Veteran trader reviews ROI for Rocket Lab stock price ahead of earnings | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

TheStreet Pro’s Stephen Guilfoyle isn’t worried.

The veteran trader has seen a lot in his career, which dates back to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the 1980s, so it takes an awful lot to shake his tree.

💵💰Don’t miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet’s free daily newsletter 💰💵

This is a man who was working on Wall Street when the global financial crisis known as Black Monday blasted into the market on Oct. 19, 1987.

And that’s why he wasn’t especially perturbed when Rocket Lab (RKLB) went into a tailspin on July 28.

“It’s more like I’m paying attention,” he told readers.

And there was good reason for the scrutiny.

Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck’s company is preparing to report quarterly results.

Image source&colon; Bloomberg/Getty Images

Analysts: Neutron could put Rocket Lab on new trajectory

Craig-Hallum analysts Jeff Van Rhee and Daniel Hibshman had kicked off coverage of the aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider with a hold rating and $51 price target.

“Incredible execution in launch, led by the Electron rocket, has propelled RKLB to a solid #1 position in the Small Launch sector,” they wrote in a research note.

More Tech Stocks:

Expanding on this success, they noted management has now gone all-in on medium launch vehicle Neutron, which leverages partial re-use to lower cost and take on market leader Falcon 9, the medium-lift launch vehicle manufactured by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

At an expected $55 million in revenue per launch, compare with $8 million for the company’s Electron rocket, traction with Neutron could put the company on a whole new trajectory, the firm said.

While much has been made of the proposed cuts to NASA budgets, the analysts said that the reality of the U.S. budget process “is that anything space exploration-related and space-related for defense is seeing extremely strong trends in available budget and expected spend.”

The Neutron launch vehicle is central to Rocket Lab’s plans to shift from small satellite deployments to missions with heavier payloads

The company has reportedly asked regulators for permission to transport oversized Neutron rocket structures through shallow waters to a spaceport off the coast of Virginia as it races to meet a September delivery deadline, according to TechCrunch.

Earlier this month, Rocket Lab announced it had awarded a contract to Bollinger Shipyards, the largest privately owned new construction and repair shipbuilder in the U.S.., to support the build out of Rocket Lab’s ocean landing platform for the Neutron rocket.

Veteran trader sees no reason to act rashly

Modification and fit-out of Rocket Lab technology to its 400-ft-long landing platform named “Return On Investment” is taking place primarily at Bollinger’s shipyard in Amelia, La., and delivery of the vessel is expected in early 2026.

Craig-Hallum noted that as the company is approaching their first Neutron launch, they believe shares price in perfection in terms of hitting all timelines and no unexpected detours, crashes or delays.

“In the history of major new rocket platforms, such perfection is virtually unheard of,” the analysts wrote. “Further, when these delays/crashes do occur they quite often can be more penalizing and/or costly to overall timelines than originally conceived.”

“While we do believe success is ultimately likely for Neutron, the competitive landscape is not without risk,” they added.

The analysts said they are highly impressed with the company’s accomplishments and Rocket Lab’s current trajectory, but they see shares “as fully priced and believe a more compelling risk/reward will present itself down the road.”

Guilfoyle said Rocket Lab’s stock “took a 4.6% beating” after Craig-Hallum issued the research note.

“Readers will recall that we had a $52 target price on this stock and canceled that target on July 17, as we had acknowledged that the shares needed to consolidate, which is exactly what has happened,” Guilfoyle said.

Shares of Rocket Lab, which is scheduled to report second-quarter results on Aug. 2, are up 71% this year and the stock has zoomed a mind-boggling 714% from 2024. However, shares were still sliding roughly 4% at last check.

Guilfoyle said there are “bearish looking indicators” in the company’s charts.

“Am I selling some now?” he asked. “No, as readers know, I sold some when my $52 target was taken out. Am I adding on this weakness? Not until the chart tells me to. I would guess that I would write about it when I see that a reason to act has emerged.”

“No need to act rashly,” the veteran trader said. “Not even accounting for profits taken higher, we’re still up 377% on this position as I bang out this note.”