Mindset for Money
CPA, Financial Analyst, Former Big Four Auditor
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.comÂ
Rocket Lab and AST SpaceMobile are not buys because their sales multiples are too high, even after the selloff. Rocket Lab trades at 30x sales after a 14% drawdown, while AST SpaceMobile trades at 138x sales. x.comÂ
SpaceX looks extremely cheap because management's new revenue outlook could shrink its lofty sales multiple if ambitions become lasting profits. CFO Bret Johnsen guided $33-37B in Q1 2027 revenue, and roughly $42B of a $63B backlog is expected to be recognized within a year. At a fixed $1.95T enterprise value, today's 61x trailing sales would fall to about 13-15x on annualized Q1 guidance; Elon Musk's $500B-$1T end-2027 ARR outlook implies 2-4x. The targets still need to be delivered. x.com … Show more
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.comÂ
Frequency Electronics now has faster projected three-year growth than Rocket Lab at a much lower forward sales multiple. It trades at 8x next-twelve-month sales for 34% growth, versus Rocket Lab at 25x for 31%, Microchip at 7x for 15%, and L3Harris at 2x for 7%. Nothing else in the space sector comes close except Redwire and Planet Labs, which have shown far less relative strength. x.comÂ
Rocket Lab is still expensive at 30x next year's sales even after falling 60%. x.comÂ
Rocket Lab should see money flow back once SpaceX's rich valuation corrects. SpaceX's listing day could be sell-the-news, pulling Rocket Lab back to $90-100 at most, but at roughly 90-100x sales it is valued about the same as SpaceX at around 115x. With expected Nasdaq inclusion on June 22 and capital rotating from SpaceX into quality space stocks, a lower-high move toward the $130 target banks just raised is possible. x.com x.comÂ
Repeated Neutron delays undermine the premium on Rocket Lab stock when execution keeps slipping. The company does not live or die by Neutron, but 50x sales was unjustified; even at 26x 2027 sales, a legitimate price suggests another 50% decline. x.com x.comÂ
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.comÂ
Rocket Lab should double by June 2026 if SpaceX IPOs at around $1.5T, because as the clear number two with similar capabilities it is valued at only $38B, a gap that looks far too big. At $1.7T, SpaceX would trade at over 200x its roughly $8B in EBITDA, as reported on the All-In podcast, an insane multiple. x.com x.com x.comÂ
No rocket or space company anywhere makes money, making the 'space is the future' investment pitch a bad bet. SpaceX is shown at -$4.9B; Rocket Lab, AST SpaceMobile, Intuitive Machines, Firefly Aerospace and Planet Labs also have negative figures, ranging from -$131.20M to -$618.76M. x.comÂ
