FLY: Firefly Aerospace Stock Rockets 30% in IPO Day — Here’s What You Need to Know

It’s a rocket and lunar lander maker and it’s got a rich list of big clients, including some of the biggest defense contractors. Valuation? $8.5 billion. Revenue? Up 6x. Losses? Heavy.

🚀 Big Lift-Off on Nasdaq Debut

• Firefly Aerospace stock FFLY blasted over 30% higher in its first day of trading Thursday, closing at $60.35 and putting its market cap around $8.5 billion.
• Shares opened at $70 under the very-fitting ticker FLY, after pricing at $45 — already above its expected range — raising $868 million in the process.
• The IPO range was actually hiked twice this week, from an initial $35–$39, showing just how hot demand was heading into the listing.

🛰 Big Names, Big Contracts

• Firefly counts Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, and Northrop Grumman among its top-tier clients, plus a fresh $177 million NASA contract last month.
• In a vote of confidence, Northrop Grumman took a $50 million stake in Firefly, signaling strong defense industry support for the startup’s tech and pipeline.
• Earlier this year, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander made a successful NASA-funded moon landing — not bad for a company that’s only been in the public eye for a few years.

📈 Revenue Soars, Losses Still Heavy

• But let’s look under the hood. Quarterly revenue jumped a whopping sixfold to $55.9 million, up from just $8.3 million a year earlier, as its launch services and spacecraft divisions gained momentum.
• The backlog stood at $1.1 billion as of March, suggesting more launches, contracts, and possibly moon missions in the works.
• Still, losses widened — $60.1 million last quarter versus $52.8 million a year ago — showing that while demand is sky-high, profitability is still somewhere in orbit.