SpaceX Shares Sink Even as Wall Street Rolls Out Bullish Price Targets

(WS News) – Shares of Space Exploration Technologies, trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, have tumbled below their IPO price just weeks after more than a dozen Wall Street banks issued overwhelmingly bullish outlooks on the stock following its record-breaking public debut.

The stock priced its IPO in June and briefly ranked among the five largest companies on the market, peaking near $211 within days of trading. Since then it has shed nearly 60 percent of its value, sliding toward the $125 range and leaving even early allocation winners looking at losses if they sold at current levels.

The retreat came as a surprise given the tone of analyst coverage. Eighteen banks that underwrote the offering issued research notes in early July, virtually all of them positive. The most aggressive came from Raymond James analyst Brian Gesuale, who initiated coverage with a Buy rating and an $800 price target, implying upside of roughly 450 percent from recent levels. Morgan Stanley set the second-highest target at $300, while Stifel’s $190 target was the most conservative of the group. The average analyst price target across roughly 29 firms sits at just over $239, implying about 65 percent upside from current prices.

Analysts pointed to SpaceX’s diversified business lines, including Starship and Starlink, and a total addressable market the company pegs at $28.5 trillion in its S-1 filing, as the basis for their optimism. Skeptics counter that reaching even the median target would require the company’s valuation to climb by roughly $1 trillion in under 18 months, and note that federal government contracts, which account for about a fifth of SpaceX’s revenue, expose the company to regulatory and political risk.