We may be far from the at-home robotics revolution the Jetsons promised, but there’s still plenty of innovation brewing beneath the surface. While headlines often declare the imminent replacement of workers by AI-enabled robots, reality presents a more optimistic scenario. As the quality of our lives and the dollar value of our labor rise, we’re likely to keep outsourcing greater aspects of our at-home lives to autonomous or robotics systems.
However, one issue for retail investors is that many of the most groundbreaking companies remain private, limiting public investment opportunities. This inaccessibility makes investing in the top future robotics firms challenging, although ETFs like Cathie Wood’s ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (BATS:ARKQ) can somewhat mitigate this gap.
If you prefer not to automate your investment in robotics stocks through ETFs, these three companies stand out as top contenders among robotics stocks, targeting a future at-home market.
Zebra Technologies (ZBRA)
Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ:ZBRA) is a robotics stock selling picks and shovels to at-home robotics makers via a range of sensing and communications tech and tools. Most interestingly, the company sells autonomous robot base models to industries adapting to workplace robotics but that lack off-the-shelf options elsewhere. In other words, Zebra is selling robotics platforms easily tweaked, changed and adapted to specific needs — exactly what the future of at-home robotics promises.
Unlike many robotics stocks, Zebra is profitable and stable, though mostly due to its wide-ranging revenue streams, including printing, scanning, computing and software tech. Still, diverse revenue streams mean that Zebra can afford to pump cash into its burgeoning robotics section with fewer risks of losing the operation to a robotics money pit.
The company’s end-of-year report affirms its overall strength, as the robotics stock hit $296 million in net income at a 6.5% margin — not bad, all things considered. Still, the report was a miss and investors were disappointed. Shares dipped slightly, but not drastically, as many recognize Zebra’s long-term robotics potential. But that doesn’t mean it’s too late to ride this bandwagon into the at-home robotics future.
iRobot (IRBT)
iRobot (NASDA:IRBT) is an easy pick for at-home robotics stocks, but not for the reasons you may immediately think of. Don’t buy iRobot stock for its range of autonomous vacuum cleaners (as useful as they may be). Instead, buy iRobot stock for its deep portfolio of advanced patented tech and the opportunities available for third-party licensing. After all, that’s what drove Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) ill-fated acquisition.
Just look at Amazon’s existing patent, uncovered early in the company’s iRobot foray, for “An autonomously motile device [that] may be capable of moving or performing other actions within an environment.” Sounds like an Amazon Alexa-meets-iRobot vacuum, doesn’t it? There’s little doubt in my mind that Amazon’s attempted acquisition was an attempt to buy iRobot’s underlying tech for $1.7 billion rather than develop systems in-house. And, just because Amazon’s acquisition is on the outs doesn’t mean iRobot’s underlying tech and patent portfolio is useless – additional acquisition and licensing opportunities abound. Likewise, trading at just 0.3x sales, this robotics stock is just too cheap to ignore.
Samsara (IOT)
Like Zebra Technologies, Samsara (NYSE:IOT) makes and integrates the underlying infrastructure that robotics systems need to operate in your home. In this case, rather than advanced sensing tech, Samsara works extensively within the growing Internet of Things sector, as the company’s IOT ticker implies. The Internet of Things broadly describes an interconnected network of physical objects and the underlying means of communication between them. In a nutshell, Samsara’s tech applied to at-home automation could basically act as the invisible ecosystem tying a range of robots together and keeping the entire operation running smoothly.
Samsara is already testing and deploying that tech, albeit at a much larger scale. The company’s current efforts focus on fleet vehicle management and safety, movement tracking, heavy equipment operations and similarly behind-the-scenes but impactful workflows.
Samsara hasn’t quite nailed profitability yet, but that shouldn’t stop early investors interested in robotics stocks. The company’s most recent report included a 39% annual recurring revenue increase and a 20% improvement to its overall adjusted free cash flow margin – not bad, especially considering management expects to nail positive non-GAAP earnings this year.
On the date of publication, Jeremy Flint held no positions in the securities mentioned. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.