Why Firefly Aerospace Stock Popped Today
Key Points
Morgan Stanley analyst Kristine Liwag raised her price target on Firefly stock today.
The shares immediately rose to hit her target -- then ran right past it.
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Firefly Aerospace (NASDAQ: FLY) stock jumped in morning trading after Morgan Stanley analyst Kristine Liwag raised her price target on the rocket stock 22% to $33 per share.
As of 10:30 a.m, ET Friday, Firefly shares are up 12.2%.
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Why Morgan Stanley likes Firefly
Don't get too excited. Liwag only rates Firefly stock "equal weight" after all; she's not saying you should actually buy it. Also, after today's share price spike, Firefly already costs more than her targeted $33 share price. (So maybe you shouldn't actually buy it at all.)
Nevertheless, the mild endorsement is a small positive for the stock.
Liwag says space investors "are watching the extent to which lift providers can commercialize new offerings and meaningfully increase cadence this year," reports TheFly.com. On Firefly in particular, the analyst says the focus is on the stock's valuation "ahead of Flight 7's launch."
According to Firefly's website, FLTA007 (there's a lucky number for you!) will take off sometime in Q1 2026.
Is Firefly stock a buy?
With Morgan Stanley urging us to look at the valuation on Firefly ahead of the launch... let's do that.
Unprofitable and burning cash at the rate of about $200 million per year, Firefly can really only be valued on its sales right now. Those total $111 million over the last 12 months, giving the $5.3 billion stock a price-to-sales ratio of more than 47 times. That's considerably more than the 4x sales valuation historically assigned to unprofitable space stocks, though.
For this reason, I agree with Morgan Stanley that the stock is not yet a "buy" -- and it's actually probably closer to a "sell" at its current price.
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Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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