Plug Power (PLUG) Q3 Earnings Preview: Time to Buy or Just Hype?
Hydrogen hopeful Plug Power gears up for its Q3 earnings reveal—will the numbers justify the volatility or leave investors gasping for returns?
Bullish bets vs. bearish reality: The clean energy play faces a make-or-break moment as Wall Street watches for profitability progress. Spoiler: Analysts still aren't holding their breath for positive EPS.
Cash burn chronicles: With six straight quarters of negative free cash flow, PLUG's 'growth at all costs' strategy faces its toughest test yet. Because nothing says 'future-facing investment' like a company that loses more money per kWh than your crypto portfolio.
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What Wall Street Expects
Wall Street expects Plug Power to report an earnings loss of 13 cents per share, marking a 48% increase from the same period last year. Revenues are forecast to come in at $170 million indicating a year-over-year decline of 2.1%.
Will PLUG beat these estimates? As we can see below it has a poor record of doing so in recent quarters.
Key Issues Ahead of Earnings
In Q2 PlugPower reported a 21% year-over-year revenue increase to $174 million, driven by strong demand across its GenDrive, GenFuel, and GenEco platforms. Electrolyzer sales burgeoned to approximately $45 million, and gross margins improved from negative 92% in the previous year to negative 31% this quarter.
It was also helped by policy tailwinds as recent legislation on production and investment tax credits provides long-term clarity and aligns with Plug Power’s strategy to expand hydrogen production. Soaring electricity demand from AI is also expected to lift hydrogen demand.
However, its material handling business faced tariff impacts, which are over 10% in cost, impacting its pricing strategies.
These positive factors are expected to keep driving performance in Q3, but tariff blows will also remain.
Plug Power recently announced it has started installation of its 5 MW electrolyzer for the H2 Hollandia project, the first decentralized green hydrogen hub initiative currently under construction in the Netherlands.
Morgan Stanley analyst David Arcaro recently raised his price target on Plug Power to $1.50 from 75 cents and kept an Underweight rating on the shares. Ahead of Q3 earnings for its Clean Tech coverage and renewable developers, the firm expects SAFE harbor volumes and orders to begin flowing through to both residential and utility-scale U.S. solar equipment manufacturers and expects tariff impacts to again be a point of questioning for management teams, the analyst tells investors in a preview for the group.
Is PLUG a Good Stock to Buy Now?
On TipRanks, PLUG has a Hold consensus based on 5 Buy, 9 Hold and 3 Sell ratings. Its highest price target is $7. PLUG stock’s consensus price target is $2.84, implying a 7.17% upside.
