Musk Warns SpaceX Shorts as Stock Snaps 7-Day Rout
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- SpaceX shares rose 3.1% to $123.54 on Tuesday, snapping a seven-day losing streak during which the stock fell 21% and closing below its $135 IPO price for a third straight session.
- SpaceX is now down roughly 47% from its all-time high of about $226 a share, with the slide coinciding with two consecutive launch setbacks: a Falcon 9 Starlink mission aborted on Monday and a 13th Starship test flight scrubbed over an engine issue, now rescheduled for July 23.
- Elon Musk fired a warning shot at short sellers on X, posting that the "survival probability" of firms betting against SpaceX is low — a threat the article suggests may have triggered short-covering on the day.
- About 17% of SpaceX's tradable float is sold short, compared with roughly 1% for Apple, an outsized figure the article links to a thin float as most shares remain locked up with early investors under trading restrictions.
- More SpaceX shares are set to unlock after the company reports second-quarter results on Aug. 4, a deadline the article flags as a key overhang — early-investor profit-taking fears are cited as one driver of the recent weakness.
- Macquarie analyst Paul Golding rates SpaceX Buy with a $250 price target and called recent prices a "compelling entry point," while the FactSet consensus average price target sits near $241.
Why it matters: With shares down roughly 47% from their all-time high and 17% of the tradable float sold short, SpaceX heads into an Aug. 4 earnings print carrying both outsized short-squeeze potential and the risk that early-investor selling intensifies once lockups ease. A successful July 23 Starship test is the next scheduled catalyst with the power to reverse the slide — or to confirm bearish concerns about launch cadence.
