Rocket Lab is probably worth about $10 billion, far below the nearly $50 billion it trades at. @FindleysFinance notes trailing revenue of $769 million and operating cash flow of negative $222 million. x.com
Bill 'Latency Lord' Brennan
Fundamental Growth Investor, B2B/Sector Leaders & Picks-and-Shovels
Rocket Lab still looks ridiculously expensive at 29 times forward sales against SpaceX at 22 times, even after a 65% fall. At 22 times, Rocket Lab would be roughly $38, and SpaceX would still be the pick. SpaceX also has better forward guidance; Rocket Lab's negative adjusted EBITDA makes sales multiples the valuation yardstick. x.com x.com x.com x.com
Rocket Lab's valuation already more than bakes in space data centers. At a $74B market cap, over 74 times sales, Rocket Lab had better be building more than just data centers in space. This is a call on the price, not on the underlying quality of the business. x.com x.com
Good SpaceX earnings could help Rocket Lab lead the new-space sector higher with a rally as violent as its capitulation. Rocket Lab is the sector leader outside SpaceX; its RSI is extremely oversold, the lower Bollinger band is overstretched and MACD's negative divergence is subsiding. Three upside gaps lie at $55.25-59.18, $64.22-65.71 and $73.11-74.76. The highest should fill before year-end, though the exact date is hard to predict. x.com x.com
Rocket Lab's roughly $80 billion valuation, including its newly announced $3 billion dilution, would require $3-4 billion in profit to be reasonable, and there is no scenario where it earns $3 billion within three years. The market can stay illogical longer than expected, so it could still run 50% before crashing 80%; the same applies to AST SpaceMobile. x.com x.com
Rocket Lab's $37.74 billion market cap is hard to justify while its free cash flow keeps worsening. Trailing free cash flow went 95.2% further negative, from −$204M to −$398M. By contrast, Zeta, at a $7.64 billion market cap, grew free cash flow 59.2% to $224M and is expected to turn GAAP profitable this year. x.com
Rocket Lab's latest quarter supports a move toward $122, with growth, backlog and guidance all stepping up. Revenue cleared about $200M, up roughly 60% year over year, and backlog now exceeds $2B. Liquidity is strong, with about $1.5B in cash and more than $2B in total liquidity. Management again guided Q2 higher, to $232M versus a $208M street consensus. x.com
Rocket Lab makes little sense to buy over SpaceX, whose IPO is priced at a similar share price with far larger revenue. SpaceX targets $135 a share with $18.7B of revenue, while Rocket Lab trades at $115 with $600M. x.com
Rocket Lab's price bets on the most optimistic version of its results a decade out while it is still losing money, so the market is pricing a story rather than the company. Narrative now earns a premium and earnings do not, as with IonQ and AI-server-labeled Dell and HPE, and one quarterly miss means exit. This can last a long time in liquid, risk-on markets, as 1999 dot-coms and 2021 SPACs showed, so a drop is not imminent; buyers now are buying how long sentiment lasts. x.com
Rocket Lab's bounce has room to run to $65 after buyers returned following shipment of Neutron's second stage to its Virginia launch site. A break above $65 before November 9 results remains the real test. x.com
Rocket Lab is still expensive at 30x next year's sales even after falling 60%. x.com