Latest news with #PLUG
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
3 Reasons to Sell PLUG and 1 Stock to Buy Instead
What a brutal six months it's been for Plug Power. The stock has dropped 47.4% and now trades at $1.29, rattling many shareholders. This was partly driven by its softer quarterly results and may have investors wondering how to approach the situation. Is now the time to buy Plug Power, or should you be careful about including it in your portfolio? See what our analysts have to say in our full research report, it's free. Even with the cheaper entry price, we're cautious about Plug Power. Here are three reasons why we avoid PLUG and a stock we'd rather own. We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within industrials, a stretched historical view may miss cycles, industry trends, or a company capitalizing on catalysts such as a new contract win or a successful product line. Plug Power's recent performance marks a sharp pivot from its five-year trend as its revenue has shown annualized declines of 8.7% over the last two years. Plug Power isn't alone in its struggles as the Renewable Energy industry experienced a cyclical downturn, with many similar businesses observing lower sales at this time. Free cash flow isn't a prominently featured metric in company financials and earnings releases, but we think it's telling because it accounts for all operating and capital expenses, making it tough to manipulate. Cash is king. As you can see below, Plug Power's margin dropped meaningfully over the last five years. It may have ticked higher more recently, but shareholders are likely hoping for its margin to at least revert to its historical level. Almost any movement in the wrong direction is undesirable because it's already burning cash. If the longer-term trend returns, it could signal it's in the middle of a big investment cycle. Plug Power's free cash flow margin for the trailing 12 months was negative 140%. As long-term investors, the risk we care about most is the permanent loss of capital, which can happen when a company goes bankrupt or raises money from a disadvantaged position. This is separate from short-term stock price volatility, something we are much less bothered by. Plug Power burned through $901.4 million of cash over the last year, and its $564 million of debt exceeds the $295.8 million of cash on its balance sheet. This is a deal breaker for us because indebted loss-making companies spell trouble. Unless the Plug Power's fundamentals change quickly, it might find itself in a position where it must raise capital from investors to continue operating. Whether that would be favorable is unclear because dilution is a headwind for shareholder returns. We remain cautious of Plug Power until it generates consistent free cash flow or any of its announced financing plans materialize on its balance sheet. Plug Power falls short of our quality standards. After the recent drawdown, the stock trades at $1.29 per share (or a forward price-to-sales ratio of 1.5×). The market typically values companies like Plug Power based on their anticipated profits for the next 12 months, but it expects the business to lose money. We also think the upside isn't great compared to the potential downside here - there are more exciting stocks to buy. We'd suggest looking at one of our top digital advertising picks. Market indices reached historic highs following Donald Trump's presidential victory in November 2024, but the outlook for 2025 is clouded by new trade policies that could impact business confidence and growth. While this has caused many investors to adopt a "fearful" wait-and-see approach, we're leaning into our best ideas that can grow regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate. Take advantage of Mr. Market by checking out our Top 6 Stocks for this week. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 183% over the last five years (as of March 31st 2025). Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,545% between March 2020 and March 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-small-cap company Exlservice (+354% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Plug Power Down 39% YTD: How Should Investors Play the Stock?
Plug Power Inc. PLUG, a prominent name in the green hydrogen industry, has seen a 39% plunge in its stock price in the year-to-date period, underperforming the industry as well as the S&P 500. While the industry declined 7% over the same time frame, the S&P 500 advanced 1.8%. The company's peers, FuelCell Energy, Inc. FCEL and Bloom Energy Corporation BE, have declined 30.1% and inched up 0.1%, respectively. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The company has been persistently suffering due to a high cash burn rate and negative gross margins over the past several quarters. Amid this, the leading hydrogen energy stock is trading above its 50-day moving average but below its 200-day moving average. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Some investors might see this dip as an opportunity to buy Plug Power, considering the vast long-term market potential of green hydrogen and the company's solid product pipeline. However, it would be prudent to assess if it is the right time to invest in the stock. Let's delve deeper. Plug Power has been plagued by a decrease in revenues from the sales of hydrogen equipment and related infrastructure, its major source of income. Lower sales of GenDrive units, GenSure stationary backup power units, cryogenic storage equipment and liquefiers have been weighing on the company's performance over the past few quarters. The decline in revenues from the sales of hydrogen infrastructure is primarily attributable to the reduced hydrogen site installation activities, partially offset by higher sales of witnessed a significant decline in the number of hydrogen site installations in 2024, which reduced from 52 to 15 on a year-over-year basis. In the first quarter of 2025, this number reduced to one from three in the prior-year quarter. This has been adversely impacting its revenues related to the sales of hydrogen infrastructure. Additionally, fewer projects and a slower rate of progress on the existing ventures have been hurting revenues from the sales of cryogenic storage equipment and major issue that has plagued Plug Power is its inability to generate positive gross margins and cash inflows. It recorded a gross margin of negative 55% in first-quarter 2025 compared with a gross margin of negative 132% in the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, its operating cash outflow totaled $105.6 million in the first quarter compared with $167.7 million in the year-ago the weak liquidity position, the company has been selling shares to raise funds for its operations and invest in hydrogen plants. In the first quarter, it received $267.5 million as net proceeds from equity sales and the amount totaled $857.9 million in Power also operates in the highly competitive green hydrogen and fuel cell markets. As one of its peers, FuelCell Energy is a well-known producer of stationary fuel cells and electrolysis platforms. PLUG's another peer, Bloom Energy, is a leading provider of solid-oxide fuel cell systems for on-site power generation. Going by some estimates that state that the green hydrogen energy market may grow to $30 billion by 2030, Plug Power offers solid long-term growth company's strong expertise in providing and installing electrolyzers is underlined by its deployment of substantial proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer systems to date. This is underlined by its successful proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer deployment at the largest U.S. electrolytic liquid hydrogen production plant in Georgia. It's worth noting that PLUG also has a significant presence in Rochester, NY, with its Gigafactory being one of the biggest PEM manufacturing facilities in the leading hydrogen company's first-quarter 2025 results showed some signs of recovery. PLUG generated revenues of $133.7 million, an increase of 11.1% year over year, driven by growth in electrolyzer deliveries, sustained demand in materials-handling and the ongoing deployments in its cryogenic the company reported negative gross margins in the first quarter, the metric improved year over year, driven by its cost reduction and supply-chain optimization efforts, price increases and progress in leveraging its hydrogen efforts aided Plug Power in slowing down its cash burn rate in the quarter, which declined nearly 50% year over year. In first-quarter 2025, PLUG launched Project Quantum Leap, targeting to generate more than $200 million in annualized savings. As part of the project, it expects to benefit from sales growth, pricing actions, inventory and capex management, and increased leverage of its hydrogen production platform. It expects the project to boost its cash flow and reduce the cash burn rate in the quarters ahead. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PLUG's bottom line for second-quarter 2025 and 2025 has increased in the past 30 days. (Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.) Image Source: Zacks Investment Research From a valuation standpoint, Plug Power is trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of a negative 2.57X against the industry average of 23.05X. In comparison, FuelCell Energy and Bloom Energy are trading at (1.17X) and 39.34X, respectively. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research While the significant dip in PLUG stock is concerning, its strong foothold in the market, innovative product portfolio and strategic partnerships are likely to be beneficial in the long run. The ongoing challenges, including lower sales of hydrogen infrastructure, negative gross margins and cash outflows, are likely to continue to impact this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company's performance in the short can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Plug Power, Inc. (PLUG) : Free Stock Analysis Report FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCEL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Bloom Energy Corporation (BE) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Plug Power's Uzbekistan plant, Novo Nordisk activist investor
Yahoo Finance host Madison Mills tracks today's top moving stocks and biggest market stories in this Market Minute, including Plug Power's (PLUG) $5.5 billion venture to build out a green chemical facility in Uzbekistan and activist investor Parvus Asset Management Novo Nordisk (NVO) reportedly building up a stake in the pharmaceutical giant. Stay up to date on the latest market action, minute-by-minute, with Yahoo Finance's Market Minute. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Will the Cash Burn Reduction Strategy be a Game Changer for Plug Power?
Plug Power Inc. PLUG has been plagued by its inability to turn a profit, which has required it to raise outside capital for funding its operations. The company has been persistently suffering due to a high cash burn rate and negative gross margins over the past several this, the leading hydrogen company's first-quarter 2025 results showed some signs of recovery. PLUG generated revenues of $133.7 million, an increase of 11.1% year over year, driven by growth in electrolyzer deliveries, sustained demand in materials-handling and the ongoing deployments in its cryogenic platform. However, PLUG's inability to generate positive gross margins and cash inflows over the long term has been a major the first quarter of 2025, the company incurred a net loss of almost $197 million (21 cents per share), which was more than its revenues. On a positive note, the metric reflected an improvement from $295.6 million loss it reported in the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, its operating cash outflow totaled $105.6 million in first-quarter 2025 compared with $167.7 million in year-ago recorded a gross margin of negative 55% in the first quarter compared with a gross margin of negative 132% in the year-ago-quarter. Although negative, the gross margin improvement was driven by the its cost reduction and supply-chain optimization efforts, price increases and progress in leveraging its hydrogen efforts aided Plug Power to slow down its cash burn rate in the quarter, which declined nearly 50% year over year. In first-quarter 2025, PLUG launched Project Quantum Leap, targeting to generate more than $200 million in annualized savings. As part of the project, it expects to benefit from sales growth, pricing actions, inventory and capex management, and increased leverage of its hydrogen production platform. It expects the project to boost its cash flow and reduce the cash burn rate in the quarters ahead. Among Plug Power's major peers, FuelCell Energy, Inc. FCEL is a well-known producer of stationary fuel cell and electrolysis platforms that helps in decarbonization of power and hydrogen production. Exiting second-quarter fiscal 2025, FuelCell Energy had cash and cash equivalents (unrestricted) of $116.1 million compared with the current portion of long-term debt of $17.1 million. In the first six months of fiscal 2025, FuelCell Energy used net cash of $75.6 million from operating activities, down 21% year over another peer, Bloom Energy Corporation BE is a leading provider of solid-oxide fuel cell systems for on-site power generation. Bloom Energy exited first-quarter 2025 with cash and cash equivalents of $794.8 million, higher than $584.4 million of current liabilities. Bloom Energy used net cash of $110.7 million from operating activities, down 24.8% year over year. Shares of Plug Power have lost 59.1% in the year-to-date period compared with the industry's decline of 8.3%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research From a valuation standpoint, Plug Power is trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of a negative 1.69X against the industry average of 22.83X. PLUG carries a Value Score of F. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PLUG's bottom line for second-quarter 2025 and 2025 has increased in the past 60 days. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research PLUG stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Plug Power, Inc. (PLUG) : Free Stock Analysis Report FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCEL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Bloom Energy Corporation (BE) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
PLUG Q1 Earnings Call: Revenue Beat Estimates, Europe and Cost Cuts in Focus
Fuel cell technology Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) exceeded the market's revenue expectations in Q1 CY2025, but sales rose 11.2% year on year to $133.7 million. Is now the time to buy PLUG? Find out in our full research report (it's free). Revenue: $133.7 million (11.2% year-on-year growth) Revenue Guidance for Q2 CY2025 is $160 million at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $158.1 million Market Capitalization: $982.2 million Plug Power's first quarter results reflected renewed momentum in its material handling business and operational progress in hydrogen production. Management pointed to a major initial order from a key customer, as well as expanded partnerships in Europe, as drivers of business activity. CEO Andy Marsh noted the Louisiana hydrogen plant was commissioned on schedule, joining existing facilities in Georgia and Tennessee to boost internal production capacity. Plug Power launched its 'Quantum Leap' cost-saving program, which management claims has already realized a significant portion of targeted savings across manufacturing, logistics, sourcing, and overhead. Marsh emphasized, 'Our Q1 cash burn was down nearly 50% year-over-year and with Quantum Leap, we expect further reductions in cash burns in future quarters.' The company also raised equity and secured structured financing to reinforce liquidity amid industry headwinds. Looking ahead, Plug Power's outlook centers on expanding its presence in Europe's rapidly developing electrolyzer market, while managing uncertainties in U.S. policy. Management highlighted an active project pipeline in Europe, where new regulatory mandates and funding programs are supporting large-scale green hydrogen adoption. Jose Luis Crespo, General Manager of European operations, explained, 'Europe is a fully active electrolyzer market and Plug is in the pole position on project visibility, regulatory fit and delivery readiness.' However, Marsh cautioned about evolving U.S. energy policy, particularly surrounding hydrogen tax credits and tariffs, which may affect domestic project economics. The company is closely monitoring legislative developments and expects European projects to contribute meaningfully to bookings and revenue over the next 18 to 24 months. Plug Power's management attributed quarterly performance to progress in manufacturing efficiency, cost control initiatives, and European market expansion, while also noting policy uncertainties impacting U.S. operations. Cost Reduction Initiatives: The Quantum Leap program was launched to achieve over $200 million in annualized run-rate cost savings, focusing on manufacturing, sourcing, logistics, and SG&A. Management said most targeted savings have already been executed, leading to a nearly 50% year-over-year reduction in cash burn and further improvements expected. European Electrolyzer Momentum: Plug Power expanded its European presence, positioning itself for large-scale projects supported by regulatory mandates, funding incentives, and enforceable compliance deadlines. The company is actively participating in hydrogen projects across Denmark, Spain, Portugal, and the UK, emphasizing its 'full stack offering' and local engineering teams. Hydrogen Production Ramp-Up: The company commissioned its Louisiana hydrogen plant on time, increasing internal production capacity alongside facilities in Georgia and Tennessee. Plug Power highlighted improved operational efficiency at these sites, with the Georgia plant achieving record production and Louisiana benefiting from lessons learned in earlier builds. Customer and Market Diversification: Management reported both expansion with existing material handling customers and penetration into new accounts, including new projects with logistics firms and cold chain operators in Europe. These activities are seen as supporting future revenue stability. Tariff and Policy Mitigation: Recent U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports impacted some core product lines, prompting a multi-pronged strategy: adding potential surcharges, dual sourcing, product redesign, and further geographic diversification. Management emphasized that the electrolyzer platform is minimally affected due to its non-Chinese content. Plug Power's guidance is driven by European market expansion, continued cost reductions, and navigation of U.S. policy changes affecting hydrogen incentives and tariffs. European Project Pipeline: Management sees Europe as the most active opportunity for electrolyzer sales, with enforceable mandates and funding programs supporting sustained growth. The company expects multi-gigawatt contribution to bookings and revenue in the next 18 to 24 months as projects move from backlog to commissioning. Continued Cost Discipline: Plug Power aims to reach gross margin breakeven by year-end, supported by further reductions in cash burn through the Quantum Leap savings program. Management believes discipline in manufacturing and sourcing will help mitigate external cost pressures and improve profitability. U.S. Policy and Tariff Uncertainty: Ongoing debate around U.S. clean energy tax credits (such as Section 45V) and increased tariffs on Chinese components introduce uncertainty for domestic project economics. Plug Power is closely monitoring legislative developments and has implemented mitigation strategies, but acknowledges potential impacts on future U.S. projects. In the coming quarters, the StockStory team will watch (1) how Plug Power executes on its European electrolyzer project pipeline and converts backlog into revenue; (2) the company's ability to achieve further cost reductions and make progress toward gross margin breakeven; and (3) the impact of evolving U.S. policy and tariffs on hydrogen project economics. Developments around the Texas hydrogen facility and broader adoption of hydrogen in material handling will also be important signposts. Plug Power currently trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 1.1×. Should you double down or take your chips? See for yourself in our full research report (it's free). The market surged in 2024 and reached record highs after Donald Trump's presidential victory in November, but questions about new economic policies are adding much uncertainty for 2025. While the crowd speculates what might happen next, we're homing in on the companies that can succeed regardless of the political or macroeconomic environment. Put yourself in the driver's seat and build a durable portfolio by checking out our Top 9 Market-Beating Stocks. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 183% over the last five years (as of March 31st 2025). Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,545% between March 2020 and March 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-small-cap company Comfort Systems (+782% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.
