Wall Street Stays Bullish on SpaceX as SPCX Dips Below IPO

HAWTHORNE, Calif. — SpaceX shares have slipped below their initial public offering price for the first time, but the reaction on Wall Street has been strikingly calm. After a scrubbed Starship test flight rattled short-term traders, the analyst community is treating the pullback less as a warning and more as a discount on one of the most ambitious companies ever to trade publicly.

The Bull Case Holds

Despite the recent slide, the ratings picture is lopsided in SpaceX's favor. Of 31 analysts covering the stock, 27 rate it a Buy or Strong Buy, with an average price target around $242 — well above where shares changed hands this week. UBS reiterated its bullish stance heading into the Starship attempt, telling clients the long-term thesis is intact regardless of any single launch outcome.

That confidence tracks with the coverage SpaceX has drawn since going public, including a spread of Wall Street price targets that stretch far above current levels. Analysts point to the same fundamentals that made SpaceX a landmark listing: a dominant launch cadence, a fast-growing Starlink subscriber base, and the xAI assets folded in through the merger.

Why the Stock Slipped

The near-term pressure is easy to trace. SpaceX aborted its 13th Starship flight moments before liftoff on July 16 after several Raptor engines failed to ignite, and CEO Elon Musk said two engines would be swapped before another attempt early the following week. Shares fell more than 3% in extended trading and dipped beneath the $135 IPO price, a move detailed in our report on SPCX approaching its listing price.

Bulls argue the market is conflating a routine test-flight delay with a change in the business. Starship is explicitly a development program, and an automated abort — the system catching a problem and standing down safely — is the process working as designed. CNBC noted UBS urged investors to buy the shares into the launch window rather than trade around it.

A Long Runway

For patient investors, the pitch is that SpaceX is priced today on near-term launch headlines but valued over the long run on Starlink cash flow, national-security launch contracts, and the eventual operational cadence of Starship. The upcoming flight carries the first operational Starlink V3 satellites, a payload that could reset the narrative once the engine swap is complete.

None of this erases the volatility that comes with a young, high-profile listing. But with the overwhelming majority of analysts still in the bull camp and price targets sitting far above the IPO line, the dip below $135 looks, to Wall Street at least, more like an entry point than an exit. The next Starship attempt — and the Starlink V3 satellites riding on it — will be the near-term test of that thesis.