Wall Street <3 SpaceX

Wall Street pros are hoping SpaceX will give them a ride to the moon.

It’s only been two weeks since the company’s launch, yet SpaceX has already managed to become the most talked-about (and most traded) stock on Wall Street. Now that the quiet period after its debut has ended, analysts are starting to talk about the stock, too.

They have some pretty good things to say: Of the 15 firms currently issuing ratings for SpaceX, 14 say it’s a buy, while only one is neutral on the stock. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and UBS are among the most bullish, but the biggest optimists of all are at Raymond James, which gave the stock an incredible $800 price target. However, the average price target on Wall Street is $240 a share.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas unveiled one of the highest price targets so far—$300 per share—implying a 101% gain from today’s close. But the difference between his bull case of shares rising to $600, and his bear case that leaves shares tumbling to $75, underscores the guessing game Wall Street analysts are undertaking. Still, the upside potential for SpaceX is unmistakable.

“SpaceX combines near-monopoly launch economics, the world’s largest LEO satellite network, and a fast-scaling AI infrastructure business,” wrote Jonas. “We see the company as one of the few platforms that can link real estate in orbit, global connectivity, and compute capacity into one infrastructure stack.”

Despite the outpouring of love for the stock, SpaceX still fell 6.83% today.

Too much of a good thing

If the glowing reviews sound a little too good to be true, keep in mind that many of these banks are SpaceX investors: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Raymond James, some of the most bullish on the company, are all underwriters on SpaceX’s IPO. That gives them some serious financial incentive to focus more on SpaceX’s ambitious goals and less on its lack of profitability or its eye-popping $2 trillion valuation.

At least one dissenter has emerged from the pack so far: MoffettNathanson, which initiated coverage with a neutral rating and a $131 price target on the stock, implying a 12% downside from today’s close.

“There is simply no credible financial model that can support what is, at the time of this writing, a roughly $2 trillion valuation,” analyst Julie Zhu wrote bluntly. “It would be easy—some might argue prudent—to initiate coverage with a flashing red Selling rating,” she warned.

Only one thing’s for sure: If SpaceX goes down, it’s taking the suits—and their credibility—along with it.—LB