SpaceX shares rebounded sharply on Tuesday, ending a brutal seven-session losing streak that had erased roughly 21% of the stock’s value.
Macquarie analysts led by Paul Golding described the pullback as a buying opportunity, arguing that SpaceX’s fundamental story remains largely intact despite the recent sell-off.
“We see the pullback presenting an opportunity to gain exposure to the leader across launch, communications and space infrastructure,” Golding said in a note to clients.
Macquarie rates SpaceX at outperform with a $250 price target, implying more than double the upside from Monday’s closing price of $119.85 per share.
Shares surged as much as 8.4% intraday on Tuesday before closing up 3.7%, marking the stock’s biggest single-day gain since June 30, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
SpaceX added $48.96 billion in market capitalization on Tuesday, closing at $1.639 trillion and reclaiming its position as the seventh-largest U.S. company by market cap from Meta Platforms.
The rally followed SpaceX’s announcement that it would report second-quarter earnings on August 4, a date carrying unusual significance given the company’s insider lock-up structure.
On August 6, the second full trading day following the earnings report, up to 911.5 million class A common shares held by employees and investors will become eligible for sale.
SpaceX took a staggered approach to its lock-up period, allowing insiders to sell portions of their holdings at earlier intervals to reduce the risk of a sudden flood of selling pressure hitting the market.
An additional 10% of shares could be freed up early if the stock closes at least 30% above the IPO price for five of the ten trading days leading into the earnings report.
The stock currently sits below its mid-June IPO price of $135, a significant retreat from the near-$3 trillion market cap the company commanded just days after going public.
Short sellers have been piling into the stock in recent weeks, with bearish positioning reaching roughly a third of the company’s available public float as shares tumbled.
Elon Musk fired back at the short sellers on Monday, posting to social media platform X that “the survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low.”
SpaceX is also preparing to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 Starlink satellites into low orbit after scrubbing the same mission on Monday, the second cancelled launch the company has faced in a week.
