Rocket Lab's backlog stood at $2.36 billion as of July, nearly 2.5 times this year's expected revenue of $959 million (up 59%), yet the stock is on pace to lose 16% in October and sits 16% below its 2025 close. The article points to delays to the medium-lift Neutron rocket, which the company said in mid-October will not fly this year, while noting the Electron rocket has flown 98 times and the technology arm, about two-thirds of the business, nearly doubled year over year in Q2. The stock trades at about 40 times this year's expected sales in a company that remains unprofitable, compared with the S&P 500's trailing price/sales ratio of around 3.6. The author argues that story stocks like this can only be sustained by narrative for so long before investors focus on the numbers.
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