly $307.28 (up 18.2 percent) Zebra drops out of this list.
Data basis: annual report 10-K for 2025 filed February 12, 2026; annual report 10-K for 2024 filed February 13, 2025 (supplies 2022); quarterly report 10-Q as of April 4, 2026 filed May 12, 2026; quarterly reports as of September 27, 2025, June 28, 2025 and March 29, 2025; current reports 8-K of May 12 and May 19, 2026; metrics and price history July 24 to 26, 2026.
Mind the segment change: Zebra recut its reporting segments in 2025 — “Connected Frontline” and “Asset Visibility and Automation” instead of the former AIT and EVM segments. Segment time series before 2025 are therefore not comparable.
The traffic light in this analysis judges the company, not the entry point. A scanner rank is an invitation to research, not a buy signal.
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of August 26, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at ZBRA since then.
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Price history
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
52-week range: 199.30 $ to 383.10 $ · Last price: 347.80 $ (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
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
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: Communication Equipment
| Company | Market cap ($B) | P/E | EV/EBITDA | Gross Margin % | EBIT Margin % | Sales Growth (Year) % | Perf. 1Y % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zebra Technologies Corporation ZBRA | 16.6 | 43.3 | 18.4 | 49.6 | 15.0 | 8.3 | 9.6 |
| Cisco Systems Inc CSCO | 436.0 | 35.3 | 22.8 | 64.5 | 25.0 | 5.3 | 66.2 |
| Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co HPE | 78.0 | 57.4 | 14.2 | 36.6 | 8.7 | 14.1 | 152.6 |
| Motorola Solutions Inc MSI | 76.3 | 37.7 | 22.9 | 52.1 | 19.8 | 8.0 | -2.7 |
| Lumentum Holdings Inc LITE | 71.0 | 154.2 | 114.9 | 44.2 | 21.8 | 21.0 | 447.1 |
| Ciena Corp CIEN | 48.8 | 113.9 | 47.4 | 44.1 | 15.2 | 18.8 | 152.4 |
| Ubiquiti Networks Inc UI | 36.1 | – | 27.8 | 46.2 | 36.9 | 33.5 | -1.3 |
| Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson B ERIC | 33.6 | 13.2 | 7.0 | 47.6 | 0.0 | -14.2 | 30.2 |
| Ast Spacemobile Inc ASTS | 24.4 | – | -2.3 | 38.9 | -1,014.0 | 1,505.2 | 52.3 |
| Median of companies shown | 48.8 | 43.3 | 22.8 | 46.2 | 15.2 | 14.1 | 52.3 |
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 3,574 | 80 | -137 | -2.66 | 372 | 792 | 4,632 |
| 2017 | 3,722 | 322 | 17 | 0.32 | 478 | 834 | 4,275 |
| 2018 | 4,218 | 610 | 421 | 7.76 | 785 | 1,335 | 4,339 |
| 2019 | 4,485 | 692 | 544 | 9.96 | 685 | 1,839 | 4,711 |
| 2020 | 4,448 | 651 | 504 | 9.35 | 962 | 2,144 | 5,375 |
| 2021 | 5,627 | 979 | 837 | 15.53 | 1,069 | 2,984 | 6,215 |
| 2022 | 5,781 | 529 | 463 | 8.81 | 488 | 2,733 | 7,529 |
| 2023 | 4,584 | 481 | 296 | 5.72 | -4 | 3,036 | 7,306 |
| 2024 | 4,981 | 742 | 528 | 10.18 | 1,013 | 3,586 | 7,968 |
| 2025 | 5,396 | 800 | 419 | 8.18 | 917 | 3,588 | 8,502 |
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.
None of the selected stocks reports this metric. Pick another metric or switch between annual and quarterly.
· Total · per year
These companies report in different currencies — switch on “Indexed” or pick a margin for a fair comparison.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q4 | 3.14 | 854.60 | 1,334 | 32.20 | 12.20 | 306 | 288 |
| 2025: Q1 | 2.63 | 18.20 | 1,308 | 11.30 | 10.40 | 178 | 158 |
| 2025: Q2 | 2.16 | -0.80 | 1,293 | 6.20 | 8.70 | 147 | 130 |
| 2025: Q3 | 1.95 | -26.10 | 1,320 | 5.20 | 7.70 | 235 | 216 |
| 2025: Q4 | 1.38 | -56.00 | 1,475 | 10.60 | 4.70 | 357 | 327 |
| 2026: Q1 | 2.67 | 1.50 | 1,495 | 14.30 | 9.00 | 176 | 163 |
| 2026: Q2 | 4.85 | 124.50 | 1,557 | 20.40 | 15.00 | 211 | 198 |
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 9 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Growth
Quality & Balance Sheet
Breakout & Setup
Momentum & Trend
Research
Value & GARP
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. 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.
Distribution of Recommendations
Estimates by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | EPS Estimate ($) | EPS Range ($) | Revenue Estimate ($M) | Expected Growth | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/31/2026 | 21.04 | 19.68 – 21.45 | 6,221 | 32.8% | 17 |
| 12/31/2027 | 22.18 | 21.19 – 22.88 | 6,602 | 5.4% | 17 |
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.
Valuation
What is priced in?
Instead of guessing what the stock is worth, we turn the question around: what free cash flow growth has to happen for today’s market value to add up? The assumptions behind it can be moved.
Today’s market value implies roughly 6.5% growth in free cash flow per year over ten years (assumptions: discount rate 10.0%, terminal growth 2.5%).
| Free cash flow (last twelve months) | $904.0M |
|---|---|
| Market cap | $16.56B |
| Free cash flow in year ten | $1.70B |
| Terminal value as a share of market value | 54.1% |
For comparison: over the past five years free cash flow shrank by 1.5% per year.
It shows which assumption is built into today’s price, not whether that assumption will hold. Every assumption can be changed with the sliders; the figures move with them.
A simplified model calculation — not a forecast and not a recommendation.
AI classification
AI Rating
Zebra baut künstliche Intelligenz in die eigenen Software- und Geräteangebote ein und nennt im Geschäftsbericht 2025 ausdrücklich ein „AI product portfolio“, in das reinvestiert wird — KI ist damit Bestandteil der Umsatzquelle, nicht nur internes Werkzeug.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
„We are leveraging artificial intelligence to automate the detailed generation of tasks within complex workflows, bring knowledge and product companions to workers and deliver conversational interfaces that power our overall frontline experience."
Wir setzen künstliche Intelligenz ein, um die detaillierte Erzeugung von Aufgaben innerhalb komplexer Arbeitsabläufe zu automatisieren, den Beschäftigten Wissens- und Produktbegleiter an die Hand zu geben und dialogfähige Oberflächen bereitzustellen, die unser gesamtes Frontline-Erlebnis antreiben.
10-K · 2026-02-12 · View SEC filing
„We expect annualized pre-tax operating costs savings of at least $20 million from these actions, net of re-investment into advancing the Company’s AI product portfolio, reorganizing our sales force, and absorbing increased employee-related costs."
Wir erwarten aus diesen Maßnahmen jährliche Einsparungen bei den Betriebskosten vor Steuern von mindestens 20 Millionen US-Dollar, nach Abzug der Reinvestition in den Ausbau des KI-Produktportfolios des Unternehmens, den Umbau unseres Vertriebs und die Aufnahme gestiegener Personalkosten.
10-K · 2026-02-12 · View SEC filing
„These offerings are typically delivered through cloud-based software subscriptions and leverage big data, artificial intelligence, and mobile and web applications to provide customers with real-time visibility and actionable insights about their business."
Diese Angebote werden in der Regel über cloudbasierte Software-Abonnements bereitgestellt und nutzen große Datenbestände, künstliche Intelligenz sowie mobile und Web-Anwendungen, um Kunden Echtzeit-Transparenz und umsetzbare Erkenntnisse über ihr Geschäft zu liefern.
10-K · 2025-02-13 · View SEC filing
Filings Reviewed: 10-K 2026-02-12 · 10-Q 2026-05-12 · 10-Q 2025-10-28 · 10-Q 2025-08-05 · 10-Q 2025-04-29 · 10-K 2025-02-13
Rated on July 26, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Growth
Growth Score
Ten checks against the annual reports — each one passed counts a point.
- Revenue grows by more than 15% a year over three years -2.3%
- More than 10% revenue growth is expected for the coming year 5.5%
- Share count grows by less than 3% a year -0.9%
- Revenue growth plus cash-flow margin add up to at least 40 ("Rule of 40") 23.7%
- Gross margin at 40% or higher and without meaningful erosion 45.9%
- Goodwill from acquisitions does not grow faster than revenue 55.6%
- Net debt below twice EBITDA 3.2 x EBITDA
- Operating cash flow covers the profits of the last three years 683 m
- Return on capital at 15% or higher, or up versus two years ago 12.0%
- Insiders hold at least 10% or are net buyers 0.9%
A criterion without figures counts neither as passed nor as failed; a score is only produced from 7 judgeable criteria upwards. Source: fundamental data. All ten criteria in detail
Quality check
AAQS
6/10The 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% 4.7%
- Exp. sales growth 3Y > 5% 10.6%
- EBIT growth 10Y > 5% 29.2%
- Exp. EBIT growth 3Y > 5% 64.7%
- Net debt < 4x EBIT 3.4x
- EBIT positive, 10Y straight 10
- Max. EBIT decline < 50% 50.9%
- Return on equity > 15% –
- ROCE > 15% 12.0%
- Expected return > 10% 72.9%
View stocks with the full AAQS score · Read the methodology at AlleAktien
Source: fundamental data
Insiders
Insider Transactions
Reportable transactions by officers and major shareholders from SEC Form 4 filings. "Other" includes things like stock grants and option exercises without a buy/sell character.
| Date | Person | Role | Type | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 10, 2026 | Connly Linda | Director | Sell | 500 | 377.68 | 188,840 |
| Aug 7, 2026 | Cho Michael | Chief Strategy Officer | Sell | 3,500 | 375.20 | 1,313,200 |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Luff Loizides Melissa | Chief People Officer | Other | 46 | 291.64 | 13,415 |
The company
About the Company
Zebra Technologies Corporation ist mit ihren Tochtergesellschaften weltweit in der Branche für automatische Identifikations- und Datenerfassungslösungen tätig. Sie ist in zwei Segmenten tätig: Connected Frontline sowie Asset Visibility and Automation.
- Employees
- 10,700
- Headquarters
- Lincolnshire, IL
- Address
- 3 Overlook Point, 60069 Lincolnshire, United States
- Phone
- 847 634 6700
- Website
- zebra.com
- IPO Date
- 08/15/1991
- ISIN
- US9892071054
- Stock Split
- 3:2 on 08/26/2004
- Stock Split
- 3:2 on 08/22/2003
- Stock Split
- 2:1 on 12/29/1995
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| William J. Burns | CEO & Director | 1967 |
| Nathan Andrew Winters | Chief Financial Officer | 1980 |
| Cristen L. Kogl J.D. | Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary | 1966 |
| Richard Edward Hudson | Chief Revenue Officer | 1968 |
| Colleen M. O'Sullivan | Senior VP & Chief Accounting Officer | 1967 |
| Tom Bianculli | Chief Technology Officer | – |
| Matt Ausman | Chief Information Officer | – |
| Michael A. Steele C.F.A., IRC | Vice President of Investor Relations | 1973 |
| Therese Van Ryne | Senior Director of External Communications | – |
| Melissa Luff Loizides | 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).
- 08/04/2026 ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES CORP (ZBRA): Results of Operations and Financial Condition; 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.