Zebra Technologies (ZBRA)
Forward P/E 18.32x is 1.12x the peer median of 16.31x — a small premium inside the 0.90–1.15 fairly priced band — and it is paid for by delivered growth: latest-quarter revenue grew +20.4% year over year (PRIMARY/EDGAR), matching its cluster. Trailing P/E 35.42x against forward 18.32x implies a large expected earnings step-up, and PEG 1.60 says the price is not cheap on growth-adjusted terms, which keeps it from an undervalued label. Delivered demand check: the cluster median grew +20.4% year over year — demand rising.
What would change this label: Moves toward UNDERVALUED if the price falls enough to bring forward P/E to about 14.7x (0.90x the peer median) or below at unchanged estimates, or growth accelerates above +30% year over year at the current multiple. Moves toward OVERVALUED if forward P/E re-rates above about 18.8x (1.15x the peer median) or revenue growth slows below +5% year over year for two consecutive quarters.
Zebra makes the scanners and handheld computers warehouses and shops use to track goods, and sales grew about 20%. Its shares cost about 18 times next year's expected profit, only slightly more than similar companies at about 16 times — a fair price for its growth.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Zebra Technologies returned +32.91% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Zebra Technologies: -67.8% (2021-12-10 to 2023-11-01). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E 18.32x is 1.12x the peer median of 16.31x — a small premium inside the 0.90–1.15 fairly priced band — and it is paid for by delivered growth: latest-quarter revenue grew +20.4% year over year (PRIMARY/EDGAR), matching its cluster. Trailing P/E 35.42x against forward 18.32x implies a large expected earnings step-up, and PEG 1.60 says the price is not cheap on growth-adjusted terms, which keeps it from an undervalued label. Delivered demand check: the cluster median grew +20.4% year over year — demand rising. The company’s forward P/E is 18.3× against a peer median of 16.3×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Electronics, components & manufacturing group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 20.4% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. Latest-quarter sales growth was +20.4% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zebra Technologies (ZBRA) | $383.02 | 18.3× | 35.4× |
| CDW | $160.85 | 14.1× | 19.3× |
| JBL | $287.91 | 16.3× | 29.5× |
| TDY | $654.99 | 27.9× | 30.0× |
| FLEX | $87.49 | 14.5× | 31.6× |
| ROP | $434.48 | 17.9× | 17.3× |
| Peer median | 16.3× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
Gross margin = gross profit divided by sales, from SEC filings.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jul 2026 2026-07-04 | $1.6B | 53.0% | $233M | 4.85 | $198M |
| Q/E Apr 2026 2026-04-04 | $1.5B | 49.6% | $135M | 2.72 | $163M |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $1.5B | 47.3% | $70M | — | $327M |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-27 | $1.3B | 48.0% | $101M | 1.97 | $216M |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-28 | $1.3B | 47.6% | $112M | 2.19 | $130M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-29 | $1.3B | 49.3% | $136M | 2.62 | $158M |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $1.3B | 48.6% | $163M | — | $288M |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-28 | $1.3B | 48.8% | $137M | 2.64 | $277M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-29 | $1.2B | 48.4% | $113M | 2.17 | $278M |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-30 | $1.2B | 47.9% | $115M | 2.23 | $111M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $1.0B | 44.4% | $17M | — | $102M |
| Q/E Sep 2023 2023-09-30 | $956M | 44.7% | $-15M | -0.28 | $-49M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES CORP |
| Chief executive | Bill Burns (source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4909304-zebra-technologies-corporation-zbra-presents-at-bernstein-42nd-annual-strategic-decisions) |
| Sector | Technology — Electronic Equipment & Instruments — sells barcode scanners, mobile computers and RFID tracking for warehouses and retail |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $383.02 |
| Market value (market cap) | $18.1B — share price times shares outstanding of 47,310,660 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $5.8B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $539M |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $904M |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jul 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +32.91% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -67.8% (2021-12-10 to 2023-11-01) |
What we could not verify
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000877212.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000877212.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/ZBRA/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.