SpaceX Wins FCC Clearance for Direct-to-Device Service as Barclays Opens Coverage With Bullish Call
Published on 10/12/2026 at 04:20 | Editorial boerse-global.de
SpaceX's push to turn its Starlink constellation into a mainstream mobile carrier cleared its most important regulatory hurdle this month, and Wall Street is wasting little time repricing the company's industrial footprint.
The Federal Communications Commission on October 6 granted approval to launch and operate a mobile NGSO satellite system — the license SpaceX needs to beam cellular service straight to compatible handsets through Starlink Mobile. Market watchers describe the clearance as a linchpin of the company's effort to move beyond fixed broadband subscriptions and into the mass-market telecom arena.
Investors greeted the news with modest buying. The stock finished Friday's session at EUR 145.20, a gain of 1.4% on the day, leaving the shares about 15% above their 50-day moving average — a sign of the relative strength the equity has built up in recent weeks.
Barclays Steps In With an Overweight Rating
The regulatory green light landed alongside a fresh endorsement from Barclays, whose analyst Anthony Valentini initiated coverage on Friday with an Overweight rating and a $254 price target. The call frames SpaceX less as a speculative space venture and more as a strategic infrastructure monopoly — a shift in how the financial establishment is choosing to value the business.
That optimism rests on more than hopes for future technology. It reflects the pace at which the company is converting plans into physical assets on the ground and hardware in orbit.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SpaceX?
In Texas, SpaceX has tied up 166 acres near Massey Way under an agreement that runs for nearly half a century. While reports left the specific purpose of the site unspecified, the signal is clear: the company is locking in strategic land to anchor its industrial base for decades to come.
Work on the East Coast is advancing in parallel. Construction of Starship launch facilities at Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A is largely finished, and the company said earlier this month that the site has entered acceptance and operational testing. A first Florida launch of the heavy-lift system remains months away by the company's own account, with at least one more test flight from the Texas Starbase expected beforehand. Even so, a second full-scale launch complex sharply reduces future capacity bottlenecks and strips out a significant concentration risk for the operation.
Government Contracts Underpin the Business
That ground infrastructure exists to support a core franchise that throws off dependable revenue. The cadence was on full display October 1, when SpaceX flew NASA's Crew-13 mission with four crew members to the International Space Station and, on the same day, launched a Falcon Heavy for the National Reconnaissance Office on a classified government mission. This dual model — institutional state contracts paired with commercial expansion — gives the company a predictable base that has few peers in the industry.
The company's orbital tempo shows no sign of slowing. A further Starlink mission is slated for Monday, with the launch window extending into Tuesday. In crewed spaceflight, the Dragon capsule from the Crew-12 mission splashed down off the coast of Los Angeles on Thursday, returning four astronauts safely to Earth after 237 days aboard the International Space Station.
Engineers are also grinding through the next rocket generation. The recovered Starship from the July 24 test flight arrived Wednesday at Starbase in Texas, where it will undergo further examination. A separate recovered vehicle reached the port of Brownsville on Wednesday after a five-week sea voyage from Christmas Island, with engineers collecting heat shield samples and inspecting the craft — a costly cycle of test, recovery and analysis that underscores how much development work remains before regular operations begin. Delays at this stage represent the biggest risk to the ambitious valuation models now circulating.
A Split Verdict From the Analyst Desk
Not every voice on the Street shares Barclays' enthusiasm. Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas reaffirmed his Outperform rating and $300 price target on October 6, citing the long-term prospects for space-based communications. Susquehanna took a more cautious line: analyst Charles Minervino kept his Neutral rating on Wednesday but lifted his target to $173 from $144. Other market participants have pointed out that much of the lofty expectation for new business lines is already baked into the current valuation.
The expansion has also met with local resistance. At a meeting with residents on Pecan Island, company representatives discussed a proposed project in Louisiana, where locals raised concerns about potential environmental fallout and temporary road closures.
For now, the balance of arguments still favors the bulls. SpaceX dominates government resupply flights, is steadily widening global launch capacity and is securing strategic sites on multi-decade timelines — a combination that, in the view of its supporters, should stretch its lead over the competition even further.
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