AeroVironment in direct talks with Ukraine for more drone sales, CEO says (NASDAQ:AVAV)

AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV) +4.8% post-market, following a 5.5% loss in Friday’s regular trading day, after CEO Wahid Nawabi told Bloomberg that the company is in direct talks with Ukraine’s government over the possibility of additional sales of the company’s Switchblade dive-bombing drones.

Despite the surge in deliveries of the drones to Ukraine, the Pentagon “has a decent quantity of our Switchblades in stock inventory and we stand ready to produce thousands and thousands more” at a dedicated West Coast factory, Nawabi told Bloomberg.

The company wants the Defense Department to give it a designation, known as “DO,” for future Switchblade and other systems that will give it a higher priority in the supply chain for critical components like microprocessors, Nawabi said.

AeroVironment (AVAV) shares sank Friday as Baird analysts issued a downgrade, saying the ~60% surge during the past two months “reflects a lot of future Switchblade orders which will take time to materialize.”