Why Did SpaceX Stock Drop Today -- Then Pop?
Key Points
SpaceX stock fell 20% from its IPO price today.
Then it bounced.
One Wall Street analyst reminded investors of the progress SpaceX has made with Starship.
Is the sell-off finally over for Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) stock?
Shares of Elon Musk's famed space enterprise fell to $107 a share this morning, a near-6% drop that prompted Bloomberg to crow that SpaceX stock had fallen 20% and erased "$1.2 trillion" in value.
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(The actual news was even worse. The first time SpaceX traded on IPO day, it sold for $150 a share. Falling to $107 from that price was nearly a 30% drop!)
But no sooner had Bloomberg's story gone to print, than investors began buying SpaceX stock again. As of 11:50 a.m. ET, the space stock is up 1.3% from yesterday's close.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Did Wall Street save SpaceX?
What turned things around? Well, this morning Bernstein SocGen analyst Douglas Harned stepped in to reiterate his "outperform" rating on SpaceX, insisting the $107 stock is worth twice that -- $239 -- a number even higher than the best price SpaceX fetched in its first three days post-IPO.
Citing the successful launch and soft-water-landing of Ship 40 as part of SpaceX's 13th Starship flight test, Harned pointed out that this is the V3 Ship model SpaceX will use to travel to the moon for NASA. It's the big Ship that will be able to put V2 Mobile and V3 Starlink satellites in orbit.
And it's the Ship that will fulfill Elon Musk's dream of putting artificial intelligence data centers in orbit.
Is SpaceX stock ready to turn around?
This is the bet that may finally work out for SpaceX. Elon Musk predicts putting AI data centers in orbit will unlock a $28.5 trillion total addressable market for SpaceX -- nearly as much revenue as the entire United States generates today.
If he's right about that, SpaceX stock could finally be a buy.
Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.