One SpaceX analyst sees Musk's space company quintupling to $800
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Space Exploration Technologies ' Starship launch technology is likely to serve as critical infrastructure for a resurgence in space exploration, leading its shares to potentially quintuple, according to Raymond James. The investment firm initiated coverage of the space company at a strong buy. It also put a $800 price target on shares, implying 399% upside from Monday's close. Raymond James served as one of several underwriters for the SpaceX IPO, alongside lead bookrunner Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and other major banks. "We see the company as one of the defining industrial infrastructure companies of the 21st Century," analyst Brian Gesuale said Tuesday in a note to clients. "The premise of our thesis is that Starship successfully industrializes orbital transportation, transforming orbital launch from a bespoke aerospace capability into a transportation network defined by commercial aviation-like operating cadence and continuously declining unit costs." Starship, a launch vehicle developed by SpaceX to transport more than 100 metric tonnes into orbit, could help SpaceX tap a roughly $30 trillion total addressable market, the analyst added. "Just as railroads, electric grids, and the Internet reshaped prior economic eras, we believe SpaceX is building the foundational platform for the next generation of industrial capacity," Gesuale wrote. Beyond transportation, SpaceX could also gain ground with artificial intelligence-powered products and services, according to Raymond James. The company could commercialize a low-cost infrastructure platform that would convert electricity into useful, AI-driven insights, per the bank's note. "As AI scales, the binding constraints increasingly shift toward the physical systems required to produce intelligence at scale," Gesuale wrote. "We believe SpaceX is building the lowest-cost platform for converting electricity into useful intelligence." Raymond James' call falls in line with consensus on the Street. As of early Tuesday, two-thirds of analysts covering SpaceX had a buy or strong buy on the stock, LSEG data shows. The call comes at the end of a mandatory 25-day quiet period for underwriters of the SpaceX IPO. Following its expiration, a flurry of reports from the IPO's underwriters flooded Wall Street, with most analysts putting price targets between $200 and $250 on shares. SpaceX shares closed Monday at $160.42, which is around the level it hit at the end of its first trading day.