Sometimes all you can do is put your head back and shout "Yeehaw!"
It's an expression of exuberance typically associated with cowboys or rural inhabitants of the southern U.S., according to the folks at Merriam-Webster, but TheStreet Pro's Stephen Guilfoyle was nowhere near a rodeo when he employed the term.
Related: Analyst adjusts Rocket Lab's stock price target on space economy outlook
In fact, the veteran trader, whose career goes back to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the 1980s, was looking higher than any bucking bronco could ever go, as he trained his eye on the stars and Rocket Labs USA (RKLB) .
The aerospace company posted third-quarter results on Nov, 12 and Guilfoyle, a longtime supporter of Rocket Lab, liked what he saw.
"Yeehaw!” he wrote in a recent column. "The earnings print beat Wall Street by a penny, while the sales number not only beat expectations, but was good enough for year-over-year growth of 54.9%."
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Investors were also letting out a whoop and a holler over Rocket Lab following the earnings report, as the shares surged 28% on Wednesday to close at $18.83. They touched a 52-week high of $22.55 on Wednesday as well.
The stock has been heading straight for the stratosphere for a while now, more than tripling (up 263%) year-to-date and more than quadrupling (up 360%) from a year ago.
Rocket Lab CEO touts Mars project
"Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company," Founder and Chief Executive Peter Beck told analysts during the company's earnings call. "We provide the ride to space with our launch vehicles, and we build the spacecraft to do the work in orbit.
"This ultimately gives us the keys to space, unlocking the largest market of all space applications," he added.
Related: Analyst adjusts Rocket Lab's stock price target on space economy outlook
These have been some busy times for Rocket Lab.
Rocket Lab said it had scheduled the next launch of its reusable Electron rocket for Kineis, a global internet-of-things connectivity provider.
The "Ice AIS Baby" mission is slated to launch from Rocket Lab's private orbital launch site, Launch Complex 1, in New Zealand during a 14-day window that opens on Nov. 23.
The mission is the third of five dedicated Electron launches booked by Kineis in a contract that will see Rocket Lab deploy a constellation of 25 IoT satellites.
The first two missions were successfully launched by Electron in June and September 2024.
In addition, Rocket Lab said it had secured an $8 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to advance digital engineering processes for its Archimedes rocket engine.
Under the agreement, Rocket Lab will demonstrate digital engineering techniques for Archimedes, the rocket engine that will power Neutron, a new reusable medium-lift launch vehicle projected to launch in 2025.
"I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating because building your first rocket engine is hard," Beck told analysts. "Building it 10, 20, 50 times at that pace that can keep up with demand is even harder. With that in mind, we continue to scale production for Archimedes at the same time that we’re testing it."
Rocket Lab USA reported a third-quarter loss of 10 cents a share, compared with Wall Street’s consensus estimate of a loss of 11 cents a share. Revenue totaled $104.8 million, up 55% from a year earlier and surpassing analysts’ expectations of $102 million.
The company forecast fourth-quarter revenue between $125 million and $135 million.
Additionally, the company announced its first launch deal for its Neutron rocket with a “commercial constellation operator,” Beck said.
He told analysts that NASA had selected Rocket Lab to conduct a study of the agency’s Mars Sample Return Program, which aims to bring scientifically selected samples back from Mars to Earth for the first time in history.
Veteran trader reviews Rocket Lab's balance sheet
NASA has said that its current architecture is too costly at $11 billion and too slow, with the samples not expected to be into the hands of scientists until 2040.
"We’re putting forward a highly compelling concept that will return Mars rocks faster and at a fraction of the current cost of the program," he said.
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Beck said the mission was one of the biggest and most ambitious projects NASA has ever undertaken.
“It will completely change the way that we think about our solar system, potentially answer whether life ever existed on Mars and help prepare for the first human explorers on the red planet," he said. "While it might not be obvious at first glance, it’s a mission that we’re actually uniquely suited to."
"Now our fingerprints are already all over Mars," Beck added.
Several investment firms adjusted their price targets for Rocket Lab after the results were posted
Roth MKM analyst Suji Desilva more than tripled his price target on the company to $25 from $7 while affirming a buy rating on the shares.
The analyst cited RocketLab's above consensus Q3 revenue and Q4 guidance, reflecting steady launch and growing space systems' contribution, according to The Fly.
Investors will be encouraged by Rocket Lab securing its first Neutron customer ahead of a planned mid-2025 initial launch, Desilva added.
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Stifel raised the investment firm's price target on Rocket Lab to $22 from $15 and maintained a buy rating on the shares. The analyst noted the company's report of revenue at the high end of its guidance while it also delivered a better-than-expected loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
The investment firm also noted the company's first launch contract for the Neutron rocket, which lends confidence to its ability to launch its first test flight in mid-2025. The deal shows strong demand for a viable No. 2 player for launch behind Elon Musk's SpaceX, Stifel said.
And Wells Fargo more than doubled its price target on Rocket Lab to $13.50 from $5.25 and kept an equal-weight (effectively neutral) rating on the shares.
The firm noted the company's order for multiple launches on Neutron, with the first launch still planned for 2025.
And withal, Guilfoyle boosted his price target to $23 a share from $14.
"The improving execution by the company is dramatic," he said. "The balance sheet is in outstanding condition, and the guidance is strong. Not much more we need to know."
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