Tech Bull Dan Ives Initiates SpaceX with Outperform Rating, Sets $190 Price Target

In a move highlighting the growing institutional significance of the private space sector, Wedbush Securities’ prominent tech analyst Dan Ives has officially initiated coverage on Elon Musk’s aerospace giant, SpaceX. Ives assigned the company an "Outperform" rating and established a price target of $190 per share. Although SpaceX remains a privately held company, the initiation reflects the robust secondary market for its shares and the increasing demand from institutional investors eager to benchmark the valuation of the world’s dominant commercial launch provider.

The $190 price target represents a significant premium over recent private secondary market transactions. In late 2023 and early 2024, SpaceX shares reportedly changed hands at valuations ranging between $97 and $115 per share, pegging the company’s total valuation in the neighborhood of $180 billion to $210 billion. Wedbush’s target implies a projected valuation approaching $350 billion, a milestone Ives believes is achievable as the company cements its dual-engine growth narrative of satellite internet dominance and deep-space logistics.

Starlink and Starship Drive the Valuation Thesis

Central to the bullish outlook is the rapid commercialization of Starlink, SpaceX's low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband constellation. Once viewed as a highly speculative, capital-intensive venture, Starlink has transitioned into a massive cash-generating business, boasting millions of active subscribers globally. Analysts widely anticipate that Starlink will eventually be spun off into a public entity, a move that could unlock unprecedented liquidity and valuation premiums for early investors.

Beyond telecom, SpaceX's core launch services continue to operate with a near-monopoly in the West. Key highlights of the company's market position include:

• Falcon 9 Reliability: Unmatched launch cadence and booster reusability have dramatically lowered the cost of access to orbit.
• Starship Development: The massive next-generation launch system is poised to further disrupt payload economics, facilitating national security missions and NASA’s Artemis program.
• Competitive Moat: Traditional aerospace rivals like United Launch Alliance (ULA) and emerging competitors like Blue Origin continue to face developmental delays, leaving SpaceX largely unchallenged in heavy-payload logistics.

Wall Street's Shifting View on the Space Economy

"SpaceX is no longer just a rocket launch business; it is a global telecom and aerospace infrastructure behemoth," Ives noted in his research brief to clients. The Wedbush report emphasizes that SpaceX's financial trajectory is increasingly beginning to mirror that of mature, high-growth mega-cap tech stocks rather than traditional, capital-heavy aerospace contractors.

While retail investors remain largely locked out of direct equity ownership, Wedbush’s coverage initiation serves as a bellwether for the broader financial sector. As private valuations swell and the commercialization of low Earth orbit accelerates, Wall Street is increasingly treating the space economy not as a distant frontier, but as an essential, investable tech vertical.