What happened
On a day when stocks in most sectors were struggling, one newly public EV charging stock shot higher. Shares of Allego (ALLG 8.11%) were up by as much as 27% in trading Tuesday. The stock pared some of those gains, but closed the session up by 11%.
So what
This European charging network company is a new addition to the public markets; it joined the New York Stock Exchange via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) on March 17. Allego's stock has soared about 45% since then. It seems the stock was bucking Tuesday's market downtrend as investors just can't get enough EV-related companies to invest in.
Image source: Allego.
Now what
Allego hasn't released a financial report as a public company yet, but in its presentation to investors in February, it said it had positive operational earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in 2021. The company also said it has been growing revenue at an annualized rate of 100% from 2017 to 2021. That included an estimate for revenue of about $94 million for 2021, representing 95% year-over-year growth.
But investors' enthusiasm has already assigned Allego a market cap of $3.5 billion, so a great deal of expected growth is already priced in. Additionally, numerous companies that underwent SPAC mergers have ended up failing to meet the ambitious projections they made prior to being held to the higher standards required of public companies. While Allego may be an interesting portfolio addition for investors looking to develop a diversified mix of EV-related holdings, it might be wise for those investors to wait for its first public financial report so they can have a clearer picture of what they'd be buying.
