TL;DR
Kratos Defense has become analysts' favorite drone-and-aerial-target play as war demand accelerates, with price targets ranging from $85 to $150 against a stock near $67.
MSM Perspective
Market Beat reported this week that Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an overweight rating and $115 price target on Kratos, reflecting the broader analyst consensus forming around drone-age defense names.
X Perspective
Defense stock X is all over KTOS — the drone angle is the dominant frame, with accounts noting Kratos supplies the BQM-177A aerial targets the Navy uses to train against real threats.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The war has made Kratos Defense's product catalog look prescient.
The San Diego-based defense contractor, which makes unmanned aerial targets, counter-drone systems, and combat training simulators, has accumulated $196 million in new contracts since January — a $61 million Navy modification for BQM-177A aerial targets, a $65 million aviation and warfighter training award, and a $7 million counter-UAS systems order, among others. Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an overweight rating this week with a $115 price target. The consensus across 20 Wall Street analysts sits at a median $118, with a high-end target of $150. [1]
The stock trades near $67, which means the median analyst sees 75% upside from here. That is a lot of conviction for a company most retail investors have never heard of.
The bull case is simple: Kratos builds the targets the military shoots at during training — and with real drone threats proliferating across the Iran conflict, the training queue has gotten very long and very serious. Counter-UAS systems are a direct beneficiary of every drone exchange reported in the Strait of Hormuz. Zacks projects 41.9% EPS growth for 2026. [2]
The risk is equally simple: defense contracts are lumpy, the stock has already moved considerably from its 2025 lows, and a ceasefire — if one ever arrives — takes pressure off the training and counter-drone pipeline. For now, the war is doing the selling. Analysts are just writing down the number.
-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco
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