The Trump name and Elon Musk's preference for drones over traditional jet fighters helped send the shares of a drone maker into the stratosphere.
On Sunday, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX criticized the F-35, a traditional fighter, tweeting pictures of unmanned coordinated drones. That helped send shares of F-35 maker Lockheed Martin down almost 4%, leaving them off about 3% for the week through Wednesday trading.
Lockheed's loss appears to be a gain for a tiny drone manufacturer: Unusual Machines. The stock rose about 34% on Monday and continued to power ahead. Shares gained another 84.5% on Wednesday, closing at $9.89 apiece. The stock rose as high as $11.67 on Wednesday, up roughly 120% from Tuesday's close.
Shares of Unusual Machines continued to soar 45.8% on Friday. The stock is up 220%+ this week!
Adding to the fervor was news Wednesday that Donald Trump Jr. agreed to become an advisor to the company.
"Don Jr. joining our board of advisors provides us unique expertise we need as we bring drone component manufacturing back to America," said Allan Evans, Unusual Machines' CEO, in a news release. "He brings a wealth of experience and I look forward to his advice and role within the Company as we continue to build our business."
The younger Trump also weighed in. "The need for drones is obvious," he said in the release. "It is also obvious that we must stop buying Chinese drones and Chinese drone parts"
Unusual Machines makes components for all drones, including military ones, but it is still tiny. The recent gains give it a market capitalization of about $70 million.
Musk, of course, is no stranger to the aerospace and defense sector, or government contracting. SpaceX is the world's most valuable aerospace company and provides services to NASA and the Defense Department.
His criticism of jets isn't universally accepted. U.S. military officials recently defended their usefulness.
Jets are still much faster, can fly much farther, and deliver much more lethal weapons than drones. AeroDynamic Advisory managing director Richard Aboulafia told Barron's that modern jet fighters are "irreplaceable" for the foreseeable future.
None of that seems to have swayed Musk, who hasn't responded to requests for comment about the jet tweets. On Monday he called the F-35 design "broken" and "the worst military value for the money in history."
"The F-35 is the most advanced, survivable, and connected fighter aircraft in the world, a vital deterrent and the cornerstone of joint all-domain operations," the company said in response to Musk's comments on Sunday. It didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the Monday tweets.
Of course, drones have an important role and the U.S. military is investing in many drone and unmanned technologies. What that ultimately means for Unusual Machines is anyone's guess.
The company reported third-quarter sales of about $1.5 million. There were no sales reported in the third quarter of 2023.
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