Space stock Intuitive Machines (LUNR -1.06%) tumbled 3% through 11:05 a.m. ET Thursday morning -- but it could have been worse. After reporting a big earnings miss for Q2 this morning, shares were at one point down as much as 16%!
So what went wrong?
Intuitive Machines Q2 earnings (er, loss)
Analysts weren't expecting Intuitive Machines to be profitable in Q2, forecasting $0.09 per share in losses -- but Intuitive tripped over even this low bar. Actual losses for the quarter were $0.29 per share, and Intuitive booked only $206.2 million in revenue, far short of Wall Street's $223.8 million target.
CEO Steve Altemus said the quarter was "strong," with revenue more than quadrupling year over year, but investors weren't impressed. Operating costs more than tripled, interest costs added to the expense, and on the bottom line, Intuitive's net losses nearly doubled to $46.4 million.
The loss per share didn't grow as much -- up only 32% -- but only because Intuitive Machines issued a lot of new shares over the past year, spreading out the losses. (But also with the effect that if Intuitive ever does become profitable, its profits per share will be diluted as well.)
NASDAQ: LUNR
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What's next for Intuitive Machines stock
Not all the news was bad. Intuitive Machines booked $920 million in new contracts in Q2, a 4.5x book-to-bill ratio that promises immense sales growth in coming quarters. Indeed, Intuitive Machines says its order book is now practically overflowing with $1.8 billion worth of work to be done -- enough to keep the company busy for the next two years straight, even if no new contracts are won, at management's $900 million-to-$1 billion forecast for 2026 revenue.
Still, it would be nice to see the company earn at least some profit from all this work.
