Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket rockets into orbit after launching from Kennedy Space Center on its maiden flight, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 16, 2025.
Greg Newton | AFP | Getty Images
Shares of pure-play space companies rose on Tuesday, a rise that one Wall Street analyst attributed to exuberance in the sector after the president Donald Trump's opening.
“After the election, there seems to be a very deep and broad enthusiasm about opening up private space opportunities,” German analyst Edison Yu told CNBC.
“It's not just about the headlines. When you talk to any (venture capital) investor, any institutional investor, any family office… everyone seems to have become more interested and excited (about) the space,” Yu said. Its coverage includes six satellite companies: Black Sky, Iridium, planet, Rocket laboratory, Telesat and Viasat.
Many sector stocks rose nearly 20% or more without clear individual catalysts, including… Mainarirocket lab, Moments, Intuitive machinesplanet and connected.
Redwire, up 51.4%, was the next best performer of the day Announced the planned acquisition Defense technology company Edge Autonomy has raised nearly $1 billion, and as a result, full-year 2025 revenue is expected to reach $605 million, about double last year.
Investors also boosted Viasat shares by 32.9%. Repeat NASA chose it as one of Four companies For a five-year communications contract worth up to $4.8 billion, to provide satellite communications services as part of the “Near Space Network.”
Trump spoke briefly about space in his inaugural address, but did not mention NASA or the space agency's Artemis program, its current top priority that aims to return astronauts to the moon.
“We will pursue our manifest destiny in the stars, and we will send American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on Mars,” Trump said with the SpaceX CEO. Elon Musk The crowd cheers behind him.
Space stocks in general have Demonstrations since the presidential electionswith many of them seeing their stock prices double or more in the past three months, according to FactSet.
Deutsche's Yu pointed to three catalysts boosting the industry: Trump's catalysts Nominated by Jared Isaacman To be the next administrator of NASA, heavy trading volume from retail investors and the anticipation of more multibillion-dollar federal contracts are up for grabs.
“After Jared Isaacman was chosen to be the next NASA administrator, that was very well received by the corporate community. If you talk to investors who follow space closely, if you talk to people who run companies, that is viewed as very positive.” Yu said.
Space stocks have rebounded largely in 2024 after The sector has declined widely in previous years. Many of them have risen in the past 12 months, according to FactSet, with Intuitive Machines up 779%, Redwire up 715%, AST SpaceMobile up 648%, and Rocket Lab up 543%.
However, Yu does not expect “they will repeat that crazy performance in 2024” in 2025. He described last year's rebound as a significant re-averaging of valuations that had been “trading at very low levels.”
“It goes without saying that these valuations are much richer than they were six months ago or even three months ago,” Yu said.
