What happened
The knee-jerk reaction to the quarterly results Plug Power (PLUG -3.11%) released on Tuesday might have had investors rushing to pick up shares yesterday, but the market's not espousing the same fanfare today. Investors are digging in deeper to the company's performance and not liking what they're seeing. That and the fact that Wall Street is tempering its expectations for the fuel cell stock have investors reeling.
As of 10:34 a.m. ET on Thursday, shares of Plug Power have fallen 6%.
So what
Initially, investors celebrated Plug Power's fourth-quarter 2021 earnings, which featured strong revenue growth, among other things. But look elsewhere in the company's financial statements, and it's clear why investors aren't still powered up with the results. For one, the company failed to meet analysts' expectations, reporting a loss per share of $0.33, a steeper loss than the $0.11 that analysts had anticipated.
Turning to the cash flow statement, investors are finding more cause for concern. Plug Power reported negative $358.2 million in cash from operations at the end of 2021 -- a far greater outflow than the negative $155.5 million in operational cash flow that it reported at the end of 2020.
Image source: Getty Images.
Responding to the company's earnings report, Joseph Spak, an analyst at RBC Capital, cut his price target on Plug Power's stock to $33 from $39 yesterday after the market closed, according to Thefly.com. And he's not alone in his bearish opinion. J.P. Morgan reduced its price target as well yesterday to $38 from $42.
Now what
The decline that investors are seeing in Plug Power's stock shouldn't be all that surprising. A cursory glance at the company's headlines (proclaiming strong revenue growth) would surely put a charge in growth investors. But Wall Street's pessimism illustrates how a deeper look at the company's performance is not as electric as investors might have first thought.
