Earnings call transcript: Intuitive Machines Q1 2026 earnings miss spurs stock drop

Intuitive Machines Inc. reported its financial results for Q1 2026, revealing a significant earnings miss. The company posted an earnings per share (EPS) of -$0.25, compared to the forecasted -$0.06, resulting in a negative surprise of 316.67%. Revenue for the quarter was $186.7 million, falling short of the anticipated $200.12 million. Following the announcement, Intuitive Machines’ stock dropped by 9.7% in pre-market trading, reflecting investor concerns over the earnings miss.

Intuitive Machines delivered its strongest financial quarter in company history during Q1 2026, with revenue approximately tripling compared to Q1 2025. This impressive growth was partly driven by the Lanteris acquisition. However, the company faced challenges meeting earnings expectations, resulting in a notable EPS miss.

Intuitive Machines’ EPS of -$0.25 fell short of the forecasted -$0.06, representing a negative surprise of 316.67%. Revenue also missed expectations, coming in at $186.7 million against a forecast of $200.12 million, a surprise of -6.71%.

The stock price of Intuitive Machines fell by 9.7% in pre-market trading, dropping to $32.22 from the previous close of $35.68. This decline reflects investor disappointment with the earnings miss and concerns over the company’s ability to meet future targets. The volatility comes as no surprise, as InvestingPro data shows the stock generally trades with high price volatility, with a beta of 1.47. Despite the drop, shares remain near their 52-week high of $36.72, and the stock has delivered a remarkable 202% return over the past year. According to InvestingPro’s Fair Value analysis, the stock appears overvalued at current levels—a concern investors should weigh alongside the company’s growth prospects. For those tracking valuation metrics, LUNR is featured on InvestingPro’s Most Overvalued stocks list.

Despite the earnings miss, Intuitive Machines has a strong backlog of $1.1 billion, with 60-65% expected to convert to revenue in 2026. The company’s future guidance suggests potential improvements, with EPS forecast to turn positive by Q4 2026 and further growth anticipated in 2027. The company maintains a solid financial position, holding more cash than debt on its balance sheet and a current ratio of 4.96, indicating liquid assets significantly exceed short-term obligations. The company’s market capitalization stands at $7.76 billion. Want deeper insights? InvestingPro offers 14 additional exclusive tips for LUNR, plus comprehensive Pro Research Reports covering 1,400+ US stocks with clear visuals and expert analysis.

CEO Steve Altemus stated, "While we faced challenges this quarter, our record revenue growth and positive adjusted EBITDA demonstrate the strength of our business model. We remain confident in our strategy and future prospects."

Analysts inquired about the integration of Lanteris and its impact on future profitability. Executives emphasized the long-term benefits of the acquisition and the expected normalization of costs as integration activities wind down.

Conference Call Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Intuitive Machines first quarter 2026 conference call. I would now like to turn the call and conference over to Stephen Zhang, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Andres Sheppard, Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald1: Good morning. Welcome to the Intuitive Machines first quarter 2026 earnings call. Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Altemus, and Chief Financial Officer, Pete McGrath, are leading the call today. Before we begin, please note that some of the information discussed during today’s call will consist of forward-looking statements, setting forth our current expectations with respect to the future of our business, the economy, and other events. The company’s actual results could differ materially from those indicated in any forward-looking statements due to many factors. These factors are described under forward-looking statements in the company’s earnings press release and the company’s most recent 10-K and 10-Q filed with the SEC. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. We also expect to discuss certain financial measures and information that are non-GAAP measures as defined in the applicable SEC rules and regulations.

Reconciliations to the company’s GAAP measures are included in the earnings release filed on Form 8-K. We posted an earnings call presentation on our website, which provides additional context on our operational and financial performance. You can find this presentation on our investor relations page at www.intuitivemachines.com/investors. I’ll turn the call over to Stephen Altemus.

Andres Sheppard, Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald0: Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Intuitive Machines continues to execute, grow, and win new business at record pace. Our acquisition of Lanteris has been immediately accretive with the combined entity value already bearing fruit. The U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command selected Intuitive Machines for the Andromeda IDIQ contract. Under this 10-year vehicle with an anticipated ceiling value of $6.24 billion, we will compete to design and field next generation space domain awareness capabilities to detect, track, and characterize objects in geosynchronous orbit. This award marks our first major selection as a combined company following the acquisition of Lanteris. These national security priorities will continue to be one of our main focus areas for growth. Today, we are also pleased to announce the signing of a definitive agreement for the purchase of Goonhilly Earth Station and its subsidiary in the U.S., COMSAT.

With KinetX, Lanteris, and now Goonhilly, Intuitive Machines is building the capability to manufacture spacecraft, connect space to ground networks, and operate space infrastructure across multiple domains for a diversified customer base. Intuitive Machines started 2026 with the strongest quarter in our company’s history. We delivered record revenue of $187 million, generated more than $30 million of gross margin, and produced positive adjusted EBITDA for the quarter. We also exited quarter one with a record backlog of $1.1 billion, supported by more than $400 million in new bookings this quarter. Those bookings were led by the Space Development Agency Tranche 3 tracking layer award with L3Harris, as well as our fifth CLPS lunar surface delivery mission. These results show that our strategy is scaling.

We are building a diversified space infrastructure company, one that serves commercial, civil, and national security customers across multiple domains. This diversity is reflected in our revenue mix for the quarter, which was 35% commercial, 38% civil, and 27% national security space. That balance matters. Our path to recurring operational revenue starts with diversification. It depends on building critical infrastructure for multiple customers across multiple markets with multiple capabilities that extend from Earth orbit to the lunar surface and onto Mars and beyond. The Lanteris acquisition accelerated this strategy. It expanded our production base, strengthened our near-term revenue foundation, and added capabilities in geostationary orbit, commercial communications, national security, C-band spectrum clearing, and next generation orbital data centers and relay architectures. At the same time, space activity under NASA’s Ignition is moving from isolated missions to sustained cadence and operations.

That shift requires new infrastructure, systems to build spacecraft and surface assets, networks to connect them, and services to operate them over time. That is the model we are building at Intuitive Machines. Build is our production layer. Connect is our network layer. Operate is our recurring services layer. Project Ignition reinforces all three. Over the last several years, we have invested ahead of this transition. We have developed, flown, and validated systems required to operate on and around the moon. We are one of the few companies with lunar operations experience in the last 50-plus years, and we are well-positioned in the areas NASA has now made central to its Moon-based architecture across delivery, data, and mobility. Let me start with build. Build is where infrastructure becomes real. It is where mission demand turns into flight hardware, production capacity, supply chain discipline, and delivery cadence.

This delivery cadence is critical for NASA’s Ignition initiative, which requires repeatable lunar infrastructure. CLPS is no longer just a series of individual delivery missions. It is becoming a pathway toward a production line lunar delivery capability that can support the industrialization of the moon. NASA’s moon-based opportunity includes an expected $20 billion across the first 2 phases. This includes an increase in the CLPS 1.0 from $2.6 billion-$4.2 billion. Our recent CT-4 CLPS award and the new CS-8 procurement are funded under this CLPS 1.0 contract. CS-8 is focused on moon-based payload deliveries using landers with proven heritage and readiness for deployment by the end of 2028. NASA is expected to announce this award in the coming weeks.

In addition, a $6 billion CLPS 2.0 IDIQ was added to support heavier cargo payload deliveries beyond 2028. The scalability of our Nova-C lander to Nova-D and Super Nova is the natural next step in support of CLPS 2.0 and has always been the part of our strategic plan. Starting with Nova-C, we turn a flight-proven lunar lander into a production line infrastructure platform with a known supply chain, reduced non-recurring costs, and greater schedule reliability. We are already applying that discipline. IM-3 entered vertical assembly during the quarter for its expected mission later this year. That mission is expected to launch our first lunar data relay satellite for NASA’s Near Space Network Services contract, bringing our build and connect layers t