What happened

Former special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) stock and current space stock Redwire (RDW 2.86%) took off like a rocket Thursday morning, passing a 19.3% gain as of 10:15 a.m. ET after the space infrastructure company reported preliminary earnings results through the end of fiscal 2021.

Redwire said this morning that it believes its revenue for the year ranged from $135 million to $140 million, and that total pro forma revenue (which is basically organic revenue, not counting revenue from companies Redwire acquired in 2021) might have been as high as $151 million.  

A red stamp that says "outer space" printed on cardboard.

Image source: Getty Images.

So what

Redwire noted that these numbers work out to 30% pro forma (organic) revenue growth year over year -- and 160% growth in total revenue.

The news wasn't all good, however. Redwire reminded investors that "on November 5, 2021 ... an employee [notified the company] of potential accounting issues at a business subunit," and Redwire's investigation of these issues has prevented the company from being able to file its third-quarter 2021 earnings report and its official fourth-quarter earnings report. Management is working to rectify this situation.

Now what

Redwire didn't provide much in the way of future guidance, nor did it say anything about how much money it lost last year, or how much money it expects to lose in the year to come. What management did say is that it believes it has "between $133 million and $138 million" in "contracted backlog" on its books, plus "uncontracted backlog ... between $136 million and $138 million, for a total backlog of between $269 million and $276 million."

That's potentially as much as two full years of future revenue awaiting fulfillment for Redwire, even absent any growth in the business. And given this, once the company gets its accounting issues straightened out, I'd say the future looks bright for Redwire.