NEW YORK, June 2, 2026, 05:08 (EDT)
Merlin Inc dropped 10.81% to $7.18 on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. session. The autonomous-flight company said after markets closed that management will take part in three industry conferences in June. First up is the Jefferies Defense Tech Summit on June 4. Executives plan to hold one-on-one meetings and present at these events.
U.S. stocks trade as usual on Tuesday. The Nasdaq opens at 9:30 a.m. and closes at 4 p.m. ET, with premarket starting at 4 a.m. Next full market holidays on Nasdaq’s 2026 schedule are May 25 and June 19.
Merlin is still early as a public company, so timing figures in as investors look at a small revenue base against what could be a long process of certification and commercialization. Merlin finished its business combination in March with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. IV, a SPAC, and started trading on Nasdaq as MRLN on March 17.
The slide happened even as the broader market gained. The Nasdaq Composite finished up 0.42% at 27,086.81 on Monday. Both the S&P 500 and Dow closed higher as well, according to AP.
Merlin listed three events on its June calendar: a virtual Jefferies event on June 4, Roth Capital Partners’ conference in London from June 16-18, and Maxim Group’s virtual defense tech conference on June 25. After the recent stock drop, those meetings are a chance for management to address contracts, cash, and certification.
Founder and CEO Matt George said with May results that aviation’s “next hundred years will be built around autonomy.” George said Merlin was focused on “converting that progress into scaled commercialization.” The company said it is working on civil certification with New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority and the FAA, and is still developing a C-130J program with U.S. Special Operations Command. GlobeNewswire
Merlin calls its Merlin Pilot a hardware-and-software package for fully autonomous flight, from departure to landing. The C-130J deal is under an IDIQ contract, Merlin said, meaning there’s a cap but the government might not spend the full amount. The top end is more than $100 million, according to the company.
AeroVironment shares dropped roughly 1.6% and Kratos Defense was off around 1.0% in early trading. Joby Aviation ticked up. While not a direct comparison, Merlin’s Monday slide outpaced those moves in nearby advanced-aviation and autonomy names.
Merlin’s price target got cut to $15 from $25 at Roth Capital after the company’s first quarter as a public company, according to TipRanks/The Fly. Analyst Suji Desilva kept a Buy on the stock. Desilva said revenue is still early in the ramp for a key defense deal and pointed to Merlin’s advanced aviation positioning, citing the company’s focus on AI-based autonomy.
Merlin moved to shore up its position with new financing. An April filing said the company had agreed to raise around $80 million via a PIPE, selling 8 million shares at $10 each, plus warrants for another 4 million shares at $6.67. In that release, George called it a “clear program roadmap and a defined path to revenue.” Merlin
The business is burning cash faster than it brings in sales. Merlin posted first-quarter revenue of $1.0 million, with a GAAP net loss of $90.4 million. Adjusted EBITDA loss came in at $23.3 million, deeper than the $10.4 million loss a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA removes interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and some other items to focus on operating performance. Delays in certification, weak customer uptake, or government budget changes could hit the stock hard.
Right now, the focus is not on the next earnings release. Instead, investors want to see if they’ll get enough this month to keep treating Merlin as an early AI and defense autonomy play, and not just a recent listing with deep losses and early-stage revenue.
