Four NASA astronauts are back on Earth, safe and sound after a historic 10-day mission around the moon. Now it’s time to decide how to play space trends.
“Space is back in a big way,” wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas in a Sunday report.
Technology, geopolitics, and economics have aligned to gin up excitement on Wall Street about the potential swirling above the clouds.
Space-related stocks have been unequivocally the big winners of late. Coming into the week, shares of launch and space service provider Rocket Lab and space-based communications company AST SpaceMobile were up roughly 1,700% and 4,350%, respectively, over the past two years.
And the attention on space is intense right now, with the huge succesof NASA’s Artemis II mission and SpaceX on the cusp of an initial public offering. The IPO could value Elon Musk’s rocket company at an otherworldly $2 trillion.
Space is indeed here to stay. So Morgan Stanley has introduced its Space 60, which it describes as a “comprehensive” list of publicly traded companies with ties to space.
Morgan Stanley has divided the companies into seven categories: raw materials, alloys, propulsion, electronics, parts, launch systems, and satellite operators.
Here are a few of Morgan Stanley’s picks in each category:
In raw materials, a top play is rare earth producer MP Materials. Rare-earths end up in a host of high-tech applications, including fighter jets and EVs. More demand for spacecraft means more rare earth growth for MP. All 16 analysts covering the stock rate shares Buy. TheaverageBuy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is typically between 55% to 60%.
In alloys, a big name is ATI, a maker of high-performance titanium, nickel-based, and other alloys. All 13 analysts covering that stock rate shares Buy.
Industrial gas producers Linde and Air Products supply fuel for propulsion. Overall, 72% and 60% of analysts covering those stocks rate shares Buy, respectively.
Rockets need computers, which means chips. That’s an incremental benefit to Nvidia and Broadcom. Nvidia and Broadcom both have Buy-rating ratios north of 90%.
More things in space also mean more business for parts suppliers Parker-Hannifin and Amphenol. Roughly 70% of analysts covering those two rate shares Buy.
Launch system opportunities included many start-ups, including Firefly Aerospace, York Space Systems, and Rocket Lab. York is the most popular, with 80% of analysts rating shares Buy, but all three have Buy rating ratios north of 60%.
York stock gained 50% during the Artemis mission. Shares traded as high as $36.99 on Monday, and closed at $33.87, up 1.7%, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% and 0.6%, respectively.
Amazon.com, AST SpaceMobile, Planet Labs, and BlackSky Technology are four service providers using space for new business models. Amazon, obviously, does more than space and is popular on Wall Street with a Buy-rating ratio north of 90%. BlackSky is the most popular of the rest, with a Buy-rating ratio of 89%.
Of Morgan Stanley’s list of 60, that’s 15 stocks—a good start for investors who want to space growth in their portfolios.
But remember, a stock screen is only a start. After identifying ideas comes the harder work of evaluating a business.
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