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Feb 28 - Rocket Lab USA Inc. (RKLB, Financial) shares plunged about 13% on early Friday pre-market trading despite unveiling promising news. The spaceflight firm, in its Q4 earnings report, revised its Neutron launch target to the second half of 2025, a modest shift from the previous mid-2025 forecast.
In addition, the company presented a low-cost satellite, Satellite, which is meant to be a scalable, resilient platform for secure, low-latency connectivity and remote sensing. This satellite is designed to facilitate large constellation deployments for the national security, defense, and commercial sectors.
CEO Peter Beck emphasized the company's renewed focus on its upcoming Neutron launch, stating, "This year is the year of Neutron. We look forward to unlocking the medium launch bottleneck by bringing Neutron to the pad." Additionally, Rocket Lab unveiled a new landing platform and a floating barge, Return on Investment, slated for operational use in 2026 to support reusability goals.
Despite a strong Q4 performance, CFO Adam Spice noted that the company's Q1 revenue guidance of $117 million to $123 million was below the $135.7 million consensus. In spite of the positive strategic announcements, it appears that investor caution caused by market volatility outweighed the positives. It remains an issue over whether a promising forward outlook is worth investing in.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.