Three satellite stocks to purchase for profit potential present promising opportunities.
The three satellite stocks to purchase for profit potential each are gaining a boost from rapidly rising demand for the support of national defense in the United States and allied nations, as well as for important commercial services. One of the stocks recently went public and now is available for investors to purchase on the open market after its price pulled back 19% since it began trading on the NYSE.
The president recently announced plans to boost the 2026 U.S. military budget of $901 billion to $1.5 trillion by 66.5% for fiscal year 2027. The hefty funding hike is needed due to protect the United States during “troubled and dangerous times,” President Trump said on Jan. 9.
President Trump criticized legacy defense companies recently for delays in fulfilling contracts and providing military equipment and weapons. The president blasted share repurchases, dividend payments to shareholders and high executive compensation instead of contractors investing in sufficient plant and equipment to fulfill their U.S. defense commitments.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent verbally bashed U.S. defense companies on Jan. 20 for falling short of their patriotic duty to meet their delivery dates. The companies are “five, six, seven years behind” on fulfilling their contracts, despite their obligation to the U.S. government to deliver military supplies, Bessent said during a livestreamed session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Bryan Perry, who heads the Cash Machine investment newsletter, also offers a Space Race Portfolio in his Hi-Tech Trader advisory service that currently features three recommendations, using both stocks and options. One of his previous picks produced a profit for his subscribers and is included among the three satellite stocks featured in this column.
Bryan Perry heads Cash Machine and Hi-Tech Trader.
Three Satellite Stocks to Purchase for Profit Potential: York Space Systems
Denver-based satellite manufacturer York Space Systems (NYSE: YSS) is trying to rise above the fray and completed its initial public offering (IPO) on January 29, 2026, with its listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The offering price of $34.00 raised $629 million, as it opened trading at $38.00 per share that day.
York Space provides low-cost satellite platforms for national security and commercial customers, while serving as a prime contractor that offers mission-critical solutions for national security, government and commercial customers, wrote John Godyn, an equity research analyst with Citi Research. He described York Space as a “high risk/high reward” opportunity on the space megatrend powering other stocks in aerospace and defense.
Citi Research initiated coverage of the newly public company with a “Buy/High Risk” rating and a year-end 2026 price target of $37, or 43% upside, with potential for a 100% return if the investment firm’s “bull case” projection is achieved, Godyn counseled.
Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com.
8 Factors Supporting Citi Research’s Buy Rating on York Space
- Large and growing total addressable market in space and defense
- Emerging leader in the space economy
- Manufacturing playbook underscores margin expansion opportunity
- Vertically integrated production model reduces risk
- Right of launch recurring revenue opportunity may be underappreciated
- Large backlog and demonstrated ability to win
- U.S. Golden Dome contract opportunity
- Value-added mergers and acquisitions amplify growth
Risks for York Space include reliance on defense spending that makes it particularly sensitive to changes in government budgets and spending trends, along with significant competition in the global space and satellite market, and any failure to operate spacecraft systems and related software as intended.
Citi Research’s base case for York Space to achieve the investment firm’s year-end 2026 price target of $37 is derived using 4.5x enterprise value (EV)/sales multiple on 2027 estimates. That valuation is consistent with the low-end of York Space’s peers, which also must show additional contract award activity to justify their respective revenue outlooks, Godyn wrote.
York Space is primarily levered to the expanding “space economy” — a megatrend within the broad aerospace and defense arena, Godyn continued. Citi Research calls the space economy one of the most compelling “growth vectors” in aerospace and defense, driven by a “fundamental paradigm shift” toward proliferated LEO architectures that prioritize resilience, responsiveness and cost-effectiveness rather than traditional satellite systems.
“This transformation is being accelerated by increasing geopolitical tensions that are driving near-peer adversaries to invest heavily in military space capabilities, creating an urgent need for rapidly deployable satellites that maintain space superiority against emerging threats,” Godyn wrote. “The global space economy has already reached $613 billion in 2024, with the commercial sector now constituting 78% of the total space economy.”
Projections indicate continued robust space economy expansion that could top $1 trillion by 2032 and potentially reach $1.8 trillion by 2035, according to McKinsey’s 2024 Space report.
Three Satellite Stocks to Purchase for Profit Potential: Innovations
York Space is described by Citi Research as a leader in the space economy with differentiated capabilities leveraged across its three spacecraft platforms. The company’s management is seeking to change the economics of space with “innovative technologies” that dramatically cut costs while accelerating time to orbit, according to Citi Research.
“At the heart of York’s model is its modular satellite spacecraft architecture, engineered for scalability, rapid production and mission flexibility across commercial, civil and defense applications,“ according to Citi Research. “By combining proprietary designs with a streamlined manufacturing process, York delivers high-performance satellites faster and more cost-effectively than many traditional and other emerging aerospace players. What management said sets York apart is its world-class technical expertise and proven execution.
“Backed by an experienced team of aerospace engineers and mission specialists, York manages the full lifecycle, from design and manufacturing to launch integration and on-orbit operations, with precision and reliability. The combination of proprietary innovation, technical mastery and operational excellence creates differentiation, which we expect to enable York to scale rapidly in the space industry.”
York’s leadership blends “deep flight heritage” with high-volume manufacturing and software automation knowledge, Godyn wrote. Its 670-plus employees, including more than half of them engineers from 10 different disciplines, focused on developing, refining and manufacturing products and solutions, he added.
Three Satellite Stocks to Purchase for Profit Potential: Planet Labs
San Francisco-based earth imaging company Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL) zoomed 429% return in the past year. One of the many reasons for the stock’s ascent occurred on Jan. 26 after Planet Labs signed an enterprise agreement with the Slovenian government to support agriculture, urban planning and disaster management.
Planet Labs Germany GmbH, a provider of daily data and insights about change on Earth, reached its agreement with the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia (GURS) to provide comprehensive satellite data and high-resolution capabilities across the country’s civil public administration. The partnership is the latest of many such deals that have fueled the company’s soaring share price in the past year.
This strategic partnership establishes a spatial data resource for Slovenian state and municipal authorities. Under the agreement, Slovenia’s civil public administration will gain access to high-cadence PlanetScope imagery, with GURS also gaining access to high-resolution tasking services.
Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com.
Three Satellite Stocks to Purchase for Profit Potential: Sales to Slovenia
The data will serve as the foundational spatial basis for critical national analyses, including systematic monitoring of Slovenia’s forest cover and agricultural health, tracking for urban and infrastructure planning to inform sustainable development and rapid detection and response capabilities for natural disasters. Wildfires, droughts and flooding events headline the big concerns of Slovenia’s government leaders.
“Our mission at GURS is to provide the highest quality geodetic and spatial data to support the prosperity and safety of the Republic of Slovenia,” Tomaž Petek, director-general of the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia, said in a prepared statement. “This agreement with Planet represents a significant leap forward in our national infrastructure. By integrating daily global scanning and high-resolution tasking into our workflows, we are providing our agencies with the tools needed for faster decisions during natural disasters and a more robust foundation for the long-term planning of our built and natural environments.”
Three Satellite Stocks to Purchase for Profit Potential: Gilder’s Guidance
The deal moves Slovenia toward a more proactive governance model, where frequent satellite updates allow for better planning, monitoring and reporting to both domestic and European regulatory bodies, the management of Planet Labs announced.
Among the strongest advocates for Planet Labs is Gilder’s Moonshots, a trading alert that seeks to identify and recommend early-stage companies that have huge potential. Gilder’s Moonshots is headed by technology guru George Gilder, who has top analysts such as John Schroeter and Robert Castellano, PhD.
Planet Labs is just one of 14 high-potential companies that comprise the portfolio of Gilder’s Moonshots. I moderated a panel discussion at Satellite 2025 in Washington, D.C., where George Gilder himself was one of the presenters. He spoke optimistically about the prospects for Planet Labs and others to find successful niches in the midst of bigger companies.
George Gilder, who heads Gilder’s Moonshots, meets with Paul Dykewicz.
Three Satellite Stocks to Purchase for Profit Potential: Iridium
A big appeal of low-Earth orbit (LEO) services, 160-2,000 km above the ground, is that they can avoid communication delays that occur in geostationary orbit (GEO), 35,000 km away, where satellites are positioned in high-Earth orbit. One of the best known companies to operate in LEO is McLean-Virginia-based Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM). Iridium is a former recommendation of Perry, the head of Hi-Tech Trader and the Cash Machine investment newsletter, who advised his subscribers to sell at a profit before a share price pullback.
Iridium constellation operates in Low-Earth orbit approximately 780 kilometers (485 miles) above the Earth, providing stronger signals and faster connections through smaller antennas with reduced power requirements than spacecraft in geostationary orbit (GEO) about 35,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) from the planet. The unique structure of Iridium’s Low-Earth orbit allows satellites to converge at the poles, ensuring service in the remote high-latitude regions that other satellite providers may not be able to provide.
The satellites of the Iridium network cover the entire earth in a way that no other communications provider thus far can match, company officials said. Iridium’s LEO network uses L-band frequencies to communicate with the users. Those frequencies are more resilient to weather than the ones used by most GEO networks, providing reliable communications amid adverse conditions in the air, on the sea or on the ground.
L-band, in 1–2 GHz, is essential for military operations to provide long-range, weather-resistant and secure communications. The L-band also is heavily used for Global Positioning Services (GPS), satellite communications (SATCOM) with low interception probability and military telemetry that records and transmits instrument readings. That particular band also supports essential air-to-ground, air-to-air and radar operations.
Three Satellite Stocks to Purchase for Profit Potential: 66 Satellites
The first Iridium satellite was deployed in 1997, with its full network of 66 satellites becoming operational in 1998. In 2019, Iridium completed an upgrade to the Iridium constellation, replacing all its satellites without disrupting service.
Together, the Iridium satellites create a global mesh of coverage. In orbit, each satellite is cross-linked to four others, providing advantages in reliability and resiliency. The cross-links offer network optimization and redundancy, ensuring that data can be rerouted and transmitted at the fastest possible speeds, regardless of what happens on Earth or in space.
On Earth, the gateway processes the message or call, then delivers it to the carrier, internet or customer. Each satellite uses systems controlled by an expert team of engineers from Leesburg, Virginia, allowing the uploading of new instructions or software to troubleshoot anomalies and to optimize the user experience, company officials said.
When the satellites in the network eventually reach the end of their lives, Iridium engineers can de-boost and de-orbit each one from space safely. It helps to avoid orbital debris in space to and sustain it for future use.
Market volatility has caused some recent pullbacks, but that movement is quite good for the Tactical Trader portfolio that had many of its holdings vault higher on “strong buying,” wrote Jim Woods in a recent weekly update for his readers. Several positions were “particularly” buoyant, added Woods, a former Army paratrooper and officer whose aerospace, defense and cybersecurity recommendations were among his biggest gainers in 2025.
Paul Dykewicz meets with Jim Woods, who heads Forecasts & Strategies.
Iridium CEO Matthew Desch recently told listeners of his company’s fourth-quarter earnings call that its 2025 guidance was achieved.
Service revenue came in “on target,” and the company grew its Operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (OEBITDA) 5% for the full year, Desch said.
“In addition, pro forma free cash flow was almost $300 million,” Desch continued. “Free cash flow is important, since it measures the funds a company generates after covering its operating expenses and capital expenditures.
“Our business remains robust, and we feel confident in our ability to continue generating significant free cash flow as we transform our business and add new services.”
Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com.
Three Satellite Stocks to Purchase for Profit Potential: Income Alternative
To avoid the worst of market downturns, Bryan Perry, a veteran Wall Street money manager and the leader of the Cash Machine investment newsletter, said investors can find places of refuge that include less popular investments. Examples include defense and aerospace investments he chooses for his Cash Machine subscribers that offer high-dividend yields.
“The blended yield of just over 10%, spread over 26 holdings that all pay monthly dividends and distributions, is providing a major cushion to the uncertainty surrounding Fed policy, White House policy, Congressional policy and global headline risk,” Perry told me.
Perry said his alternatives are “trading very well” against what is a volatile investing landscape for some of the sub-sectors of the high-yield universe. In a recent Cash Machine hotline, which offers a weekly update about his monthly newsletter’s recommendations, Perry wrote that his choices of convertible debt, mortgage REITS, preferred stocks, emerging market debt, covered-call closed end funds, covered-call ETFs, investment grade bonds, tax-free bonds, energy infrastructure and gold continue doing well.
Three Satellite Stocks to Purchase for Profit Potential: Trump’s Tariffs
President Donald Trump announced on Saturday, Feb. 21, that he would impose global tariffs of 15% — the maximum allowed under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act — after the nine-member U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 that the administration overstepped its powers to impose sweeping tariffs without a national emergency. A 1977 law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) did not give the president the authority to unilaterally impose tariffs of “unlimited amount, duration and scope,” Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a majority opinion.
The Trump administration “points to no statute” in which Congress has previously indicated that the language in the 1974 act could apply to tariffs, Chief Justice Roberts wrote.
Initially after the Supreme Court’s Feb. 20 ruling, President Trump said he would replace the tariffs scrapped by the court ruling with a 10% levy on all goods imported into the United States. But he changed his mind by the next day when he announced his plan to raise the tariff to 15%.
Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act cited by Trump on Feb. 21 could about the 15% tariffs to stay in place for 150 days before his administration must seek Congressional approval. The new 15% tax rate — a temporary solution for the president — raises uncertainty for countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia that previously had agreed a 10% tariff with the United States.
The United States already has collected at least $130 billion, or £96.4 billion, in tariffs using IEEPA, according to the most recent government data.
Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, praised the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down President Trump’s tariffs. For the last year, President Trump created an “affordability crisis” with tariffs at the heart of the problem, Sen. Markey added.
“I will keep fighting until every cent illegally collected from small businesses, consumers and families in Massachusetts and across the country has been returned,” Sen. Markey said in a statement.
Paul Dykewicz, pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, the Journal of Commerce, Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus and other publications and websites. Paul is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. Paul also is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz. Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulDykewicz.
