The stock of Firefly Aerospace (FLY) jumped 55% in its market debut on Aug. 7 as investors clamored to get a piece of the space company.
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The company began trading on the Nasdaq exchange at $70 a share, 55% above its initial public offering (IPO) price of $45. However, even the IPO price was higher than the expected range of $41 to $43 per share. The company also increased the size of its IPO, selling 19.3 million shares, up from an original proposal of 16.2 million shares.
At $45 a share, Firefly Aerospace is valued at $6.4 billion and is expected to raise about $870 million from the stock sale. The Texas-based company comes to market trying to capitalize on investor interest in commercial space companies. Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander successfully landed on the moon in March of this year.
Unprofitable
Despite investor interest, Firefly Aerospace is not yet profitable and its sales are relatively small. However, the company claims to have a backlog of $1.1 billion in contracts. In late July, Firefly announced that it had received a $176.7 million contract to deliver five NASA-sponsored payloads to the Moon’s south pole in 2029.
Firefly also has contracts with defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin (LMT), L3Harris Technologies (LHX), and Northrop Grumman (NOC), which has invested $50 million in it. The company also works with the government’s Space Force military division. FLY stock holds its IPO after share sales by rival space company Voyager (VOYG), stablecoin company Circle (CRCL), and AI company CoreWeave (CRWV).
Is FLY Stock a Buy?
It’s too early for analysts to rate Firefly Aerospace’s stock. So instead, we’ll look at the performance of its rival Voyager Technologies, which went public recently. As one can see below, the stock currently has a consensus Moderate Buy rating among seven Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on five Buy and two Hold recommendations issued in the last three months. The average VOYG price target of $49 implies 43.27% upside from current levels.
