SpaceX Stock Skyrockets 12% After Strong Earnings: Morgan Stanley Sees 100% Upside, Should You Buy?

Elon Musk’s rocket stock, SpaceX, skyrocketed by more than 12% on October 21, 2026, after its Q3 earnings reflected strong growth. Due to this, a bull run was seen across space stocks and Wall Street overall. Going ahead, the sustainability of AI monetisation, infrastructure spending, and Starlink’s subscriber growth will play a role in impacting sentiments in SpaceX.

SpaceX Stock Price Today, October 21, 2026:

At the time of writing, SpaceX traded higher by 11.4% to $164.89 apiece on Nasdaq. In the opening bell, the stock skyrocketed by more than 12.4% to hit an intraday high of $166.18 apiece, emerging among top gainers for Nasdaq.

Yesterday, the stock stood around $147.79 apiece.

The bullish trend emerged after SpaceX witnessed strong performance across verticals in Q3.

“SpaceX’s Q3 2026 results reflect a strong growth trajectory, with revenue rising 161% year-on-year to $14.58 billion, surpassing expectations of $12.7-$12.9 billion. Adjusted EBITDA stood at $8.81 billion against expectations of approximately $6.6 billion, while net income reached $4.40 billion, marking the company’s first quarterly profit since listing,” said Daniel Munday, Principal Analyst, VT Markets.

SpaceX Earnings

In Q3, the largest rocket maker posted 161% YoY growth to $14.6 billion in revenue, while income from operations stood at $2.8 billion, net income of $4.4 billion, and Adjusted EBITDA of $8.8 billion.

SpaceX said, it successfully launched their first revenue-generating Starship mission, delivering 26 Starlink V3 satellites to their broadband constellation, representing approximately 10x the downlink capacity added by a Falcon 9 Starlink launch.

Also, the Super Intelligence (AI) business emerged as the largest revenue contributor at $7.56 billion, followed by Connectivity/Starlink at $5.25 billion and Space/Rockets at $1.77 billion, with all three segments exceeding analyst estimates.

The company added $6.7 billion of incremental SI solutions and infrastructure revenue year-over-year, driven by cloud services agreements, the acquisition of Cursor, and their growing SI models and software applications, including Grok Bot.

Should You Buy SpaceX Stock?

According to Munday, the key concern remains the scale of investment required to sustain this growth. Capital expenditure reached $19.59 billion in Q3, including $16.44 billion for Super Intelligence, taking nine-month capex to $48.07 billion.

SpaceX management has indicated that Q4 capital expenditure could rise to $35-$40 billion as AI infrastructure expands.

Meanwhile, Starlink’s consumer subscriber base increased to 13.6 million from 12 million in Q2, although it remained below some pre-earnings estimates of 14.2-14.3 million. Monthly revenue per customer improved to $69 from $66 in Q2 but remained below $83 a year earlier, reflecting expansion into lower-price markets.

Going ahead, Munday believes the sustainability of AI monetisation, infrastructure spending, and Starlink’s subscriber growth will be critical in determining investor sentiment.

SpaceX Stock Technical Predictions:

In Munday’s opinion, $158.02 is the key resistance level, with a sustained move above it potentially supporting a recovery towards $172.63. On the downside, a break below $140.56 could bring $131.34 and $107.17 into focus. Investors will also monitor Tesla’s Q3 results, ongoing SpaceX-Tesla merger discussions, the Federal Reserve meeting on October 27-28, and broader sentiment towards capital-intensive AI infrastructure investments.

He said, the central question is whether SpaceX can sustain its strong revenue and profitability growth while funding its substantial infrastructure expansion.

Based on 36 Wall Street analysts offering 12 month price targets for SpaceX in the last 3 months. The average price target is $237.10 with a high forecast of $500.00 and a low forecast of $75.00. The average price target represents a 71.87% change from the last price of $137.95, as per Tip Ranks tracker.

Also, Morgan Stanley maintained its “Overweight” rating on the stock with target price of $300 apiece, indicating over 100% potential upside ahead from the previous session’s market price. However, Stanley has lowered its EBIT forecast to $6.2 billion from $7.7 billion for fiscal 2026.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations expressed are solely those of the individual analysts or entities and do not reflect the views of Goodreturns.in or Greynium Information Technologies Private Limited (together referred as “we”). We do not guarantee, endorse or take responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or reliability of any content, nor do we provide any investment advice or solicit the purchase or sale of securities. All information is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should be independently verified from licensed financial advisors before making any investment decisions.