Space technology firm Maxar Technologies (NYSE:MAXR) has lauded higher-than-expected results in their first quarter 2018 financial report, leading to a stock price surge.
Some highlights for the quarter include net earnings of $31 million, with net earnings per share of $0.55. Meanwhile, the firm reported consolidated revenues of $557.7 million and adjusted earnings of $83.2 million or $1.47 per share.
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“Maxar is unique, at the nexus of a new space economy,” said Howard L. Lance, president and CEO of Maxar. “We delivered results above our expectations in the quarter driven by strong growth in our Imagery and Services segments”. Lance also highlighted the company’s increased optimism for the rest of the year, adding that the firm is “increasing our full-year EPS [Earnings-Per-Share] outlook.”
With a bright future beginning to form for the firm, it’s little surprise that shareholders want in. Stocks are up 14.97% at the time of writing to $50.31 USD per share, bringing Maxar’s market cap to $2.84 billion. Today’s rise appears to be the sharpest one-day incline in share price for Maxar in months. This is welcome news since stocks have decreased 32% since the beginning of 2018.
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Maxar operates almost exclusively in space, which it sees not as the final frontier but the new one. The “New Space Economy”, as it is called, refers to the market for developing everything needed to explore and study space. Increasingly, this seems less like science-fiction and more like a market certainty. The rapid rise of private space-faring firms such as SpaceX (along with its ambitious plans to reach Mars and launch thousands of satellites in the next few years) is evidence of this. To this end, the firm owns four of what it claims to be industry-leading businesses – MDA, SSL, DigitalGlobe and Radiant Solutions – which cover space robotics, satellite systems, defense and surveillance systems, spacecraft solutions and high-resolution satellite imagery.
It is the latter – the domain of DigitalGlobe – which Maxar say has contributed a lot to its promising Q1 results. This subsidiary of Maxar works on producing a data library using high-resolution satellite images taken of Earth from space, as well as data extracted from such imagery and third-party sources. Anyone with access to DigitalGlobe can then access this data for their own use.
Time will tell if Maxar can turn around what has been a disappointing year for its stock value so far.
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