Plug Power: This Stock Fails To Get Us Charged Up

seekingalpha2021-06-21

Summary Plug Power, the producer of hydrogen fuel cell solutions, has had a turbulent history, with the stock trading at just a fraction of its 1999 tech boom price. Despite experiencing a ...

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Comments

Patrickang
2021-06-22
Patrickang
Charge up,
fuzhi
2021-06-21
fuzhi
Good
lkhallan
2021-06-21
lkhallan
Wow wtf
MrNikki
2021-06-21
MrNikki
Chargepoint?
Ashish
2021-06-21
Ashish
Pls like and Comment on this one
ALi_BaBa
2021-06-21
ALi_BaBa
Power
- Ashish:
  alright

Leave a comment

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We question whether the total addressable market is significant enough for Plug to prosper, particularly in the light of strong competition.\nThe Background to our thesis\nPlug Power (PLUG) was a roaring success in the latter part of 2020, increasing by over 400% to its January 2021 peak, before crashing back down to earth as the stock was hit by an accounting scandal.\nData by YCharts\nThe accounting issues have been covered in detail in the article linked above, so we won’t pore over them in too much detail here, except to say we are big believers in the old adage - “if in doubt, get out.\" An accounting scandal and a restatement of prior year figures is perhaps not the wisest foundations with which to build an investment decision in our opinion.\nWhether an accounting scandal is considered a red flag from an investment thesis or not, most investors would baulk at the thought of investing in a firm with legal concerns and unknown liabilities. Unfortunately, for PLUG stockholders, that is exactly what is laid out in the company’s most recent annual report, with a flurry of legal proceedings being filed in early 2021 off the back of the accounting scandal, adding to earlier proceedings from staff involved in an accident which is yet to be resolved. For many investors, these flags would be enough to deter them from an investment. However, a contrary argument may be that these factors are already priced in and the company's future may be rosier. Let's consider what the future holds for Plug Power.\nConsidering Plug Power's Valuation\nAs long-term growth investors, the consideration of valuation is not normally the first port of call when considering an investment decision. We’ve previously laid out our belief that what seems expensive, often is so for good reason, when laying out a bull thesis for other stocks. However, in this case we think it paints a very different story. When considering the valuation of Plug Power, we note a current enterprise value of $16.1 billion, being a $16.8 billion market cap, deducting $1.3 billion cash and adding $0.6 billion in debt. This gives us a forward looking EV/Sales figure for the next twelve months of 36.\nWhile the multiple itself is high by most gauges, as we’ve outlined, the number itself is not really our primary concern. If we delve a little deeper into the valuation story, what we can see is a company that traded at 3.8 times its next twelve-month revenues in September 2019 (using the same metrics outlined above). This multiple increased gradually to 12.3 by June 2020, before exploding as high as 56 times next twelve-month sales in December 2020.\nThis incredible volatility in valuation multiple does not appear to have been triggered by developing sales or profitability. PLUG's quarter-on-quarter last twelve-month sales increased a modest 50% between September 2019 and September 2020 ($198 million September 2019 and $308 million September 2020). Thereafter a large decline, caused by their accounting irregularities, led to a December 2020 loss of $94 million.\nIt's our thesis that the stock price surge was not built on any solid financial foundation, more likely linked to investor appetite for exposure to companies that may benefit from future environmental trends, and potentially the strong forecasts from management. As the projections have not yet played out in the numbers, the share price has suffered and this is a trend we expect to continue to see.\nOne positive case that can be made for PLUG's future from a valuation perspective is that despite negatively trending income statement features, the company appears to have a strong balance sheet. The considerable cash and cash equivalent balance ($1.3 billion) by far surpasses their current and long-term liabilities ($784 million), meaning PLUG should have no issues in withstanding short-term poor performance.\n(Source: PLUG's 2020 Annual report)\nThe company's current ratio of 7.21, being current assets divided by current liabilities, suggests a company more than able to continue operations despite being in a loss-making position.While this is encouraging from a bull thesis perspective, our core investment strategy is more revenue and growth orientated. PLUG certainly appears to be well capitalized, yet that alone will not enable the company to drive returns for investors. One obvious option for PLUG would be to deploy their cash into projects that would develop new revenue streams and enhance their earnings position.\nConsideration of growth opportunities\nSince we deviated from our normal order of assessment, let’s now return to where the thesis normally begins, that is the story of the company itself. Do we consider this investment story to paint a positive picture of future growth, with products that will change the company fortunes and lead to a prosperous future? If we’re honest, right now, no. Let’s assess why that is the case.\nFirstly, PLUG is a producer of hydrogen powered fuel cell solutions, outlining in their recent annual report that they see their products in “material handling vehicles and industrial trucks.\" This is the first factor that investors should be acutely aware of. The hype of 2020 may have gotten some investors carried away with this “battery producer” for electric vehicles, without understanding its position in the market.\nThe vehicle battery market is well laid out by this IHS Markit report, which considers the future prospects for hydrogen fuel cells. If you’re bullish on PLUG, this report will give some encouragement, showing that there is a strong increase expected in both vehicles and charging stations in the coming years.\n(Source:IHS Markit)\nHowever, it’s not the headline numbers that caught our eye in this report, but the description of where exactly hydrogen-powered batteries sit within the marketplace. According to the report, while there are clear benefits of hydrogen over the lithium batteries used by Tesla and others, the downside is that they use “more complex processes” and have “about half the wheel to wheel efficiency of battery electric,” concluding that they are more suitable for vehicles with heavier weights and longer trip times – think industrial vehicles and buses.\nIn our consideration of the story, this dramatically reduces the total addressable market (\"TAM\"). Yes, there are a lot of industrial vehicles in the world, but there is a significantly larger market for standard lighter automobiles, boats, light-aircraft and drones.\nOur assessment of the story is enhanced further by reporting from the International Energy Agency, who lay out their future projections for electric light duty vehicles (“LDV”) in the graph below – electric cars essentially. With projections for up to 200 million units expected to be on the road in 2030, up from 22 million today. In our opinion, if investing in the clean and green future of electric vehicles, the LDV space is far more appealing, and the smaller TAM in the hydrogen fuel cell space is a concern to the company's long-term prospects.\n(Source :IEA 2021 Report)\nThe contrary thesis for PLUG\nWe should also consider the counter argument to our thesis on the PLUG story. The bulls will be screaming that despite the smaller market, many companies have been highly profitable while cornering a certain segment of a larger market. That would undoubtedly be a fair assessment to make overall; however, do we consider that PLUG is best placed to do so?\nIn the heavy duty vehicle and hydrogen power market, there are already firms such as Proterra (PTRA), who have proof of concept and regular sales in electric buses. Plus it has become apparent that heavyweight competitors are entering the space, with General Motors' (GM )plans to supply fuel cells for locomotive trains. With this in mind, it is difficult to see PLUG capturing a significant portion of the smaller TAM that we defined earlier. Our thesis is that they may get squeezed out by this competition in the longer term.\nThat being said, the company management clearly forecasts a bright future. Their impressive September 2020 slide deck highlights their forecasts of an incredible surge in revenue growth to $1.2 billion in annual sales and $250 billion in operating EBITDA. This impressive growth will be fuelled by expansion of their existing operations and development of new market segments, such as hydrogen power plants, refueling stations, heavy duty electric vehicles, airplanes and even a \"gigafactory.\"\nThe coining of a phrase synonymous with Tesla, via their gigafactory plans, may have whet the appetite of some investors. However, we are firmly in the let’s wait and see camp here. Firstly, on the revenue side, even excluding the 2020 annual loss and writing off to the restatement issues mentioned earlier, it’s hard to gather where the $1 billion figure comes from. That would be an approximate 6.5-fold increase on the 2019 annual revenues ($150 million) in a two and a half year period; pretty ambitious? Not quite as ambitious as doing so while increasing EBITDA to $250 million from a historic loss-making position, while presumably also increasing capital expenditure to fund their gigafactory, hydrogen plant, plane and truck expansions? Unfortunately, we are struggling to see the math.\nOur conclusions on Plug Power\nIn a global environment currently shifting toward a greener and cleaner world, fuelled by more carbon efficient vehicles, it is no surprise that investors have high hopes for a stock such as PLUG. It is easy to read their marketing material and fall in love with the story and the projections. It's encouraging to see the bold plans that management have for the company; however, we would like to see more results before assuming that these can be executed.\nFrom the research we have undertaken, we believe that the total addressable market for PLUG is smaller than currently perceived by the bulls. Long-term trends suggest that lithium batteries will be the clear leader in fuelling our greener future and we believe the hydrogen market will be considerably smaller, impacting PLUG's ability to grow. When considering this, alongside the strong competition within their subsector, the accounting and litigation red flags we noted earlier, we believe that PLUG may continue to see multiple contraction and a reduction in market cap - hence our bearish outlook at this point in time.","kind":null,"is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":true,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"0","news_tag":"","news_rank":0,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":1},"commentList":[{"id":120742055,"gmtCreate":1624339814877,"gmtModify":1703833940381,"author":{"id":"3578728007952524","authorId":"3578728007952524","name":"Patrickang","avatar":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0b31d4971b0a432c75ed181b7c3f3deb","vip":1,"crmLevel":4,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"idStr":"3578728007952524","authorIdStr":"3578728007952524"},"htmlText":"Charge up,&nbsp;","listText":"Charge up,&nbsp;","text":"Charge 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wtf","listText":"Wow wtf","text":"Wow 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