Shares of Elon Musk's SpaceX rose Thursday despite the expiration of restrictions that allowed many company insiders to sell their shares for the first time.

Investors had pushed SpaceX shares lower in recent days amid concerns that employees and other insiders would sell their holdings after the first of several lockup periods expired. More than 900 million additional shares became eligible for trading Thursday, roughly doubling the number previously available.

SpaceX shares gained 6.1% to close at $114.92, recovering from a nearly 14% drop a day earlier in one of the steepest declines since the company became publicly traded.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said the end of the lockup period could give investors an opportunity to buy the stock at a lower price. He has projected that SpaceX shares could reach $300 by the middle of next year, nearly three times their current level.

Morgan Stanley was among the investment banks that earned substantial fees from helping SpaceX go public last month.

Earlier this week, SpaceX reported a loss of $541 million, or 9 cents per share, for the three months ending in June. The loss was less than half what analysts had expected.

The company reported revenue of $7.8 billion, an increase of more than 90% from the same period a year earlier.

However, SpaceX sharply increased spending on research and development and infrastructure, particularly on artificial intelligence and other major projects. Investors have become increasingly concerned about heavy capital spending by technology companies, which has triggered sell-offs in some cases.

In June, SpaceX sold shares to the public for the first time in what was the largest initial public offering ever. The stock surged as high as $225, briefly pushing Musk's wealth above the trillion-dollar mark.

The subsequent decline has erased hundreds of billions of dollars from SpaceX's market value, with the shares now trading below their initial offering price of $135.