Last week Trefis published a list of five red flags regarding Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG), but investors don’t appear to be worried this week. And Trefis isn’t the only firm publishing negative reports about the company. Kerrisdale Capital recently disclosed its short position in Plug Power.
The company’s stock has been highly volatile (to put it mildly) for some time.
Plug Power keeps raising money
Just six to seven months ago, shares of Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) were trading at less than $1 a share, but when management said they were bullish on the company’s prospects, things started to turn around. A few analysts decided to start following the hydrogen fuel cell system provider, although others weren’t convinced. By March, the stock neared $12 a share—an increase of quadruple-digit percentage points without a single improvement in fundamentals.
Then Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) announced another public offering, selling more than 22 million new shares at a greater than 50% discount to what the stock was trading at its peak in March. The company has gone on to raise even more money two more times just within the last six months. Last year the company recorded sales of about $30 million but raised nearly $150 million.
Reasons to worry about Plug Power
The post pointed out five reasons Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) may be nothing but “roadkill.” First, the author noted that there’s usually a good reason companies have a bad track record in terms of making profits. Second, companies that are willing to sell new shares at a fraction of what they are trading at will only do so because they can’t sell them at the current price.
Third, the author said Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) must not care about shareholders at all because it diluted their investment three times in less than four months. Fourth, one of the company’s recent offerings was at only $3 a share, so the writer thinks that Plug Power actually thinks that’s only what its shares are worth. And fifth, the report said that when companies announce secondary offerings, “chances are good that it’s signaling a short-term exit price for traders and investors.”
