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Plug Power
(Will Waldron/Getty Images)

Plug Power’s ascent continues as the AI boom may finally be what makes its business profitable

Plug Power investors have something more real to dream on this time.

Luke Kawa

Plug Power has the most interesting stock chart on the planet.

It has the most interesting stock chart on the planet because it’s enjoyed several runs as a meme stock, but the ability to dream on the hydrogen fuel cell company has always run into the pesky problem of reality: Plug has rarely been able to achieve positive unit economics in its long history as a publicly traded company, as its technology has not been sufficiently cost competitive relative to established power sources.

But a world craving more power to accommodate the influx of data centers might mean that for once, Plug investors don’t have to dream in the abstract.

On Friday, HC Wainwright analyst Amit Dayal spotlighted this dynamic in upping his price target to $7 from $3, the highest on Wall Street, which set off record call activity in the stock.

Amid rising energy demand, Plug’s offerings begin to look “increasingly price-competitive and case for adoption becomes stronger,” he wrote.

Shares are surging on Monday, continuing to build on what’s one of the best months of performance from Plug Power in its history. Volumes and call activity have likewise been going parabolic, and the options action is aggressively tilted toward the bullish side.

Peer Bloom Energy has cashed in on the AI boom in a concrete way, striking a deal to deliver power to some of Oracle’s data centers, which accelerated the surge in its stock.

Plug, for its part, was inching its way into the data center business before ChatGPT was even released by providing backup power to Microsoft.

More recently, Plug’s technology was utilized as part of a collaboration between data center company ECL and AI training and inference cloud company Lambda to deploy “the industry’s first hydrogen-powered, production-grade Nvidia GB300 NVL72 systems,” which came online in late September.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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