Starfighters Space Joins Russell 3000 Index, Signaling Space Sector Growth

New Street analysts Pierre Ferrago, James Ratzer, and David Barden launch sector coverage for select Space Economy and Infrastructure names with Buy ratings for Rocket Lab (RKLB), Viasat (VSAT), and EchoStar (SATS). The firm is positive on Rocket Lab valuation as it currently implies that the company captures less than 1% of space economy, but forfFor the only scaled Western platform outside of SpaceX, the firm contends that the opportunity is largely underpriced. For Viasat, New Street believes that the company's ownership of the largest band of global MSS spectrum isn't being reflected in current share price, while EchoStart is viewed as the proxy play on Space X. as the company owns 2.2% of SpaceX post-xAI merger, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Should SpaceX list for a meaningful premium to this value, meaningful upside should emerge for SATS, New Street stated. Planet Labs (PL) and Telesat (TSAT) are among the firm's Sell-rated names. The firm is cautions on Planet Labs' valuation as the company is "well positioned with tier-2 countries". For Telesat, New Street is concerned that the huge increase in capacity from Starlink and Amazon will put pressure on pricing and company is likely to miss revenue targets.