FuelCell Shares Popped: What You Need to Know (FCEL)

FuelCell Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

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Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of fuel cell manufacturer FuelCell Energy (Nasdaq: FCEL ) jumped as much as 16% on heavy volume.

So what: Investors are gearing up for FuelCell's earnings announcement, which is slated to hit the wires at the end of the day. Based on the massive volume and the heady jump in the stock price, there are obviously traders out there who think FuelCell will deliver some good news. Wall Street analysts currently expect that the company's per-share loss for the quarter will be $0.14 versus a $0.21 loss last year.

Now what: Profits and cash flow have not been part of the FuelCell story -- at least not over the past decade -- and though there are some expectations that the company could hit the black within the next few years, this is still a very speculative play. So to me, the idea of chasing shares going into an earnings report is layering speculation on top of speculation (could we call that speculation squared?). Considering that over the past four quarters the company has matched earnings estimates twice and missed twice, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of reason to expect a sudden earnings beat. Could the betters jumping in today be right? It's certainly possible, but Foolish investors are better off shying away from chasing this move.

Want to keep up to date on FuelCell? Add it to your watchlist.

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Fool contributor Matt Koppenheffer does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned. You can check out what Matt is keeping an eye on by visiting his CAPS portfolio, or you can follow Matt on Twitter @KoppTheFool or on his RSS feed. The Fool's disclosure policy assures you no Wookiees were harmed in the making of this article.

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