SpaceX attracts retail buyers after post-earnings share slide

Aug 5 (Reuters) – Retail investors continued to pile into SpaceX shares on Wednesday, buying the dip after a sharp drop following the company’s first ever earnings report as a public company.

Mom-and-pop traders bought a net $22.7 million in SpaceX shares in the first hour of trading alone, the third-highest first-hour total in the 37 trading sessions since the company went public, according to Vanda Research data.

“This tells us that retail dip-buying has not stepped back after the earnings sell-off – they’ve become even more opportunistic,” Vanda Research said in the note.

The financial data firm said Wednesday could become the second-biggest day for retail net buying since listing if the pace holds, behind only June 16, when net buying stood at $144.6 million.

SpaceX has not recorded a day of net retail selling since its June 12 IPO, the biggest in U.S. history at $135 per share.

Shares of the rockets-to-AI company dropped as much as 12.9% following its earnings report as investors grew concerned about how long its profitable Starlink business could continue to bankroll costly AI investments.

Overall trading was robust, with more than $10.5 billion worth of SpaceX shares changing hands as of 11:47 a.m. ET, according to LSEG-compiled data.

SpaceX was the most bought U.S. stock among retail investors on Wednesday as per Vanda, following by chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices. AMD shares were last down 6.5% following a quarterly earnings report.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)