SpaceX shares close below IPO price after weeks of selling
The stock finished Thursday at $131.11, under its $135 IPO price, after a sharp slide from its first-day high.
By Sal Moretti · Money Reporter
3 min read
SpaceX shares slipped under their IPO price Thursday for the first time since Elon Musk’s rocket company began trading publicly in June, according to NBC News.
The stock fell more than 3% during the session and ended at $131.11. SpaceX had priced its initial public offering at $135 a share on June 11 before opening on the Nasdaq the next day, NBC News reported.
The move marks a sharp turn for a company that arrived on public markets with plenty of heat. Shares jumped 19% on their first trading day and climbed as high as $193, according to the report.
Since then, the stock has mostly moved in one direction: down. NBC News reported that SpaceX shares have fallen in all but one session since being added to the Nasdaq-100 and Russell 1000 indexes, additions that often bring buying from funds that track those benchmarks.
A fast slide after a hot debut
SpaceX raised $75 billion in its IPO, according to NBC News. Days later, the company issued another $25 billion in debt, adding pressure to the stock at a time when public investors were already marking down its valuation.
Short sellers have also moved in. Bloomberg reported that bearish bets against SpaceX were nearing $4 billion in paper profits, according to NBC News.
Investors who bought at the stock’s first-day opening price of $150 are now down more than 11%, NBC News reported. From that debut price, the company’s market value has fallen by almost $250 billion.
The decline is steeper when measured from SpaceX’s June 16 peak. NBC News reported that the company has lost more than $1.2 trillion in market value since that high.
Musk’s personal wealth has moved with the stock. Bloomberg Billionaires estimated his net worth rose from about $700 billion to as much as $1.32 trillion after the IPO, then dropped to about $850 billion as SpaceX shares weakened, according to NBC News.
Musk stays upbeat as Starship looms
Before the IPO, Musk wrote on X that “SpaceX might be able to reach approximately $1T revenue in 2030.” NBC News reported that his fortune is now primarily tied to his SpaceX stake.
The company’s operations include space rockets, Starlink satellite internet, X and the artificial intelligence firm xAI, according to NBC News.
SpaceX was also scheduled Thursday to launch Starship, its flagship rocket, in the company’s first space launch since becoming public. The reusable rocket is central to Musk’s plans for satellite communications, crewed spaceflight and, in theory, orbiting artificial intelligence data centers, NBC News reported.
More pressure could arrive soon. NBC News reported that SpaceX is expected to issue its first earnings report as a public company in the coming weeks, an event that will trigger the first lockup expirations and allow some longtime shareholders to begin selling stock.
Analysts on Wall Street remain largely positive on SpaceX’s prospects, according to NBC News. Other big IPOs have also struggled early: Facebook, now Meta Platforms, traded below its IPO price for more than a year after its 2012 debut, while Uber stayed under its IPO price for months after going public in 2019. NBC News noted that both later recovered, with Meta up more than 1,600% since its IPO and Uber up nearly 80% as of Thursday.
This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.