SpaceX stock fell nearly 2% in pre-market trading on Friday, dampening the previous day’s gains as new challenges surfaced. Investors reacted to further postponements in the Starship mission and intensified short-selling activity, alongside fresh disclosures about the company’s major investors.
On Thursday, SpaceX shares had rebounded by 2.59%, closing at $118.24 after rising to about $118.80 intraday, recovering from a dip near $111. However, trading early Friday saw the price drop to around $115.94, erasing some of those profits before the market opened.
Despite this recent bounce, the stock remains significantly below its high of $225.64 reached after going public in June. SpaceX launched its IPO at $135 per share, but since then, the share price has been volatile due to investor concerns about the company’s valuation, cash flow needs, and anticipated sales from shareholders.
The short seller community has profited heavily amid this volatility, pulling in estimated paper gains of $15.5 billion since the IPO. Currently, approximately 360 million shares, representing roughly 56% of the float available for trading, are on loan to these traders betting against the stock.
Adding complexity to the ownership landscape, Alphabet revealed in its latest financial report a massive stake in SpaceX, valuing its holdings at about $94.1 billion as of June’s end. This investment traces back to a 2015 funding round alongside Fidelity, though SpaceX’s price slump has diminished the position’s worth in recent years.
Launch Setbacks Weigh on Market Confidence
On the operational front, SpaceX was forced to delay another Starship launch from South Texas, with poor weather conditions hampering key visibility needed to monitor heat shield performance during flight. This postponement followed technical hiccups during a prior attempt, where multiple Super Heavy booster engines failed to ignite. The company replaced several Raptor engines and conducted additional ground tests ahead of the next flight, which aims to deploy 20 Starlink satellites while validating Starship’s deployment and re-entry systems.
Meanwhile, the Falcon 9 program continues its steadier schedule. On July 21, SpaceX successfully launched 24 Starlink satellites from California, a day after aborting a previous launch at the last second.
The stock’s fortunes seem locked in a tug-of-war between the excitement over SpaceX’s potential and immediate concerns about valuation, cash burn, and the heavy presence of short sellers. This tension keeps share prices volatile amid ongoing operational challenges.
