By Al Root

SpaceX stock rose early Tuesday, with a new Buy rating from Wall Street providing a boost.

Shares of Elon Musk's rocket and AI company were up 1.2% at $149.75, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.2% and 0.7%, respectively.

The move came after Pivotal Research Group analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak launched coverage of SpaceX stock with a Buy rating and $220 price target.

That target values SpaceX at about $3 trillion, up 50% from recent levels. The valuation rests mainly on the development of Starship, SpaceX's huge, fully reusable rocket. Starship could cut the cost to reach orbit by 90%. Lower costs enable new applications, such as AI data centers in space, while enhancing existing offerings, such as Starlink, SpaceX's space-based broadband product.

"If Elon Musk can solve for this fundamental [rapid reusability] issue, it potentially drives down the cost of launches to space to the equivalent of terrestrial freight, opening up an unarguably massive opportunity," wrote Wlodarczak.

His $220 price target assumes SpaceX is eventually flying each Starship rocket up to 50 times.

Starship isn't flying commercially yet. Test flight number 14 is expected later this month. Starship could be flying commercial payloads as soon as this year, though 2027 is more likely.

The new rocket and its lower costs are key to many Wall Street ratings. Overall, 76% of analysts covering the company rate its shares Buy, according to FactSet. The average Buy-rating ratio for S&P 500 stocks typically ranges from 55% to 60%. The average analyst price target for SpaceX stock is about $226, a little higher than Wlodarczak's mark.

Coming into Tuesday's trading, SpaceX stock was up about 10% from its June $135 IPO price. That modest move belies the early volatility. Shares have traded above $225 and below $105. SpaceX stock rose almost 5% this past week, its second consecutive weekly gain.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@barrons.com.

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September 08, 2026 06:40 ET (10:40 GMT)