SpaceX stock gave investors plenty to cheer after the closing bell on Tuesday. The company, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, reported third-quarter earnings that crushed Wall Street estimates on both profit and sales, as its launch business, Starlink connectivity unit and newer AI segment all grew at a rapid pace.
The headline numbers
SpaceX earned $0.35 per share in Q3 2026, far above the consensus estimate of roughly $0.10 to $0.13. Revenue came in at $14.58 billion, up a remarkable 161% year over year and well ahead of the roughly $12.7 billion analysts expected. The company swung to a net profit of about $4.4 billion, a sharp turnaround that suggests its heavy investment phase is starting to pay off, even though capital spending still runs ahead of operating cash flow.
How SpaceX stock reacted
Shares had closed the regular session almost flat at $147.79, down 0.11%, with the report landing after the bell. Extended trading told a different story: the stock jumped about 5% in early after-hours trade and pushed above $160 in pre-market quotes, a gain of more than 8%. Volume has been heavy all week, with tens of millions of shares changing hands daily as the earnings approached.
Why this quarter matters
SpaceX went public in June 2026, raising about $75 billion at $135 a share in one of the largest IPOs in history, and now carries a market value of roughly $1.95 trillion. The stock has been volatile since its debut, trading between about $105 and $226, and had slipped roughly 8% from its IPO price before this report. Analysts say the growth engines to watch are Starship flight cadence, Starlink subscriber and mobile expansion, and the AI business built around the Grok model and the X platform, which swung to a profit in the quarter according to reports. The analyst consensus sits at Moderate Buy with an average price target near $217, though the premium valuation — a price-to-sales multiple far above aerospace peers — remains the main bear case.
What investors watch next
The next tests are whether profitability holds as spending on Starship and AI infrastructure continues, and whether the post-earnings jump survives a full trading session. With a stock this volatile, position sizing matters as much as the story. This article is news reporting, not financial advice.
More market coverage in our Finance section. Earnings data reference: MarketBeat SPCX earnings page.
