New York, Feb 26, 2026, 09:00 EST — Premarket
- Axon shares edged up 0.2% in premarket after a 17.6% jump in the prior session.
- The company’s Q4 beat and 2026 growth outlook pushed analysts to revisit targets.
- A director-officer filed to sell 10,000 shares under Rule 144, a notice showed.
Axon Enterprise shares were up 0.2% at $520.99 in premarket trading on Thursday, holding near Wednesday’s close of $520.18 after the stock rallied 17.6% in the regular session. (Public)
The move has turned Axon into a quick gut-check for growth investors after a choppy stretch for software names. Traders are trying to separate companies that can sell “AI” from those that can sell it, book it, and renew it.
Axon sits in the messier middle: hardware in the field, subscriptions in the cloud, and a customer base that tends to buy in multi-year chunks. That mix can smooth revenue, but it also leaves margins exposed to tariffs and the price of components.
Late Tuesday, Axon reported fourth-quarter revenue of $797 million, up 39% from a year earlier, and said software and services revenue rose 40% to about $343 million. It posted non-GAAP net income of $178 million, or $2.15 per diluted share, and guided for 2026 revenue growth of 27% to 30% with a 25.5% adjusted EBITDA margin; adjusted EBITDA is a profit measure that strips out items such as interest, taxes and some non-cash charges. “Nobody should be more aggressive or more thoughtful on AI,” CEO Rick Smith said in a shareholder letter. (Axon IR)
A Reuters report said Axon has also benefited from rising corporate spending on executive security and increased federal investment tied to immigration enforcement. Axon President Joshua Isner told analysts there was a “major opportunity across federal law enforcement,” and Northland Capital Markets analyst Michael Latimore said “demand for public safety continues to grow,” while TD Cowen analyst Andrew Sherman called the quarter one that “knocked it out of the park.” (Investing)
TD Cowen on Wednesday raised its price target on Axon shares to $950 from $925, keeping its rating, and pointed to faster bookings growth and guidance that topped the broader Street view. Other firms tweaked targets in both directions while largely sticking with bullish ratings, according to an Investing.com report. (Investing)
A separate filing showed director and officer Patrick W. Smith filed a Form 144 notice to sell 10,000 Axon shares, with the planned sale tied to a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted in May 2025. Form 144 is a notice of a proposed sale under Rule 144, which governs sales of restricted and control securities. (Quotemedia)
Axon’s results land as competition tightens in public-safety tech, where vendors pitch bundled ecosystems that mix cameras, sensors and software. Motorola Solutions is one of the larger names selling into police and first responders, though Axon has kept a strong grip on body cameras and digital evidence tools.
Still, the run-up raises the bar. Tariffs and hardware mix already chipped away at segment margins, and Axon’s heavy use of stock-based pay can turn strong growth into noisy profit lines and dilution fears. A pullback in government budgets or a cooling in corporate security spend would test how “sticky” the next leg of demand really is.
The next stop on the calendar is March 3, when Axon is scheduled to present at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference — the kind of stage where investors will press for detail on federal opportunities, margins and the pace of AI-related bookings. (Axon IR)
