Rocket Lab shares rallied 10% in premarket trading on Friday after the launching-services company narrowed its quarterly loss and hailed a 71% jump in revenue.
Rocket Lab $(RKLB)$ lost $41.6 million, or 8 cents a share, in the second quarter, in line with FactSet consensus and compared with a loss of $45.9 million, or 10 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
It was Rocket Lab's highest-revenue quarter in its history, founder and Chief Executive Peter Beck said. Revenue rose 71% to $106.3 million, demonstrating "the strong and growing demand for our launch services and space-systems products, and importantly, our team's ability to execute against it."
Analysts polled by FactSet expected Rocket Lab to report revenue of $105.5 million.
Separately, the company said it fired its new rocket engine, Archimedes, for the first time, reaching "a critical technical milestone" toward the first launch of its new medium-lift rocket, called the Neutron.
For the third quarter, Rocket Lab guided for revenue between $100 million and $105 million, and an adjusted Ebitda loss between $31 million and $33 million.
FactSet consensus calls for third-quarter revenue of about $108 million.
