What happened
In early morning trading Tuesday, shares of hydrogen fuel cell stock Bloom Energy (BE -0.93%) first stumbled, falling 5.2%, then quickly regained their footing. As of 11:40 a.m. EST, the shares had already rebounded most of the way back, and were down just 1%.
And call me an optimist, but I suspect they'll recover the rest of the way in short order.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Why? Well, consider the reason Bloom stock seems to have stumbled in the first place. On Tuesday morning, analysts at investment bank Morgan Stanley trimmed their price target on Bloom Energy by $1 to $21 a share.
But here's the thing: As of this writing, Bloom Energy costs a shade less than $19, so even a $21 price target is pretty optimistic, promising about 11% upside to investors who buy now. And despite tweaking its price target a bit lower, that actually is the advice that Morgan Stanley is giving investors -- to buy.
Despite the cut, the analyst still rates Bloom Energy stock overweight, reports StreetInsider.com.
Now what
More fundamentally, and more objectively, I tend to agree with Morgan Stanley that among the several companies attempting to capitalize on the emerging hydrogen economy, Bloom is probably the strongest player. Although it's currently unprofitable (from a GAAP perspective), data from S&P Global Market Intelligence show that Bloom is the only fuel cell stock to have generated significant positive operating cash flow in recent memory, and it was, in fact, free-cash-flow positive last year.
That doesn't necessarily make the stock a buy, mind you. (You also have to consider the valuation -- the price you are paying for that FCF). But when paired with the mostly positive recommendation from Morgan Stanley, it certainly isn't an argument for selling the stock.
