Rocket Lab USA, Inc. RKLB
Promising (early) Space sector · Small-launch leader expanding into satellites and space systems.
🗓 Reports earnings in 79 days (2026-11-09) — calendar context, not a prediction.
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (RKLB) is a Space company, graded Promising (early) on FrontierLab's evidence-based quality rubric (data as of 2026-08-21). Revenue grew 52.5% year-over-year at a 37.3% gross margin. Gross-profits-to-assets is 0.07; Rule of 40 is 23.4. Net share issuance 22.2% YoY (heavy issuance). 3 risk flags are noted below. Analyst mix: 21 buy / 6 hold / 0 sell.
These sentences are generated from the day's data by deterministic templates.
Key quality signals
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 52.5% |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 37.3% |
| Gross profits / assets | 0.07 |
| Rule of 40 | 23.4 |
| Net margin | -29.1% |
| Cash runway (months) | 110.6 |
| PEG | — |
| Price / sales | 54.9 |
Quality checklist
Each line is one quality test behind the grade — ✓ passed · ~ borderline · ✗ failed. Hover a metric in the tables below for what it means.
- ~ Revenue growth — 52.5% (pass ≥ 20%)
- ✓ Capital efficiency
- ~ Gross margin — 37.3% (pass ≥ 45% · Space)
- ✓ Gross-margin trend — 8.3 (pass ≥ 2)
- ✓ Share dilution — 22.2%
- ~ Competitive moat — Narrow
- ✓ Market size (TAM) — Large
Grade history
Graded Promising (early) since 2026-06-10 — no grade changes recorded yet.
How have Early-stage-graded names performed?
The forward returns of all Early-stage-graded names since each grade was recorded — the bucket this name currently sits in, not a forecast of this individual stock.
| Window | Forward record vs the S&P | Median |
|---|---|---|
| ~1 month | 69% of Early-stage-graded names beat the S&P over 21 sessions (95% CI 51–82%, N=32). | Median excess vs the S&P was +3.9%. |
| ~3 months | building — 13 more sessions needed | |
| ~6 months | building — 76 more sessions needed | |
How have this name's flags scored?
| Flag | N | Mean excess vs S&P |
|---|---|---|
| Burning cash — operating margin is negative. | 35 | +7.4% |
| Heavy dilution (~22%/yr) — top-decile share issuers have historically underperformed. | sample still too small to report (need ≥ 8) | |
| Hyper-expansion — assets up ~170% in a year; aggressive expanders have historically lagged. | sample still too small to report (need ≥ 8) | |
These per-flag figures are observational — a flag firing is not a randomized assignment, so any edge can reflect what kind of names trip a flag, not the flag itself. Descriptive, not causal.
Scope: these are forward returns vs the S&P among names still covered at each horizon's end, within the curated universe — not a survivorship-clean whole-market backtest. Names later dropped from coverage are counted as attrition (not hidden), and single-session moves beyond ±300% are treated as split/data artifacts and excluded. How this is measured → · Full track record →
How it compares
Coarse same-sector, same-stage context — not a percentile or rank. GP/A is graded on its absolute level, not position.
Fundamentals
| Market cap | $42.23B |
|---|---|
| Stage | Early |
| Share issuance (YoY) | 22.2% · heavy issuance |
| Moat | Narrow |
| TAM | LARGE |
| P/E (trailing) | — |
| EPS (trailing) | $-0.28 |
| Burn multiple | 0.3 |
| Gross-margin trend (pts) | 8.3 |
| Cash / assets | 0.55 |
| Accruals (%) | 2.9% |
| Net debt / EBITDA | — |
| Statements as of | Q2 FY2026 · filed 2026-08-10 |
Momentum context — describes the past, not a signal
Low reached Nov 20, 2025 · high reached May 27, 2026 — by daily close.
| Price | $72.95 (as of 2026-08-20) |
|---|---|
| Last session move | — |
| % off 52-wk high | -51.7% |
| RSI (14) | 44 |
| Relative volume | 0.9× |
Risk flags
Insider activity (90 days)
| Cluster buyers | 0 |
|---|---|
| Sellers | 6 |
Insider selling is routine diversification, not a bearish signal.
Analyst mix
| Strong buy | 7 |
|---|---|
| Buy | 14 |
| Hold | 6 |
| Sell | 0 |
| Strong sell | 0 |
▼ Analyst view softening — net -1 buy rating, coverage 26→27 analysts over ~4 weeks (per aggregated analyst ratings)
Ratings are context, not a price target. "Momentum" = how the mix changed over recent weeks, not a forecast.
From the headlines
Mixed sentiment on Rocket Lab; market weakness offset by positive space sector outlook.
AI take — daily, AI-generated
AI leans mixed
Rocket Lab shows solid 52.5% growth with decent margins, but valuation metrics are opaque and dilution is rising—a reasonable early-stage space play that needs clearer profitability proof before justifying the hype.
Generated by an AI model from the day's news — an opinion for context only. Not financial advice, not a recommendation, and not a price target.
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Data as of 2026-08-21 08:12 (end-of-day). How grades are computed →