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Shares of Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. dropped 1.5% in the after-hours session Thursday after the space-tourism company reported narrower quarterly losses but postponed its first commercial flight to next year, saying it continues to battle “escalating supply chain and labor constraints.”
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lost $93 million, or 36 cents a share, in the first quarter, compared with a loss of $130 million, or 55 cents a share, in the first quarter of 2021.
The company reported revenue of $319,000 in the quarter, versus no revenue a year ago.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected the company to report a loss of 32 cents a share on sales of $100,000.
“Against a backdrop of escalating supply chain and labor constraints, our teams are containing the majority of these issues to minimize impact on schedules,” Chief Executive Michael Colglazier said.
“We look forward to returning to space in the fourth quarter and launching commercial service in the first quarter of next year.”
Virgin Galactic in February started selling space-flight tickets to the general public, saying then it expected to have its first 1,000 customers on board at the start of commercial service later this year.
Flights reservations cost $450,000, with an initial deposit of $150,000 and a final payment before the flight.
Virgin landed on that price in August, and before the February announcement the reservations were limited to what the company called “a significant list of early hand-raisers.”
Shares of Virgin Galactic have dropped about 44% this year, compared with losses of around 13% for the S&P 500 index.
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