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Zebra (ZBRA) to Buy Fetch Robotics, Enhance Product Offerings

Zebra Technologies Corporation ZBRA recently announced its intention to buy Fetch Robotics, Inc., a leading developer of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for $290 million.

It’s worth noting that Zebra already owns 5% of Fetch Robotics and the latest announcement is related to the acquisition of the remaining 95% of the company.

Zebra’s shares gained 0.5% yesterday to eventually close the trading session at $532.02.

San Jose, CA-based Fetch Robotics is engaged in providing a wide range of AMRs and cloud-based enterprise software for integrating wide-ranging automated workflows into warehouse and manufacturing operations. Notably, the company’s Fetch Cloud Robotics Platform offers automation solutions for inventory management and material handling in a facility.

Inside the Headlines

The acquisition will augment Zebra’s Enterprise Asset Intelligence offerings, which empower users with operational visibility and provide important business, market and customer insights. Notably, Zebra will leverage Fetch Robotics’ expertise in intelligent industrial automation space and combine it with its workflow solutions like FulfillmentEdge and SmartSight to further expand into the manufacturing and distribution markets.

Notably, this buyout will strengthen Zebra’s capability to offer a comprehensive line of advanced robotics solutions to customers. This, in turn, will help them in boosting manufacturing processes with enhanced throughput, efficacy and productivity.

The buyout is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2021, subject to certain regulatory approvals.

Other Inorganic Moves

In September 2020, the company completed the acquisition of Reflexis Systems, Inc, which has been augmenting its software offerings across retail and other key markets. In addition, it completed the buyouts of Cortexica Vision Systems Ltd., Profitect Inc. and Temptime Corporation in 2019. Notably, the buyouts contributed 1.4% to the company’s net sales in the first quarter of 2021.

Zacks Rank, Price Performance and Estimate Revisions

Zebra, with approximately $28.5 billion market capitalization, currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The company is poised to benefit from robust demand for printing and supplies, enterprise mobile computing, RFID product lines, as well as services and software in the quarters ahead. Also, acquired assets and strong cash flows are likely to be beneficial.

In the past three months, the company’s share price has increased 7.9% compared with the industry’s growth of 6.8%.

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Zacks Investment Research

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Zebra’s earnings is pegged at $17.08 for 2021, up 9.5% from the 60-day-ago figure. The consensus estimate for 2022 earnings is pegged at $18.36, up 7.4% over the same time frame.

Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks from the Zacks Industrial Products sector are Pentair plc PNR, Fuel Tech, Inc. FTEK and Sharps Compliance Corp. SMED. While Pentair sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Fuel Tech and Sharps Compliance carry a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Pentair delivered an earnings surprise of 25.36%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.

Fuel Tech delivered an earnings surprise of 82.92%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.

Sharps Compliance delivered an earnings surprise of 306.67%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.

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