SpaceX shares jumped 3% on Tuesday, breaking a seven-day losing streak, as the company disclosed that its first-ever earnings report will be released on August 4. The announcement carries extra weight: it triggers a staggered lock-up expiration that could allow insiders to sell up to 20% of their eligible locked-up stock—totaling up to 911.5 million shares—beginning August 6. An additional 10% of locked-up stock may be freed if the stock closes at least 30% above the IPO price for five of the ten trading days leading up to the report.
The stock is still down nearly 40% from its record closing high of $211.39 on June 16, following a massive $85.7 billion IPO priced at $135 per share. Bearish sentiment is rising, with short positions recently reaching roughly a third of the public float. CEO Elon Musk dismissed the shorts on social media, writing that "the survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low."
Adding to the momentum, SpaceX launched a Northrop Grumman satellite maintenance mission from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday evening. The launch also marked the 32nd and final flight for the Falcon 9 first-stage booster used in the mission, which had reached its limit for geosynchronous transfer orbit missions.
On the technology front, the Starship mega-rocket’s 13th test flight is now set for July 23, after a previous scrub due to an engine ignition failure. SpaceX says the rocket can reduce the cost of reaching orbit by 90%, a key factor in its $1.6 trillion valuation and ambitions for an orbital AI business, Starlink expansion, and NASA Artemis lunar contracts.
