RKLB Stock Rises Overnight Despite Electron Delay — Cathie Wood’s ARK Buy And BofA’s Bullish Call Lift Sentiment

• BofA lowered its Rocket Lab price target to $110 from $115 following Q2 earnings but retained its ‘Buy’ rating.
• Rocket Lab reported record Q2 revenue of $234.07 million, up 62% from a year ago and above Wall Street’s $230.94 million estimate.
• Persistent winds delayed the Synspective mission until at least Sept.2.

Shares of Rocket Lab (RKLB) rose 0.3% overnight late Monday as Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management bought $12.8 million worth of stock and Bank of America Securities (BofA) maintained its bullish rating, helping investors look past another weather-related delay to the company’s next Electron mission.

RKLB stock fell 1% on Monday, ending August firmly in the red and marking its third consecutive month of losses. 

ARK Loads Up On RKLB, BofA Stays Bullish

ARK Invest purchased 200,303 RKLB shares through its flagship ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) on Monday worth about $12.8 million, representing 0.2% of the ETF’s assets.

Meanwhile, BofA lowered its RKLB price target to $110 from $115, still implying 72% upside from current levels, after adjusting estimates across its space coverage following second-quarter (Q2) earnings. The firm nevertheless maintained its ‘Buy’ rating. BofA’s bullish stance follows a record quarter for Rocket Lab. The company reported Q2 revenue of $234.07 million, ahead of Wall Street’s $230.94 million estimate and up 62% from a year earlier. Its adjusted loss of $0.08 per share was wider than the $0.05 loss analysts expected.

“It has been another exceptional quarter for Rocket Lab,” founder and CEO Peter Beck said during the earnings call, adding that demand for its launch services was “extreme.”

Rocket Lab secured more than $437 million in bookings for Electron, HASTE and Neutron during and after the quarter, including a record $266 million contract covering up to 18 suborbital missions for the U.S. Space Force.

The company ended Q2 with a record backlog of $2.36 billion and signed more than $1 billion in new contracts across its launch and space-systems businesses during the quarter and the subsequent period.

Strong Winds Delay Rocket Lab’s Electron Mission

Rocket Lab’s overnight gains came despite another postponement of its “Owl Around The World” mission, which will deploy a synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth-observation company Synspective. “With continuing strong winds over Launch Complex 1, the launch window for this mission will now open NET Sept 2,” Rocket Lab said on X.

The company had already moved the mission to no earlier than Sept.1 due to strong winds forecast over its New Zealand launch site. The latest postponement pushes the window back by another day, to 7 a.m. ET on Sept.2.

The mission is expected to mark Rocket Lab’s 94th Electron flight and its 15th launch of 2026. It will expand Synspective’s StriX radar-imaging constellation, which can capture detailed images of the Earth regardless of weather or daylight conditions.

Rocket Lab has completed 10 dedicated missions for Synspective with a 100% success rate. Another 17 launches were booked for the Japanese company following the partners’ previous mission in June. The company also successfully completed its 93rd Electron mission on Aug. 20, deploying an Earth-imaging satellite for Japan’s iQPS. Nine additional dedicated launches remain booked for that customer through 2030.

How Do Retail Traders Feel About RKLB?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for RKLB slipped to ‘bearish’ from ‘neutral’ levels a day ago amid a 497% jump in 24-hour message volumes.

One user said, “$RKLB much of the recent decline has been caused by Spacex trying to throw a monkey wrench into acquisition of Iridium.  Don’t worry, be happy.  Neutron getting launched probably June 2027.    The first flight will cause the stock to double.”

Another user said, “$RKLB I see this as a way for those of us who are longs and believe in this company to add shares before it goes back up again.  I would rather Neutron was delayed than rushed.”

RKLB stock has risen 32% over the past year. 

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