Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ:LUNR) were in focus on Friday as B Riley Securities initiated coverage on the space exploration company with a Buy rating and a 12-month price target of $8.
“Intuitive has superior capabilities and trade secrets relative to other competitors also vying for a piece of NASA’s multi-billion-dollar programs like Commercial Lunar Payload Services,” noted analyst Mike Crawford from B Riley securities.
The brokerage added that the company had been the first U.S. corporate to land its spacecraft on the surface of the Moon and the first to soft land on the lunar South Pole. When compared against NASA’s Apollo program in 1972 which cost over $25 billion, Intuitive’s expenditure for its moon landing mission, Odysseus’ budget is two to three orders smaller in magnitude, it said.
Intuitive also boasts of an accomplished team including former NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) deputy director Steve Altemus, along with experts Dr. Tim Crain and Dr. Kam Ghaffarian.
“Assured lunar access has strong bipartisan support in the U.S. at a time when America and its allies have fallen behind China in the race to space,” said the brokerage. “China’s continuing success has spurred the development of multiple decadal government programs aimed at bolstering U.S. lunar presence,” it added.
Intuitive’s current focus on lunar space missions by NASA and its support towards the commercialization of the Moon and beyond, its capabilities in providing lunar landing access, lunar infrastructure, and lunar/cislunar communications, anchored by multi-billion dollar contracts, ally with U.S. interests in space.
In April, LUNR had one among 3 companies selected in a $4.6 billion NASA contract where it will design buggies that will eventually be used by astronauts to travel around on the lunar surface.
“We believe Intuitive is leading the U.S.-allied charge to provide low-cost access to the Moon, with a compelling delivery capability that will drive long-term profits for the company as communications and deployment services kick in on top of an access cadence that we see as only increasing,” the brokerage concluded.
Intuitive Machines (LUNR) stock rose +5.65% to $3.74 on Friday, which mark it above its 52-week low of $2.09. The stock has gained 38.55% YTD.