Why Did Firefly Aerospace Stock Just Crash?

Firefly Aerospace (FLY -11.37%), the first space stock to land a spacecraft on the moon with 100% success, tumbled 11.1% through 2:40 p.m. Friday.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that there doesn’t seem to be any particular reason for Firefly to be going down.

Image source: Firefly Aerospace.

What’s wrong with Firefly stock today?

We’re right in the middle of earnings season for aerospace stocks, with Lockheed Martin beating earnings last week and Boeing an earnings miss just earlier this week. Firefly, on the other hand, hasn’t reported any earnings at all and isn’t scheduled to do so until Nov. 10. There hasn’t been any recent news of analyst downgrades or changes to the stock’s price target either.

In the absence of any such catalyst, there’s really no reason for Firefly stock to be crashing.

On the contrary, what news there is on Firefly is of the “good news” variety. Last week, Firefly passed preliminary design work on its MoonFall mission for NASA — a $75 million contract to deploy “hopping” space drones to the moon — and is on course to hit its late 2028 launch date. On Wednesday, Firefly confirmed that its SciTec subsidiary passed a milestone test on its even bigger $259 million FORGE software contract for the U.S. Space Force.

FLY – Firefly Aerospace

$17.61-$2.26 (-11.37%)

NASDAQ · As of 3:00 PM ET 10/30/26

What’s next for Firefly stock

So if Firefly’s got nothing but good news to report, why is the stock falling? I suppose this could be a case of investors bracing for bad news in the upcoming earnings report, but honestly, Wall Street has set a pretty low bar there.

Last year, Firefly lost $0.55 per share in its Q3; this time, all analysts want to see is for that loss to shrink 9%. So long as Firefly loses no more than $0.50 per share, Wall Street should be happy.

As fast as Firefly stock fell today, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see the stock bounce back even quicker.

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Boeing, Firefly Aerospace, and Lockheed Martin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Source: www.fool.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.