Wall Street's response to Intuitive Machines' second-quarter earnings on Thursday was muted.
That changed on Friday.
Shares of Intuitive Machines stock surged 13% to $19.69 on Friday after Stifel analyst Jonathan Siegmann upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold and reduced his price target to $26 from $32.
Siegmann wrote that while the maker of lunar landers and other space technology's second-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, missed estimates, the company's backlog growth stood out.
"It's the backlog surge that is important," Siegmann wrote.
Intuitive Machines reported early Thursday that it ended the second quarter with a backlog of nearly $1.8 billion, growing by $707 million sequentially.
This growth was led by a $600 million contract to build three commercial geostationary Earth orbit communications satellites. Siegmann noted that the backlog is distributed nicely across civil, commercial, and national security space operations.
"The 2027 outlook is substantially improving. Buy LUNR now while the market stays preoccupied with 2026. LUNR's backlog build is diversifying and accelerating -- this is the most important development of the quarter," Siegmann wrote.
Stifel wasn't alone in this assessment.
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Sheppard on Friday lowered his price target on the stock to $32 from $43 but maintained his Overweight rating.
Sheppard, like Siegmann, highlighted the expanded backlog and noted contracts with NASA and the Golden Dome missile defense system as reasons to be optimistic. Sheppard added that with multiple lunar contracts ahead, the stock is well positioned to keep rising.
B. Riley analyst Mike Crawford, meanwhile, wrote Friday that the $1.8 billion backlog "highlights growing momentum" as Intuitive Machines "aims to become the next-generation space prime."
The analyst maintained his Buy rating on the stock and raised his price target to $45 from $43.
Crawford wrote that the stock traded lower for much of the session Thursday before ending the day 3.6% higher. The analyst believes the intraday reversal took place as "investors shifted focus from softer-than-consensus 2Q revenue towards a formidable backlog."
Intuitive Machines stock has been on a strong run as of late. The stock is on pace to close higher in 11 of the past 12 trading days and is up 62% in August. Shares have advanced 119% over the past 12 months.
Even as second-quarter earnings initially gave Wall Street pause, it looks like sentiment is back on the side of the key cog in the space economy.