Hydrogen fuel cell technology provider Plug Power reported somewhat disappointing first-quarter earnings on Tuesday. Its stock is rising anyway in premarket trading.
The report signals things are calming down at the company, after results were delayed by accounting issues.
Plug (ticker: PLUG) reported a loss of 12 cents per share from $72 million in sales. Wall Street was looking for an 8 cent loss from $69 million in sales. It’s an earning miss, but earnings for a smaller company with big growth plans isn’t as important as sales. Plug’s 2021 sales are expected to be $465 million, growing to more than $1 billion by 2023.
Plug also ended the quarter with more than $4.3 billion in cash on the balance sheet.
Plug stock rose 0.5% in premarket trading. S&P 500 futures are flat.
It took a while for the company to report its first quarter. In 2020, Plug reported first-quarter results on May 7. This year, however, accounting issues—disclosed in March—got in the way. The company ended up restating some older results after changing the accounting for customer contracts. Cash wasn’t affected by the restatements.
The accounting-related delay is another reasons the stock isn’t doing much after the release of actual earnings. Amid all the restatements and updates, investors had a good sense of what was coming for the first quarter. Several times in May, Plug management had said sales would be greater than $67 million.
Plug management hosts a conference call for analysts and investors at 8:30 a.m. ET. Investors will be eager to hear about second-quarter sales, which are expected to be more than $100 million.
Year to date, Plug stock is down about 12%, trailing behind comparable gains of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average. Many renewable energy stocks have struggled in 2021 after amazing 2020 gains. Stock in electric-vehicle maker Tesla (TSLA), for instance, is down about 12% year to date after rising 743% in 2020. Plug stock rose 973% in 2020.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
