Cathie Wood's ARK Adds 233,482 Rocket Lab Shares as Analysts Keep the Faith

Cathie Wood's ARK Invest picked up 233,482 Rocket Lab shares on Thursday, a purchase worth roughly $16.5 million spread across three of the firm's active strategies — the flagship ARKK fund alongside the thematic ARKQ and ARKX vehicles. The buying landed during a stretch of pronounced volatility for the space company, which has spent months undergoing a revaluation.

In German trading the stock was changing hands at EUR 66.10, up 5.2% on the day, yet still about 51% below its 52-week high of EUR 133.80. Stateside, Rocket Lab closed Thursday at $70.46.

Citi Opens Coverage With a Buy

Institutional sentiment remains supportive. Citi initiated coverage of Rocket Lab with a "Buy" rating and a $105 price target on the US markets, implying roughly 49% upside from Thursday's close. That view is not an outlier: of 21 analysts tracked, 13 recommend buying the shares, four say hold, and not a single sell rating is on the books. The average 12-month price target sits at $109.15.

The bullish case rests heavily on a launch backlog that keeps swelling. Rocket Lab recently agreed with Japanese Earth-observation specialist Synspective on 20 additional Electron missions running from 2028 through 2031 — the largest single commercial order ever booked for the Electron vehicle. Combined with earlier agreements, Synspective's total commitment now stands at 47 flights, pushing Rocket Lab's overall launch manifest past 100 missions.

From Stunt Flying to Routine Operations

That cadence is the real story. On September 26, the company carried a StriX satellite for Synspective to low Earth orbit on its 97th Electron mission — the 18th launch of the current year alone. Orbital transport earns its economic keep not through headline-grabbing announcements but through steady repeatability, and Synspective's multi-year contract to round out its constellation signals exactly that kind of confidence.

Beyond the launch pad, Rocket Lab is pursuing structural milestones. Shareholders approved the $8 billion acquisition of Iridium just over a week ago, a deal expected to close by mid-2027. On the technical front, the maiden flight of the larger Neutron rocket remains the key calendar marker, targeted for no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2026.

Even with a packed order book, the market's valuation still reflects caution. The pre-market quote of EUR 63.50 puts the company's market capitalization at EUR 35.94 billion — a long way from the 52-week peak of EUR 133.80. For investors, the question has shifted from whether the technology works to whether the company can scale it industrially: can Rocket Lab sustain its launch tempo long enough to work through a three-digit mission backlog profitably? Only when that growing routine shows up reliably in the financial statements is the market likely to fully price in the operational maturity.