The company reported second-quarter fiscal 2014 results after markets closed Tuesday. The fuel cell maker reported an adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) loss of $0.04 and $38.3 million in revenues. In the same period a year ago, the company reported an EPS loss of $0.04 on revenue of $42.4 million. Second-quarter results also compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for an EPS loss of $0.03 and $45.18 million in revenue.
Other fuel cell stocks are feeling the impact from FuelCell Energy’s poor performance. Ballard Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BLDP) traded down about 4% after opening down 5%, and Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG) traded down more than 1% after opening the session down more than 3.5%.
Since reporting first-quarter earnings on March 10 — also the day it posted its 52-week high — FuelCell Energy’s shares have dropped to around $2.40 a share, which still represents a stock price gain of 68% year-to-date, but the upward momentum has stalled even as the stock trades 23 million shares a day.
Regarding guidance, the company said that it expects revenues of $50 million to $60 million in each of the remaining quarters of the 2014 fiscal year. The consensus estimates for the third quarter call for an EPS loss of $0.03 on revenues of $53.07 million. For the full year, FuelCell Energy is expected to post an EPS loss of $0.13 on revenues of $203.5 million.
In some general remarks regarding the FuelCell’s Direct FuelCell power plant, the company said that “the market opportunity for on-site hydrogen generation includes both industrial applications as well as transportation fueling.” The firm has a pilot transportation fueling station running in the Los Angeles area and a plant in Wyoming is in the process of commissioning. Both use renewable biogas from a wastewater facility to produce heat and renewable hydrogen.
During the company’s conference call, the CEO noted that FuelCell is transitioning its backlog of 89.1 megawatts from its previous line of kits and modules to turn-key power plant projects and long-term service agreements. This shift is not unlike the change some big solar panel makers underwent when they acquired downstream installation businesses to complement their manufacturing capabilities.
FuelCell had traded about half its daily volume of nearly 24 million shares late Wednesday morning, and the shares were trading down 9.3%, at $2.15 in a 52-week range of $1.10 to $4.74.
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