When Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG) reported first-quarter earnings, the company’s shares dived about 8% shortly after markets opened. Once the shares hit $3.70, the bulls showed up and the stock has managed to cut its losses by a couple of points.

For the quarter the fuel cell maker reported an adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) loss of $0.06 and $5.6 million in revenues. In the same period a year ago, Plug Power reported an EPS loss of $0.13 on revenue of $6.4 million.

But the big hit came from a change in the fair value of $68.4 million worth of previously issued stock warrants. As long as those warrants are lurking around out there, this sort of thing can and most probably will happen again. Unless of course the stock reverts to its year-ago price of less than $0.25.

Plug Power came into focus in late February following its deal with for 1,700 of its fuel-cell powered forklifts to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT). The company has since announced sales to other large firms, but as the revenue totals and projections indicate there is more potential than real sales here.

The company’s CEO said that Plug Power is targeting revenue of more than $70 million for the full year. The consensus estimates call for an EPS loss of $0.03 on revenues of $15.45 million for the second quarter and a full-year EPS loss of $0.09 on revenues of $65 million.

As most companies do when the stock price soars, Plug Power issued more stock — in this case 22.6 million shares at $5.50 in April. That was not popular with existing shareholders, but the sinking stock price should restrain the company from doing that again for a while.

Shares are trading down about 6.4% at $3.83 in a 52-week range of $0.22 to $11.72.

ALSO READ: Plug Power Sinks on Secondary Offering

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