Public safety technology provider TASER International Inc.’s (TASR) shares climbed 6.11% yesterday after it disclosed new orders for its Axon cameras from three law enforcement agencies. This is the latest in a series of orders clinched by TASER following Obama's call to outfit police departments with body-worn video cameras.
The latest order calls for TASER to provide the Cleveland Police Department (OH) 1,500 AXON flex and body cameras, 60 for the Tampa Police Department (FL), and 40 for TASER's home city of Scottsdale, AZ. Additionally, all three law enforcement agencies bought a five-year subscription to the company's Evidence.com data gathering and storage system.
The company said that all of the new orders were received in the first quarter and are expected to be shipped by the quarter’s end.
TASER has lately been a hot stock riding high on robust demand for its body-worn cameras in the wake of the President’s call to maximize transparency and accountability between the law enforcing agencies and the public. Obama was concerned that the Ferguson incident would result in a serious lack of trust between the police and the community at large. He believes that the new standards and body-worn cameras will make the police force more judicious in its use of firearms, thereby reducing unfortunate incidents like the Ferguson case.
Last December, President Obama proposed a funding of $263 million for the purchase of 50,000 body-worn cameras for law enforcement agencies. The funding includes $75 million over three years to be spent by the police on the purchase of cameras. The overall funding also includes provisions for additional training of police officers.
The White House plans to equip 50,000 officers with cameras, thereby doubling the number of cameras presently in use in the country (read: TASER Shares Up on Obama's Call for Body Cameras). This is expected to boost the top line of the likes of TASER and GoPro, Inc., (GPRO), a developer of action-cameras. GoPro which went public on Jun 27, 2014, also sells body cameras to law enforcement agencies.
In Dec 2014, the company announced that the Los Angeles Police Department has decided to purchase 860 AXON body-worn video cameras along with a five-year subscription to EVIDENCE.com (read: TASER Body Cameras to be Used Widely by LA Police Force).
Recently, TASER announced that it received over 1,200 Axon and Evidence.com orders in the fourth quarter 2014 from 15 police departments in eight states. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has been a consistent performer beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the last four quarters with an impressive average beat of 71.39%.
Better-ranked stocks in the space include Brady Corp. (BRC) and Digimarc Corp. (DMRC), both holding a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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