Bloom Energy (BE -0.51%) just reported its strongest quarter ever, with revenue crossing the $1 billion marker for the first time in company history. This was the fourth straight quarter Bloom reported year-over-year revenue growth, and, by the looks of it, next quarter could mark a fifth.
NYSE: BE
Key Data Points
Bloom stock has, unsurprisingly, surged this year. If you had invested $5,000 in Bloom this time last year, you'd have about $22,500 now. That's an exceptional return for an energy stock. But it's not the best return you could have ever gotten from Bloom.
On March 18, Bloom stock, hit with the double whammy of a COVID-19 market sell-off plus an accounting fiasco that had forced the company to restate years of revenue, bottomed out at about $3 a piece. It was one of the lowest share prices in the company's history, and the stock has not returned to that price since.
Image source: Bloom Energy.
Buying $5,000 worth of Bloom at $3 a pop would have been a gold mine. Shares have grown 63-fold since that COVID-era low. In other words, $5,000 then would be worth about $337,000 today. That's a gain of about $332,000, or nearly the average price of a home in the U.S.
You're likely not going to see another 63-fold gain out of Bloom stock anytime soon (that would make it a $4 trillion company). But the stock could, at some point, return to its 52-week high ($350), as long as revenue grows as strongly as predicted. A few shares of Bloom in a well-diversified portfolio could deliver upside, but keep expectations realistic after its recent rally.
