SpaceX IPO sticks the landing. Here's what investors are saying about its epic first trading day

Investors were hard pressed to find critical things to say about the SpaceX initial public offering on its first day of trading on the Nasdaq Friday.

Despite a large retail allocation and a huge amount of hype, trading wasn't especially volatile and the positive momentum continued after the market closed for the weekend.

The rocket launch, computing and satellite company delivered the largest IPO ever, with a trading volume of more than 500 million shares and a closing price above $160, putting its first-day market capitalization over $2.1 trillion.

The stock opened at $150 and finished the day nearly 20% above its telegraphed offering price of $135 per share. It continued to rise in after-hours trading, reaching $166.85.

SpaceX, 1 day

"The price was going to be $135 a week ago, but it could have gone the other direction, and where it's trading now is probably a win-win for everybody concerned," Paul Meeks, head of technology research at Freedom Capital Markets, told CNBC during the trading day on Friday.

The stock started trading after 11:30AM and rocketed up 30% to its high point of $176.52 less than two hours later. That's when investors started to sell, grabbing gains off the initial enthusiasm.

"To what extent will the retail placement … result in sellers? You could see that if the thing hits $170 or $180. You could see it trading at a relatively flat level and then selling off – which may be happening as we speak," Dan Alpert, founder of Westwood Capital, told CNBC on Friday afternoon.

Shares fell back down toward $158 in the afternoon but rebounded a tad in the run-up to the close, settling at $160.95.

There had been some concern on Wall Street that SpaceX's announced retail allocation of up to 30% was going to result in much wilder price swings.

"You never know what retail buyers are going to do with stock after it opens," Alpert said. "To the extent that Wall Street places stock with institutional buyers, especially those they view as non-flippers, you have a much safer boat than when you introduce greater-than-average retail interest."

So-called perpetual futures for the IPO had been priced around $162 on the Hyperliquid platform in the middle of the week, and Friday's closing price was close to that.

Many analysts on Wall Street were concerned on Friday about whether SpaceX can live up to its massive valuation in the long term. 

Commentary centered on the viability of its reusable Starship rocket, the monetization of AI, and the eventual generation of free cash flows.

One Wall Street firm – CFRA – gave SpaceX a sell rating shortly after it began trading.

But the steady and positive performance of the stock on Friday is likely to keep those concerns pushed out into the future, at least for now.

Analysts said Friday that SpaceX should already be considered as part of a new category of market-defining mega-cap stocks, evolving out of the previous, highly recognizable Magnificent Seven.

"It's in there," DA Davidson head of technology research Gil Luria told CNBC on Friday. "It includes some of our old favorites – Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta. Now it includes SpaceX."