B. Riley Securities on Thursday initiated research coverage of Intuitive Machines with a Buy rating and set a price target of $8. With this price objective, B.Riley analysts believe the stock has the potential to more than double from its current level of $3.5 per share.
Intuitive Machines boasts of a leadership team with notable industry experience, including former NASA Johnson Space Center deputy director Steve Altemus, and the expertise of Dr. Tim Crain and Dr. Kam Ghaffarian.
B.Riley analysts believe LUNR has “superior capabilities and trade secrets relative to other competitors also vying for a piece of NASA’s multi-billion-dollar programs like Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS),” seeking to offer access to, communicate with, and gather data from cislunar space and the lunar surface.
Assured lunar access enjoys strong bipartisan support in the U.S. during a period when a country and its allies aim to catch up with China's advancements in space exploration.
Intuitive Machines made history in February by becoming the first U.S. company to land on the Moon's surface since NASA's Apollo program in 1972, achieving this milestone with a significantly lower budget. However, China got to the Moon more than ten years ago, B. Riley noted.
Looking ahead, Intuitive Machines is poised to continue its lunar endeavors, with its next mission, IM-2, targeting the Moon's South Pole—a region believed to harbor frozen water deposits “that can be mined for fuel and sustenance,” analysts said.
“We believe Intuitive is leading the U.S.-allied charge to provide low-cost access to the Moon, with a compelling delivery capability that will drive long-term profits for the company as communications and deployment services kick in on top of an access cadence that we see as only increasing.”