Zebra (ZBRA) Stock Jumps 14% After Crushing Q1 Estimates

TLDR

• Zebra Technologies reported Q1 EPS of $4.75, up 18.2% year over year, beating the analyst estimate of $4.26 by $0.49.
• Revenue came in at $1.5 billion, up 14.3% year over year, topping the $1.48 billion consensus estimate.
• Adjusted EBITDA of $347 million beat estimates by 9%, coming in at a 23.2% margin.
• Zebra raised full-year 2026 EPS guidance to $18.50 at the midpoint, up from prior guidance of $18.10.
• ZBRA stock jumped roughly 14% in premarket trading to around $247.80 following the results.

Zebra Technologies posted a strong first quarter, sending ZBRA stock up roughly 14% in premarket trading to around $247.80 — a sharp move for a stock that closed at $216.96 the day before.

The company reported Q1 earnings per share of $4.75, up 18.2% from $4.02 a year ago. That beat the Wall Street consensus of $4.25 to $4.26 by $0.49.

Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.5 billion, up 14.3% year over year. Analysts had expected $1.48 billion.

Zebra Technologies Corporation, ZBRA

Adjusted EBITDA came in at $347 million, beating estimates of $318.4 million — a 9% beat at a 23.2% margin.

The Q1 EPS result also cleared Zebra’s own guidance range of $4.05 to $4.35 per share, which was on the higher end of what the company had projected.

Guidance Raised Across the Board

Zebra lifted its full-year 2026 EPS guidance to approximately $18.50 at the midpoint — up from prior guidance of $18.10 and above the analyst consensus of $17.82 to $17.96.

Full-year 2026 revenue guidance was raised to $6.1 billion, up from the prior $6 billion outlook. Wall Street had been modeling $6 billion.

For Q2 2026, Zebra guided EPS of $4.20 to $4.50, with the midpoint roughly in line with the analyst estimate of $4.14 to $4.20.

Burns also cited e-commerce, automation, and Physical AI trends as tailwinds heading into the rest of the year.

The Elo Touch acquisition, completed earlier, contributed “solid profitable growth” in the quarter as the company begins to extract synergies.

A Stock Still Recovering From a Rough Stretch

Context matters here. ZBRA had been under pressure heading into earnings. The stock was down 11% year to date and down roughly 28% over the past 12 months coming into Tuesday.

At its peak in early 2022, ZBRA traded near $600. The stock has been working its way back.

Revenue also tells a recovery story. Zebra posted $5.8 billion in sales in 2022. That figure declined in both 2023 and 2024 before recovering to $5.4 billion in 2025. The 2026 full-year guidance of $6.1 billion would push sales past those 2022 highs.

Two-year annualized EPS growth came in at 37.9% — well ahead of the 13.2% revenue growth over the same period. Part of that EPS outperformance came from buybacks, with the diluted share count shrinking 4.2% over two years.

Operating margin for Q1 came in at 14.4%, flat year over year. Adjusted operating margin was 18.3%, down 2.8 percentage points from the same period last year, as expenses grew faster than revenue.

Free cash flow margin slipped to 10.9% from 12.1% in Q1 last year.

Zebra received 11 positive EPS revisions and 2 negative ones in the 90 days leading up to the report.

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