Shares of Joby Aviation (JOBY 8.97%) were flying high Tuesday, soaring as much as 10.3%. As of 3:12 p.m. ET, the stock was still up 9.1%.
The catalyst that sent the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft specialist higher was an announcement that the company is expanding its manufacturing capacity.
Image source: Joby Aviation.
Ready to take flight
In a press release on Tuesday, Joby announced plans to increase the size of its Marina, California, manufacturing facility to 435,500 square feet of total space. This will effectively double the production capacity at that location and support the scale-up of the company's commercial operations. Joby is also ramping up manufacturing capacity at its newly renovated Dayton, Ohio, plant, which will be tasked with manufacturing and testing aircraft components.
Joby is also expanding its flight test program, adding a new aircraft to its growing test fleet.
Is Joby a buy?
It's important to remember that Joby isn't yet generating much revenue, and the company's losses are piling up. As such, a lot will have to go right for Joby to succeed, and the stock is exorbitantly expensive, currently trading for 179 times next year's expected sales.
To be clear, Joby is a high-risk, high-reward investment, which could lead to something of a binary outcome. If the eVTOL specialist can win certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) -- the process in ongoing -- and manufacture its aircraft at scale, the stock could fly much higher. On the other hand, if Joby isn't successful in either of these areas, the highflier could crash and burn.
With that in mind, investors should size their positions with their risk tolerance in mind.
