Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) On The Comeback Trail

Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ:PLUG) (“Plug”), the energy solutions provider, communicated a few days ago the appointment of Mr. Luke Schneider to the Board of Directors. He will bring a lot of experience to the automotive marketplace and will be helping the company in its new phase of growth. This appointment is another interesting communication of Plug, which seems to be in action from February 2017.

The stock price went from $0.9 in February 10, 2017 to $1.5 as of today. Take a look:

PLUG Daily Chart

The new executive

The press release, which announced the appointment of Mr. Luke Schneider, highlighted his experience in the auto industry. He has held positions of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Silvercar, an Austin, TX-based start-up, as well as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Zipcar. In addition, he has worked at several positions in Ford. We believe that Luke has a very suitable profile for the company, since he has helped other small entities grow through acquisitions, and product development. He has joined the company at the right time.

Some business executives agreed with our assessment of Schneider's profile. The CEO at Plug, Andy Marsh, commented that "Luke Schneider has worked with some of the most innovative brands in the automotive market, and his strategic insights will be critical as we expand Plug Power's reach beyond material handling." In addition, the chairman of the Board, George McNamee, added that "the Board is pleased to have Luke in the team, and looks forward to adding his unique perspective to our consideration of the opportunities in the transportation revolution."

Last Earnings release

We believe that market participants became bullish about Plug after the market got to know its Q4 2017 earnings, which were strong according to the CFO, Paul Middleton. The company delivered fourth quarter GAAP revenue of $32.6 million, which represents an 85% increase sequentially. In addition, fourth quarter GAAP gross margin of $3 million was reported, which is 9.2% of sales. In addition, the CFO highlighted the fact that the company continues to monitor its operating expenses, which were said to continue to trend in line and remain consistent overall.

Regarding the financing of its operations, the CFO highlighted the fact that the company is facing difficulties to find cheaper cost of capital for corporate financing and corporate funding solutions. We believe that this is normal in a small company such as Plug.

The company believes that its amount of debt is quite small. In addition, it was highlighted that the company ended the year with over $46 million in unrestricted cash.

Turning to what stock analysts expected, the EPS released was -$0.11, which misses by -$0.05 what the market expected. The share price did not fall due to this number, which we see as a bullish sign.

Recent Securities offering

Plug completed an offering of 10,400,000 shares of common stock and warrants to purchase 3,120,000 shares of common stock. The warrant holders have the right to buy a share of common stock at an exercise price equal to $1.50 per share. We know that many investors will be interested in the shares and these warrants, so we highlighted this new issue in the article. We encourage you to subscribe to our news letter if you want to obtain more information about these interesting equity offerings

Conclusion

The share price of PLUG climbed on March, 2017, right after the company released its Q4 2016 numbers. Although the company did not obtain better earnings per share than what analysts expected, investors still bid the company up. This fact may be seen by some market analysts as a bullish sign. In addition, we highlighted that the company issued new warrants and shares in December 2016. The share price at the moment is close to the strike price of these securities, which is $1.5.

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Disclosure: We have no position in PLUG and have not been compensated for this article.