SpaceX Shares Rise Above Offering Price Despite Sell Rating Issued Minutes After Nasdaq Debut

SpaceX received a sell rating from CFRA on Friday minutes after its shares began trading on the Nasdaq. m. ET.

77 trillion at the initial offering price and rose further as shares climbed in afternoon trading. CFRA said SpaceX must prove the viability of its Starship rocket, expand Starlink, generate returns from artificial intelligence infrastructure, and produce consistent free cash flows to justify the valuation.

"Our primary concern is that SpaceX's long-term strategy remains heavily dependent on Starship," CFRA analyst Keith Snyder wrote in a note to clients.

Snyder added that the rocket could act as a bottleneck for multiple initiatives. The commercial viability of Starship rests on reusability, which analysts said could deliver large cost savings. Myles Walton at Wolfe Research wrote that successful reusability of Starship is the single most important value unlock for the company.

"When it comes to SpaceX, you don't need to believe in targets, you just have to believe in Starship," Walton wrote. Wolfe Research estimated that full reusability could raise profit margins by another 10 percent from current levels. Snyder warned that delays or technical setbacks in Starship could affect Starlink satellites, orbital AI computing, and satellite-to-mobile operations.

He described the situation as a significant execution bottleneck that could ripple across nearly every major growth initiative.