TLDR
- Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a Buy rating on RKLB and raised its price target to $105, implying ~20.9% upside from current levels.
- Cantor Fitzgerald also reiterated an Overweight rating, maintaining an $85 price target, citing Rocket Lab’s 84+ successful missions.
- Morgan Stanley upgraded RKLB to Overweight with a $105 target; Citigroup upgraded to Outperform in April.
- Rocket Lab acquired Mynaric AG for $155.3 million, adding laser-based optical communications to its portfolio.
- Insiders sold 233,449 shares over the past three months, though institutions including Vanguard hold 71.78% of the stock.
Rocket Lab (RKLB) is getting plenty of analyst attention right now. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated its Buy rating on Monday and lifted its price target from $90 to $105, pointing to roughly 20.9% upside from where the stock currently trades.
The stock opened at $86.87 on Monday. It has climbed sharply over the past year, delivering around a 330% return, and sits close to its 52-week high of $99.58.
Cantor Fitzgerald also reaffirmed its Overweight rating, keeping its price target at $85. The firm pointed to Rocket Lab’s track record of more than 84 successful missions as a key differentiator.
Rocket Lab is the second most frequent launch provider in the US behind SpaceX. The company posted $602 million in revenue over the last twelve months, with 38% growth.
Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to Overweight back in January, raising its target to $105. Citigroup followed in April, upgrading from Market Perform to Outperform.
The consensus across analysts currently sits at Moderate Buy, with an average price target of $83.31. Out of 17 analysts tracked by MarketBeat, two rate it Strong Buy, nine rate it Buy, five Hold, and one Sell.
Institutional investors own 71.78% of RKLB. Vanguard increased its position by 13.4% in Q4, now holding over 47 million shares. Baillie Gifford grew its stake by 47.2% over the same period.
Rocket Lab Expands Its Portfolio
On April 14, Rocket Lab unveiled Gauss at the Space Symposium — a new in-house electric satellite propulsion system. It includes a Hall thruster, power processing unit, and propellant management assembly, with capacity to produce more than 200 thrusters per year.
The Gauss system targets commercial and national security satellite constellations. It’s part of a broader push by Rocket Lab to move beyond launches and deeper into satellite systems.
Also last week, the company completed its acquisition of Mynaric AG for $155.3 million. The deal involved a nominal cash payment and the issuance of around 2.28 million shares of Rocket Lab stock, following approval from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Mynaric adds laser-based optical communications technology for air, space, and mobile use cases.
Insider Activity Worth Watching
Not everyone is buying. CFO Adam Spice sold 62,744 shares on March 2 at $69.59, reducing his position by 4.61%. CEO Peter Beck sold 18,857 shares the same day at the same price, a 2.09% reduction.
In total, insiders have offloaded 233,449 shares over the past three months, valued at around $16.5 million.
Insiders still own 11.90% of the company. The market cap sits at $49.46 billion, with a P/E ratio of -233.02 and a beta of 2.20.
Rocket Lab also signed a multi-launch agreement with iQPS, adding three more Electron missions starting in 2028. That brings total iQPS missions to 15, with seven already completed since 2023.
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