SpaceX’s (SPCX) stock opened at $150 on Friday — an 11% jump from its IPO price — and finished up nearly 20% for the day.
The rocket and satellite company priced its IPO Thursday night at $135 per share ahead of today’s debut on the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC), trading under the ticker SPCX (SPCX).
“SpaceX going public is an important moment for the broader tech sector in our view as this AI Revolution and data takes this next step forward,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to investors Friday morning.
SpaceX stock jumped over 30% after opening, but pared some of those gains to close at $160.95, up 19.2%.
Some on the Street believe the stock will be volatile for days to come.
“The stock is bound to be volatile,” said Howard Chan, founder and CEO of Kurv Investment Management. “Maybe it’s better to harvest volatility premium while the equity price settles down.”
SpaceX offered 555.6 million shares to hit a record $75 billion raised. Underwriters are holding a “green shoe” — or the option to sell additional shares if demand outstrips the initial allotment — of approximately 83 million shares, worth around $11.2 billion.
“As of now, SpaceX is the sixth largest US company behind Amazon at $2.54 trillion and ahead of Broadcom (AVGO) at $1.81 trillion;” Bespoke Investment Group said in a research note. “Elon Musk’s SPCX is already $700 billion larger than Tesla (TSLA), and it’s more than twice the size of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B).”
The biggest open question is how much ends up in the hands of retail investors. SpaceX is reportedly targeting a retail allocation of roughly 30% — far above the 5% to 10% typical of most IPOs — but the final figure remains unsettled. Reports suggest SpaceX drew retail orders in excess of $100 billion.
Preliminary data from Vanda Research points to a strong showing for retail.
“SPCX is now the most bought stock by retail investors today, and its not even a competition – with net buying running at more than 3.5x that of NVDA,” the company said in a research note. “Retail turnover has already reached $453mn, representing roughly 4% of all single-stock retail turnover today. Unsurprisingly, SpaceX is on track to become the biggest IPO debut for retail investors in recent history.”
In addition, SpaceX’s IPO shares ran four times oversubscribed, per Reuters, indicating strong demand. However, this amount is often inflated by institutional investors to make sure they receive enough stock for their clients. In actuality, demand could be less, adding to the uncertainty.
