Plug Power’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
I read the news today — oh boy! 4,000 articles about Plug Power (Nasdaq: PLUG).
And though the news bites were rather small … I had to count them all. I mean, Plug Power is a Great Stuff Pick, after all.
Great Ones, Plug Power investors, Beatles fans … it’s been quite a day in the hydrogen high life. That is, if Robinhood’s “PLUG is up!” or “PLUG is down!” notifications didn’t tell you as much already.
It all started with an analyst upgrade — it was only a kiss — how did it end up like this?
Yesterday morn, Morgan Stanley Analyst Stephen Byrd upgraded PLUG stock from equal weight to overweight — essentially a buy rec. Morgan Stanley also raised its price target on PLUG from $35 to $40, on the belief that PLUG is “well-positioned to be a leader in the hydrogen economy.”
Hmmph — a whole hydrogen economy? Sounds like someone’s been reading his Great Stuff.
If anything, Byrd’s a bit late to PLUG’s party this month — the sucker’s rallied upward of 22% into yesterday’s analyst upgrade, then shot up another 12% in yesterday’s trading. Never mind that nasty 6% drop at the end there. We’ll get to today’s mess in a sec.
Because right around the time that Byrd announced he was ready to back up the truck and buy PLUG … the news deluge hit.
First up, Airbus — the other half of the global plane-making duopoly. Shout-out to Boeing (NYSE: BA) … I love those mad lads, honestly … but Airbus gets brownie points today for further cementing its plans to decarbonize, thanks to Plug Power’s hydrogen fuel cell tech.
Airbus and Plug announced a partnership to study green hydrogen-based fuel solutions. Seeing as Airbus wants to produce zero-emission aircraft as soon as 2035, it’s gonna need a hand in weaning off that passé oil nastiness. And that’s exactly what Plug does best, thanks to hydrogen fuel cells.
Hydrogen? In planes? It’s more likely than you think — it’s the best (and maybe the only) way forward. But you mention “hydrogen” and “aircraft” together, and some folks assume we’re still in the ‘30s and that the world’s going to explode…
Yet, all those thousands of aircraft that even Boeing predicts will be up in the skies over the next few decades won’t be running off batteries. It’s hydrogen. It’s always been hydrogen.
Airbus knows there’s no sustainable way to make oil or batteries work in airplanes. We’ve predicted as much in these here virtual pages. I mean, batteries are just so freaking heavy! That idea just ain’t gonna fly…
Back in the way-distant past of September, when we last dove into the industrial transition away from oil, we noted that a jet using today’s batteries would need about 1.2 million pounds of batteries just to generate the same power from the jet engine it’s replacing. Not even Ringo would carry that weight.
As far as the aircraft makers are concerned, hydrogen power it is — and Plug’s the golden goose to usher in new greener skies. (Green skies? That doesn’t sound right … even in Pepperland.)
Here’s Plug CEO Andy Marsh with some more lofty optimism: “We’ve already revolutionized electric trucks and industrial fleets on the ground, so now we’re turning our sights to the skies.” But there’s one more thing that all those hydrogen fuel cell-powered aircraft would need: hydrogen-focused infrastructure.
That’s where Plug’s second announcement comes in. Plug signed a memorandum of understanding to collab with Phillips 66 on expanding hydrogen infrastructure and other “low-carbon hydrogen business opportunities.”
So many buzzwords, ahhhh! I am electrified … by hydrogen!
Phillips 66, much like its brethren over at BP, is knee-deep in the energy transition via its various hydrogen production plants and large-scale energy infrastructure. It’s a win-win for both energy enthusiasts, but that’s far from the last of Plug’s positivity for today.
Before the day was out, PLUG also:
• Showed off a new hydrogen fuel cell-powered van produced by automaker Renault.
• Partnered with Fortescue Future Industries in Australia to make hydrogen storage and refueling solutions, plus electrolyzers that pull hydrogen and oxygen from water.
• Partnered with aerospace company Airflow to make hydrogen-propulsion systems.
• Announced it’s acquiring Applied Cryo Technologies, which works with equipment and services for “liquefied hydrogen, oxygen, argon, nitrogen and other cryogenic gases.”
Dang, PLUG! You scary. How many plates do y’all have spinning over there?
And I thought Great Stuff was busy, between filming exclusive online events for you to attend … and not so subtly mentioning that you can sign up for FREE right here.
As with anything to do with alternative energy stocks lately, PLUG’s binge had to end somewhere. For all the good news Plug threw at the wall to see what stuck, the stock’s down about 6%. You know what this is, Great Ones: profit-taking. Plain and simple.
It’s obvious that hydrogen’s broad-scale industrial acceptance is fully underway — the cornucopia of PLUG-centric news this week confirms that. Don’t let today’s slight sell-off convince you otherwise.
PLUG and the hydrogen fuel cells it dragged in are here to stay. Keep hangin’ on like Vanilla Fudge! Plug’s plans of global hydrogen domination show no sign of slowing down, even if today’s afterparty left PLUG shares half in the can…
Remember, as a Great One, you’ve already seen some outstanding gains with Great Stuff Picks. You made 103% in 13 months on Spotify … 113% in eight months on Shopify … and 211% in 29 days on Alpha Pro Tech, to name a few.
But that’s just the beginning of what you could make.
Clearly, Amazon.com’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) India division wasn’t properly schooled in business etiquette: You don’t manipulate search results to favor your own wares … which happen to be knockoff items ripped from third-party sellers. That’s just Business 101.
But according to Reuters, that’s exactly what Amazon’s international associates have been up to.
Reuters claims that Amazon’s India team boosted the company’s private-label products in search results using a technique called “seeding” — basically, making sure Amazon’s own products are the first thing people see online. It also claims that Amazon used internal data to copy products sold by other companies.
That’s interesting seeing as, back in 2020, our old pal Jeffrey Bezos swore under oath that Amazon prohibits this kind of data collection and profiteering to help its private-label business. So, either Bezos lied or … well … Bezos probably just lied.
Of course, Amazon’s tactic is to deny, deny, deny that anything untoward took place:
Meanwhile, AMZN stock has been completely unaffected by the news. In fact, Amazon is now trading about 1% higher since the special report’s publication. Ain’t that just the damnedest thing?
Anyone else find it convenient that Jamie Dimon managed to get his name in the news right before JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) released knockout third-quarter earnings results? No? Just me?
The king of big banks brought in $30.44 billion in revenue, beating expectations of $29.80 billion. Earnings also came in a full $0.74 higher than anticipated. What’s your secret, JP? Here’s CEO Dimon again:
One of the reasons JPMorgan’s doing so well right now is that it set aside billions of dollars of “just in case” money last year, right when the pandemic started. But then, everyone started trading the stock market out of sheer lockdown boredom, and that acted as a boon to the big investment bank.
Since those heavy revenue losses never materialized, JPMorgan has slowly started to release its emergency funds back into its coffers. Still, it’s a valid earnings win, and JPM investors certainly have nothing to cry about … unlike their fearless leader, who can’t seem to let go of his negative bitcoin (BTC) beliefs.
Just when it looked like there might finally be clear skies ahead for Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL), inflation nation had to come a-knockin’. One step forward, two oil slick steps back … amiright, DAL investors?
Let’s start with the good news: Delta reported a third-quarter profit of $1.2 billion, which marked its second-best profitable quarter since this whole pandemic mess started.
That’s still down 19% from the same quarter in 2019 … but we consider it a win seeing as Delta’s now flying solo without any of those sweet stimmy checks from the U.S. government.
Even better, Delta’s revenue came in at $9.15 billion for the quarter versus the $8.4 billion analysts hoped for. Meanwhile, earnings per share hit $0.30 versus their $0.17 per-share projection.
OK, well this all sounds good so far…
That’s the thing: It would’ve been a positive earnings report if Delta wasn’t already calling for losses in the fourth quarter due to rising oil costs.
Right now, the average price of oil is about $1.97 per gallon, but Delta expects prices to travel somewhere in the $2.25 to $2.40 range. Obviously, the more cash Delta has to shell out to get its planes in the air, the less profit it walks away with. Whomp whomp.
Of course, Wall Street didn’t like Delta’s dallying one bit and sent DAL stock 5% lower on Wednesday. Other airline stocks, including American and United, also took a hit … so at least Delta’s got some friends it can sing the petrol blues with.
Canadian cannabis connoisseur Canopy Growth (Nasdaq: CGC) has turned its red-rimmed eyes toward the U.S. marijuana market once again.
This morning, Canopy announced that it would buy Colorado-based edibles maker Wana Brands for $297.5 million to further expand into U.S. territory (weed territory, that is … Canadian companies are way too polite to try any colonization capers).
Famous for its weed gummies, Wana markets itself as the No. 1 edibles brand in North America. While it’s currently a privately held company, Wana is known for having strong revenue growth and good EBITDA margins, each of which could help Canopy reach that profitability goal it’s had since … well, forever.
Now, even if the U.S. federally legalized marijuana tomorrow — and let’s face it, that’s not gonna happen anytime soon — Canopy would still face tough competition from companies like Trulieve, Curaleaf and Cresco that already have a strong foothold in the U.S. market. But Wana’s acquisition will certainly help.
Not only are gummies one of the fastest-growing segments in both the U.S. and Canadian cannabis markets, but according to Headset, they also account for more than 71% of all edibles purchased.
Considering Wana is the leading edibles brand in North America (at least by market share), that’s a whole lotta rolling paper potentially headed Canopy’s way. CGC investors acted accordingly following the announcement and pushed Canopy’s stock 7% higher this morning. But we’ll see what happens once the edible buzz wears off…
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