Virgin Galactic Shares Fall on Q4 Earnings Miss

Shares of spaceflight company Virgin Galactic were falling bout 5% in after-hours trading on Tuesday after the company reported fourth quarter financial results.

For the fourth quarter, the company reported an EBITDA loss of $55 million, which was more than the $46.9 million loss expected according to analysts surveyed by FactSet. The company reported $529,000 of revenue which was down from $800,000 of revenue in its previous quarter.

On a bright note, the company said that it received 7,957 “registrations of interest” since December 2018. This was more than double the 3,557 registrations of interest it reported three months ago.

CEO George Whitesides told shareholders on the company’s conference call that the company’s main goal this year is to safely fly founder Sir Richard Branson to space. According to the chief executive, it is not significant revenue this year that will make the company a long-term success, but flying safely will. This was the first earnings call for Virgin Galactic as a public company.

Whitesides said on the earnings call, “Virgin Galactic is the world’s first and only public company focused on Commercial Human Spaceflight. We believe the commercial exploration of space represents one of the most exciting and significant technology initiatives of our time, and our mission is to broaden access to space and enable routine consistent and affordable travel.”

The company is now accepting $1,000 deposits toward space flight tickets.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc Class A (NYSE: SPCE) and have not been compensated for this article.