Shares of space Intuitive Machines soared to a six-month high. What happened?

Quotes of Intuitive Machines, a small-cap developer of lunar rovers, soared on December 19 by almost 38% - to the maximum since the end of February. This happened after investment company Keybanc recommended investors to buy Intuitive Machines shares and set a target for them, which, even after Friday's rally, is 34% higher than their market value.

Intuitive Machines shares rose nearly 38% to $14.94 on Dec. 19. This is the maximum since the end of February 2025.

The driver for growth was the report of investment company Keybanc, in which it first rated the shares of the developer of lunar rovers and immediately recommended them for purchase, noted the portal Insider Monkey. The target price set for them is $20, which even after Friday's rally provides for a 34% upside potential.

Keybanc's valuation is based on Intuitive Machines' leadership in developing lunar rovers and significant opportunities to develop services in the space sector, writes Insider Monkey. The company has three lines of business: delivering cargo to the Moon, collecting and interpreting space data, and providing access to space infrastructure, such as for navigation.

In the third quarter, the company's revenue fell 10.4% year-over-year to $52.4 million, while its net loss narrowed 10-fold to $9.96 million in the same period.

In early December, another investment firm, Cantor Fitzgerald , called Intuitive Machines' stock undervalued and set a $16 target price for it, suggesting a potential upside of 70% of its market value at the time.

Among the growth drivers Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Sheppard named the planned purchase of Intuitive Machines satellite manufacturer Lanteris Space Systems for $800 million. After the merger, if approved by regulators, the combined order book of the companies should reach $920 million. At the end of the third quarter, the order book of the developer of lunar rovers was $235.9 million.

Sheppard wrote that after the deal, Intuitive Machines will actually become a "full-service" company: it will be able not only to develop and manufacture space hardware, but also to provide its own launch and mission management. It is also among the three bidders for NASA's contract to build a lunar transportation vehicle.

Since the beginning of the year, Intuitive Machines quotes have added almost 17% - despite a sharp drop in March 2025. At that time, the company was conducting the second lunar mission IM-2 as part of NASA's CLPS program. The landing module successfully reached the moon, but tipped over on its side during landing and could not recharge. As a result, instead of the ten planned days, it operated for 24 hours.

The company's securities have a total of ten buy ratings from Wall Street analysts and only one sell rating, MarketWatch shows. The average target price is $16.1 and implies a potential upside of nearly 8% to current levels.