Green hydrogen stock Ballard Power Systems (TSE:BLDP) released its financial results, and the word that emerged was surprisingly positive. That wasn’t how investors took it, though, and they responded accordingly. Currently, Ballard Power shares are down around 4.5% in Tuesday afternoon’s trading, and earlier, shares hit a new 52-week low.
Yesterday’s trading featured a disastrous 10% loss in market cap for Ballard Power, as it reported a hefty $48.9 million net loss in the fourth quarter. That’s actually 77% larger than the loss seen a year prior. However, there was some good news to be had; fourth-quarter revenue was up 25% year-over-year, and Ballard pointed out that it had around $751 million in cash and equivalents on hand.
Still, that wasn’t good enough news for investors, who weren’t pleased with word of an 8% drop in the 12-month backlog of orders. Clearing out orders is good, but not having those orders replaced with new ones is a concern.
The Year Ahead Isn’t Looking Much Brighter
This is when things got fundamentally worse. Guidance from management suggested that new orders might not be forthcoming; 2024 is projected to have no sales growth or potentially even a decline in overall sales thanks to a sluggish adoption of fuel cells worldwide. However, there is a bright spot here; at Ballard’s current burn rate, it has roughly another four years’ worth of liquidity on its side. Certainly, a lot can happen in four years, which may serve to turn things around.
Is Ballard Power Stock a Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on BLDP stock based on two Buys, five Holds, and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 47.18% loss in its share price over the past year, the average BLDP price target of C$6.67 per share implies 73.93% upside potential.
