Mercury Systems Stock Plunges 10%, Erasing $491 Million, A Day After Board Shuffle
The defense electronics supplier's shares fell in Wednesday trading, the session after it named CEO Bill Ballhaus chairman.
Mercury Systems, which makes processing electronics for aerospace and defense, saw its shares fall 10.03% to $72.26 in Wednesday trading as of 12:27 p.m. ET, erasing about $491 million in market value. The drop came the session after an 8-K filed Tuesday showed CEO William Ballhaus was named chairman after the annual meeting.
A board reshuffle, then a slide
Barry Nearhos became lead independent director at the same time Ballhaus took the chair, according to the filing. Shareholders reelected all three Class II directors and approved executive pay.
The stock was on pace for its biggest one-day drop since Feb. 4, when it fell 22.3%. Its market value stood at $4.4 billion in Wednesday trading.
Up 10% this year, still far from the peak
Mercury shares were up about 10% year to date at Tuesday's close, trailing the S&P 500, which was up about 11% over the same span. Before Wednesday's drop, the stock sat 36% below its highest close of the past year, set on July 2.
Mercury sells to US and European defense prime contractors, the US government and commercial aerospace equipment makers. Its products handle signal and data processing for radar, electronic warfare, avionics and weapons systems, according to its annual report.
Record bookings in the last report
On August 18, Mercury reported fourth-quarter revenue of $290 million, up 6.1% from a year earlier, and record bookings of $660 million, up 93.1%. Backlog topped $1.9 billion.
GAAP net income, the standard accounting measure, was $1 million, against $16 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA was $49 million, compared with $51 million. For fiscal 2026, revenue was $984 million and the net loss was $30 million.
"We delivered fourth quarter fiscal 2026 results that were ahead of our expectations," Ballhaus, then Chairman and CEO, said in the release, adding that the company was increasing its outlook for organic growth.
Mercury is scheduled to report quarterly results on Tuesday, November 10.
Sources
- Mercury Systems (MRCY) Earnings Expected to Grow: What to Know Ahead of Next Week's Release — Yahoo Finance
- The company's filing (Mercury Systems) — SEC filing
- Mercury Systems — Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 2026-07-03 (quarterly results) — SEC EDGAR
- Mercury Systems — earnings release (Form 8-K, Item 2.02), filed 2026-08-18 — SEC EDGAR
