2 Winners of Earnings Season, and 1 Surprising Loser

Key Points

• Drone maker AeroVironment broke records for revenue thanks to high demand for its products.

• Social media giant Meta Platforms continued to post powerful growth, beating analysts' estimates.

• Satellite radio specialist SiriusXM couldn't take advantage of its strong moat, disappointing investors.

• 10 stocks we like better than Meta Platforms ›

All in all, the most recent quarterly earnings season on the U.S. market was a positive one. Many companies exceeded the consensus analyst estimates for revenue, profitability, or both. Often these beaters were raisers too, lifting certain guidance items on the back of better-than-anticipated performance in their reported quarters.

Some quarterlies were particularly impressive. I'm thinking of those posted by drone manufacturer AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV) and social media king Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). As with any earnings season, however, there were also some busts along with the beats, so for balance I'll also take a look at the disappointing quarter from satellite radio specialist SiriusXM (NASDAQ: SIRI).

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1. AeroVironment

The first of our trio to unveil its results during the summer earnings season, AeroVironment is a specialty defense company that specializes in combat drones and associated products.

That's a solid business these days, given enduring conflicts in the world (such as Ukraine) and flash points that might spark in the wrong circumstances (Taiwan). Governments of the world want to feel secure and combat-ready, and for modern militaries, that increasingly means operating fleets of drones.

Near the end of June, AeroVironment published its fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 numbers. The company booked an all-time record for revenue in that frame; this was a superb 40% higher year-over-year at slightly over $275 million. Another historical high was recorded for bookings, which climbed to $1.2 billion. Non-GAAP (adjusted) net income per share nearly quadrupled, to $1.61.

Analysts tracking the stock were expecting a good quarter from AeroVironment, but this one was outstanding. Those pundits, on average, were modeling only $242 million on the top line, and $1.38 per share for adjusted net profitability.

2. Meta Platforms

Meta, owner and operator of the hard-to-avoid Facebook and Instagram sites (plus the less ubiquitous messaging service WhatsApp) took its turn on stage at the end of July. Ubiquity has its advantages in the social media world, not least that it draws a huge audience and (by extension) advertisers willing to precisely target likely customers among that audience using Meta's cutting-edge tools.

So as ever, Meta put up double-digit growth figures for its second quarter. Revenue advanced by 22% to $47.5 billion. Operationally speaking, the company's family daily active people (DAP; its current user engagement metric of choice) bumped 6% higher to 3.48 billion. All this filtered down into a headline net income figure that was 36% fatter at $18.3 billion ($7.14 per share).

"Crushing" would be an appropriate word to describe actual performance versus the consensus analyst estimates; those professionals tracking Meta stock were collectively estimating $44.7 billion for revenue and $5.85 per share for net income.

3. SiriusXM

At the risk of ending this article on a negative note, we have the dispiriting quarter put up by SiriusXM. On paper, the company has a supreme competitive advantage, as it's the one and only provider of satellite radio services in North America.

However, in this age of 5G telephony that allows smartphone users to stream basically any kind of entertainment they want, that isn't a slam-bang advantage for the company. Over the past few years, its eroding fundamentals have reflected this, and its second quarter results disseminated on July 31 didn't provide much relief.

For the period, revenue slipped by almost 2% year over year to $2.1 billion. That isn't surprising, giving the 1% dip in subscriber count (to under 33 million). Those dynamics weren't helped by slightly higher operating expenses. The company's attributable GAAP net income fell by almost 33% to $205 million.

SiriusXM broadly met the consensus analyst estimate for revenue, but at $0.57, its earnings per share (EPS) fell well short of the $0.75 collective prognosticator forecast.

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Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends AeroVironment and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.