SpaceX shares rise as Morgan Stanley analyst sets $300 price target
SpaceX shares closed up over 7% on Monday, reaching a multimonth closing high not seen since June at $171.92 before climbing further to $175.54 in morning trading. According to Yahoo Finance, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas reiterated an Outperform rating and a $300 price target in a note titled “SPCX $159: Cheap and Getting Cheaper,” telling investors they have a unique opportunity to buy shares ahead of major upcoming test flights and quarterly earnings. Shares rose about 7.7% on Monday from a previous close of $171.09, and added another half percent on Tuesday, with SPCX rising about 0.40% during pre-market hours on that day. Jonas’s note kicked off the move higher this week. Morgan Stanley’s bullish call on Sunday added to SPCX’s momentum. The $300 price target suggests about 75% upside from Monday’s close of $171.09. Well off its 52-week low of $104.83, the stock remains meaningfully below its 52-week high of $225.64.
Morgan Stanley Defends Valuation Multiple As Shares Rebound
The aerospace company’s stock experienced a sharp downturn following its mid-June IPO, shedding roughly 48% through late July before staging a 58% rebound since August. FactSet data shows the equity trading at 133 times forward earnings. Adam Jonas argues the valuation remains attractive relative to growth potential when adjusted for the wider Space and Intelligence Economy. Investing.com added that Jonas views the stock as trading roughly 40% below the valuation multiple of mega-cap artificial intelligence peers on a growth-adjusted basis. According to analysts at Morgan Stanley, SpaceX is “cheap” at current prices, highlighting potential catalysts, including “future AI product releases, Starship progress, and additional neocloud contracts.”
Yahoo Finance noted that Jonas pointed out how few clients own the stock or fully grasp the engineering hurdles involved in Starship heat shields and full-flow staged combustion engines. Wells Fargo analyst Ken Gawrelski maintains an overweight rating with a $212 price target, reflecting a more conservative upside expectation of about 33% compared to Morgan Stanley’s target. Of the 39 recommendations deriving the current average broker recommendation, 25 are Strong Buy and three are Buy, accounting for 64.1% and 7.69% of all recommendations respectively, compared to an average broker recommendation of 1.83 two months ago based on 35 recommendations. SPCX holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and a Momentum Score of A.
Starship Flight 15 Tests Ship-Catching Maneuver
Starship Flight 15 is scheduled for late October or early November. Yahoo Finance highlighted that the preceding Flight 14 marked a milestone as Starship reached low Earth orbit for the first time and deployed Starlink satellites. Analysts flag the upcoming mission’s potential ship-catching maneuver as a defining operational test. Wells Fargo projections place booster catches as a near-term target while estimating ship catches could materialize later in 2027 or 2028.
AI Product Releases Catalyze Equity Upside
Yahoo Finance reported that upcoming AI product releases and neocloud contracts maintaining pricing around $30 to $50 per watt act as upside catalysts for the equity.
Broader market dynamics also shape the sector recovery. Deutsche Bank data indicated that the top 50 global space stocks excluding SpaceX peaked at a combined market capitalization of $270 billion before enduring a severe correction. Edison Yu at Deutsche Bank observed a peak-to-trough drawdown averaging over 60% for the New Space cohort, signaling that the broader sector may have reached a cyclical trough. Meanwhile, the third-quarter earnings report for SpaceX is scheduled for release in late October, coinciding with the approach of Flight 15. The broader market provided a supportive backdrop, creating conditions that tend to benefit high-multiple growth names. Several exchange-traded funds carry exposure to the company, including the Roundhill Space & Technology ETF MARS with 26.76%, the Global X Space Tech ETF ORBX with 24.94%, the VanEck Space ETF WARP with 22.38%, the VegaShares Space & AI ETF XSPC with 17.66%, the WisdomTree Space Economy Fund WSPC with 17.7%, and the Procure Space ETF UFO with 15.80%.