Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: ZBRA) early Tuesday posted market-beating first quarter earnings results and offered a solid outlook for the second quarter, as demand for its data collection products remains robust.

The Lincolnshire, IL-based automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) products maker reported Q1:

• earnings per share (EPS) of $1.37, which was $0.07 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.30 [while]
• revenues rose 1.9% from last year to $865 million, also topping analysts’ view for $847.76 million.

Looking ahead, ZBRA:

• forecast Q2 EPS of $1.35 to $1.55, straddling Wall Street’s estimate of $1.45...
• sees Q2 revenues ranging from $864.4 to $890.8 million, also in-line with analysts’ view for $873.33 million...[and]
• expects “low to mid-single digit” organic net sales growth for the full year 2017, up from a previous view of low single digit growth.

The company commented via press release:

“During the quarter, our team extended Zebra’s leadership through superior execution of our strategy.

As a result, we drove better-than-expected first quarter sales performance in our Enterprise segment and achieved earnings per share near the top end of our guidance range.

We also retired another $80 million of debt, keeping us on track for at least $300 million of pay down for the full-year.”

...Year-to-date, ZBRA has gained 12.74%, versus a 7.68% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

ZBRA currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #19 of 55 stocks in the Industrial – Machinery category.