Space and defense stocks were active Thursday as investors responded to IPO and earnings news. Firefly Aerospace soared after its debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange Thursday in an upsized initial public offering.

Rocket Lab stock eased late Thursday on mixed Q2 results while Kratos Defense retreated.

Rocket Lab Earnings

Launch services provider Rocket Lab (RKLB) reported that its loss widened to 13 cents per share from a loss of 8 cents per share last year. Revenue jumped 36% to a record $144.5 million.

FactSet expected the company to report a loss of 10 cents per share on 27% revenue growth to $135.4 million.

Product revenue jumped 28% to $92.73 million. Services revenue spiked 51% to $51.77 million.

For the third quarter, Rocket Lab expects revenue to range from $145 million to $155 million, which is in-line with FactSet views for $150.3 million.

RKLB stock eased 1.2%% late Thursday.  Shares during market hours Thursday eased 1.5% to test support along its 21-day exponential moving average.

Rocket Lab has retreated 18% from its record high of 53.44 on July 17. Shares have rallied more than 71% so far this year.

Kratos Defense

Kratos Defense (KTOS) reported earnings of 11 cents per share adjusted, just topping views for 10 cents per share. Revenue increased 17% to $351.1 million, which beat forecasts for $306 million in revenue.

Kratos expects Q3 revenue to range from $315 million to $325 million, slightly below estimates for $327 million. The company lifted its full-year revenue guidance to range from $1.29 billion to $1.31 billion, from its previous range of $1.26 billion to $1.285 billion.

Factset expects $1.287 billion in revenue for the year.

Kratos stock slid more than 2% late Thursday. KTOS ticked up a fraction during Thursday trade.

Shares have traded largely sideways since mid-July, after rallying more than 120% this year. Shares hit a 2025 high of 62.80 on Aug. 5.

Firefly IPO

Firefly Aerospace opened trading at 70 per share on Thursday on the Nasdaq under the ticker FLY, up nearly 56% from the offering price of 45 per share the company set on Wednesday. The IPO had already seen multiple price raises ahead of launch.

The space and defense technology outfit is offering 19.3 million shares of its stock, up from an original proposal for 16.2 million shares.

Shares eased to 60.35 by the close, giving it a valuation of over $11.6 billion.

Firefly in March successfully landed its Blue Ghost lander on the Moon, which marked the first commercial moon landing, according to the company. The lander launched in January and completed 100% of its missions during the two-week surface operations.

Firefly has a backlog worth $1.1 billion and is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, according to Barron's. In July, Firefly received a $176.7 million NASA contract to deliver five NASA-sponsored payloads to the Moon in 2029.

You can follow Harrison Miller for more stock news and updates on X/Twitter @IBD_Harrison

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