New York, May 12, 2026, 17:10 (EDT)
- Zebra Technologies jumped roughly 11.5% to $241.79 as the company’s first-quarter sales increased 14.3% to $1.495 billion, with non-GAAP EPS landing at $4.75.
- This wasn’t only about topping estimates. Shares responded to Zebra’s raised 2026 targets: sales growth in the 10% to 14% zone, non-GAAP EPS between $18.30 and $18.70, and free cash flow topping $900 million.
- Bulls latch onto prospects for a sharper rebound in automation and AI, but bears aren’t out of arguments — memory costs, inorganic growth, and Q2 margin squeezes keep them in the fight.
Zebra Technologies jumped out as a rare winner in a choppy U.S. session. Shares climbed 11.5% to $241.79, after touching $259.19 earlier in the day. Traders snapped up the stock following its first-quarter beat and an improved full-year forecast.
The timing wasn’t lost on traders. Zebra wrapped up Monday at $216.96, marking its third consecutive decline and a 4.01% drop, leaving the stock still lagging—about 38.5% off its 52-week high. But with today’s results, the narrative shifted: instead of lingering worries over a sluggish hardware rebound, talk turned to a possible jump in automation demand—faster than many had been pricing in.
Headline results looked strong, but the story was really in the details. Net sales climbed to $1.495 billion, up from $1.308 billion a year ago. Organic sales — which leave out currency and M&A noise — posted a 4.3% gain. On the earnings side, non-GAAP EPS came in at $4.75, compared to $4.02 last year. Adjusted EBITDA reached $347 million, representing 23.2% of adjusted sales.
Management struck a confident note—never tipping into overconfidence. CEO Bill Burns called out “durability of demand” in the quarter and highlighted organic growth across both segments and geographies, with manufacturing out front. Burns credited the rebound to what Zebra calls “intelligent operations”—a catch-all for digitizing physical workflows using scanners, printers, RFID, mobile computers, machine vision, and expanding AI at the edge. Zebra Technologies
Guidance was the main driver behind the move in the stock. Zebra is projecting full-year sales will rise 10% to 14%, with about seven points of that coming from deals and currency effects, and sees non-GAAP EPS between $18.30 and $18.70. Using the midpoint, the latest share price puts the stock at around 13 times expected adjusted earnings. That’s the story behind the chart’s pop: investors looked past Q1, focusing on the upgraded full-year picture.
The numbers from the call helped justify the reaction. CFO Nathan Winters broke it down: Connected Frontline—when including Elo Touch—jumped 20.6%, or 3.8% if you strip out acquisitions. Asset Visibility & Automation climbed 4.8%, lifted by gains in printing and machine vision. North America was up 4%, Asia Pacific gained 11%, and Latin America got a 10% bump. That kind of geographic mix is key; a single big order can easily distort Zebra’s headline figures, but management leaned into the idea that this quarter’s lift came from more than just one-off deals.
This wasn’t a sweeping shift into risk. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lost ground—hot inflation data, rising oil prices, and a drag on AI-related names kept pressure on stocks. Rate bets, for what it’s worth, stayed firm: Kalshi–Polymarket’s Fed tracker showed a 97.0% chance on Kalshi and 97.6% on Polymarket for no rate move in June. Looking further out, Polymarket had “0 rate cuts” leading for 2024 at 62%. To put it bluntly, cheaper money just isn’t priced in. Zebra, for its part, had to post its own numbers to justify its climb. AP News
The read-through came into sharper focus against its rivals. Cognex, another machine-vision player, slipped 2.3%. Shares of Impinj, which focuses tightly on RFID, dropped 3.6%. Honeywell dipped just a bit. Not every automation or tracking stock got a free pass—Zebra’s move reflected real earnings leverage and a raised forecast, not just sector hype.
Bullish investors argue Zebra is shifting out of a rebound phase and into something more solid. Burns pointed to machine vision posting robust double-digit growth in Q1, describing it as an “inflection point.” He flagged new openings in logistics, manufacturing, and e-commerce. RFID demand is also spreading—no longer just a retail apparel play, but now stretching into fresh foods, parcel tracking, quick-service restaurants, and healthcare. The pitch: Zebra isn’t just cycling barcode hardware anymore. It’s pushing data capture deeper into automated supply chains. The Motley Fool
The bear argument is hard to miss. Organic growth in Q1 landed at just 4.3%, while the company’s full-year sales outlook bakes in around seven percentage points from deals and currency moves. Memory remains a constraint. Zebra’s playbook includes leaning on price hikes, supply sources, and productivity tweaks, but Winters flagged pricier memory as the main culprit behind the Q2 EBITDA margin drop—about 1.5 points of the two-point sequential fall come from that.
But here’s a wrinkle in the price action: the stock lost some ground after its initial jump. That pullback hints that at least some investors are treating this as a rebound play, rather than a clean valuation reset. Zebra’s presentation pointed to steps for dealing with memory shortages—raising mobile computer prices in late March, working with suppliers, switching to more available memory types, and lining up alternate supply. Still, these are just workarounds. They don’t mean the memory crunch has fully passed.
Capital returns set the tone here. Zebra scooped up $300 million in stock during Q1 and tacked on another $200 million buyback through April. Winters pointed out the company can steer all free cash flow toward repurchases if shares stay appealing. That’s a boost for EPS and a clear signal of management’s confidence. But with shares jumping hard today, pressure mounts: Q2 needs to back up management’s claims on demand, memory supply, and margins.
