KeyBanc analyst Michael Leshock upgraded Rocket Lab to Overweight with a $135 price target, implying 111% upside from its current trading price of $63.92. This comes as RKLB shares are down 8.37% year-to-date and over 57% below its 52-week high.

Leshock cited Rocket Lab as the clear No. 2 challenger to SpaceX in commercial launch, high conviction in its Neutron rocket scaling, structural undersupply of global launch capacity, and a growing defense book, including a $397 million award for the U.S. Space Force SB-AMTI program. Rocket Lab's backlog surged 137% year-over-year to $2.36 billion. However, CEO Peter Beck warned that the window for a year-end Neutron launch is narrowing, and CFO Adam Spice indicated meaningful cash-flow improvement would likely follow Neutron's test flight by 18 to 24 months, framing it as a 2027 story.