Plug Power Stock Just Popped. Is It a Buy?
Key Points
Clear Street analyst Tim Moore just upgraded Plug Power stock to buy.
He cut his price target on the fuel cell stock, however, citing dilution.
Plug Power (NASDAQ: PLUG) stock popped more than 5% in early trading Wednesday, the final trading day of 2025. The stock has already given back half its gains, though, and as of 10:40 a.m. ET is up only about 2.6%.
Should investors view this as a second chance to bite the apple and buy some Plug stock before it goes back up? Or... not?
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Why Plug popped
Credit for today's pop goes to Tim Moore, an analyst at Clear Street, who upgraded Plug stock to "buy" this morning, even as he cut his price target on Plug by 50 cents, to just $3 a share.
As Moore explains, Plug stock recently raised $399.4 million by selling convertible debt, money it then used to pay off some other high-interest and convertible debt. Plug will save some money on annual interest payments as a result -- but it's probably going to have to issue more shares when its new debt converts into stock (as it surely will).
Those new shares will dilute the existing shareholders' stake in future profits, lowering the value of Plug stock, which is why Moore cut his price target. Regardless, the analyst thinks Plug stock is a buy because its interest costs will be lower, and it might burn less cash.
Is Plug stock a buy?
Moore is right about the dilution, but wrong about the profits -- because in its entire 28 years of doing business, Plug Power has never earned a profit, and I don't believe it ever will.
Even optimistic analysts (the same ones who've been recommending buying Plug stock over the last three decades) don't see the company turning profitable before 2031 at the earliest. If history's any guide, they're probably right, Moore is wrong -- and Plug stock is a sell.
Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.