Rocket Lab rises on better-than-expected Q3, posting record revenue and gross margin

Rocket Lab is up about 9.3% as of 5:40 a.m. ET on Tuesday after announcing record-breaking quarterly revenue of $155 million, at a record gross margin, as part of its better-than-expected Q3 results released yesterday afternoon.

For sales, which were up 48% from the same period last year, analysts had penciled in $152 million, while adjusted earnings per share came in at -$0.03, less steep than the -$0.10 that Wall Street had forecast, per estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Looking to the next quarter, the company said it expects to beat its annual launch record and post revenues of between $170 million and $180 million — ahead of analyst estimates at the midpoint by roughly 2%.

RKLB’s results for the quarter, and the year more broadly, have mostly been fueled by launches of its current Electron rocket, according to Bloomberg. As far as its next rocket goes, the Neutron, which some see as the company’s best chance to challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX more directly, the company took yesterday as an opportunity to officially announce that its debut launch would be delayed into next year — an outcome that Ars Technica described as “inevitable.”