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Summary

  • Plug Power received a rating upgrade from Northland Securities soon after the stock price rose 10% after securing a 100 MW electrolyzer deal in Europe.
  • PLUG has mean recommendation rating of 2.1 on a scale of one to five and consensus mean price target on the stock is US$18.66.
  • Northland increased its price target on PLUG to US$22, marking an upside potential of 81.22% over Friday’s closing price of US$12.14.

Plug Power, a green hydrogen producer, received a revised rating from Northland Securities. The company focuses on building an end-to-end green hydrogen ecosystem.

EODHD/Others data suggests that 31 analysts have covered the stock, of which seven have given it a ‘strong buy’ rating, fourteen have given is a ‘buy’ rating and ten have given it a ‘hold’ rating. None of the analysts have given the stock a ‘sell’ or ‘strong sell’ rating.

Analysts at Northland Securities bumped Plug Power to an ‘outperform’ rating from its previous ‘hold’ rating. The rating renewal came a day after PLUG’s shares saw an increase of around 10% on July 13, 2023.

Meanwhile, PLUG has mean recommendation rating of 2.1 on a scale of one to five. Here one represents a ‘strong buy’ rating while five represents a ‘strong sell’ rating. The consensus mean price target on the stock is US$18.66, which marks an upside potential of around 50% over PLUG’s closing price on Friday.

PLUG Price Chart; Image Source: PLUG EODHD/Others

The stock closed at US$12.14 on Friday, July 14, 2023. PLUG hit its 52-week high of US$31.56 on August 25, 2022.

Analysts recommend buying the stock despite slower earnings in Q1 2023

Plug Power reported a net revenue of around US$219 million for the March 2023 quarter, as compared to US$140 million in the March 2022 quarter. Meanwhile, the company’s operating loss increased in the March 2023 quarter to US$209.79 million from US$139.16 million in the March 2022 quarter.

The renewable energy company also reported a net loss of US$206.56 million for the March 2023 quarter. The per share net loss came in at US$0.35 for the quarter

Image source: ©2023 Kalkine®; Data source: Company Reports

Despite the reported loss, Plug Power retained a ‘buy’ rating from analysts, including an ‘outperform’ rating from Oppenheimer & Co. on the day of the company's financial release.

More recently, Evercore ISI and Craig Hallum reviewed their ratings on PLUG, making no changes to their previously stated ‘moderate buy’ rating. Cowen and Company upgraded the stock to an ‘outperform’ rating, while Susquehanna Financial remained ‘positive’ on the stock.

PLUG’s 100 MW electrolyzer deal in Europe results in a price uptick

Plug Power secured an order of 100 megawatts of electrolyzers for a green hydrogen project in Europe. The deal includes proton exchange membrane electrolyzers that will help generate around 43 tons of green hydrogen each day to be used in the oil refining process.

As per EODHD/Others data, the announcement led to a 10% uptick in PLUG’s share price on July 13, 2023. The closing price of US$12.75 on July 13, 2023, marked a jump of 1% for the stock on a YTD basis.

The electrolyzers will be a part of a project that is stated to be the largest declared project in the oil and gas sector in Europe. They will be delivered and installed in 2024, as per Plug Power.

Most analysts lowered their price target on PLUG except for Northland Securities. The broker increased its price target on PLUG to US$22 on July 14, 2023. This marks an upside potential of 81.22% over Friday’s closing price of US$12.14.