Why Did Bloom Energy Stock Drop 9.5% Today?
What happened
Fuel-cell stock Bloom Energy (NYSE: BE) fell hard on Friday, down 9.5% as of 3:25 p.m. EDT. The question is: Why -- and why now?
So what
Bloom Energy's first-quarter earnings news wasn't great. Pro forma losses came in three times bigger than expected, at $0.76 per share, and gross margins were nearly cut in half. But the news wasn't particularly "new." Bloom reported those Q1 2019 losses 10 days ago, and investors have had plenty of time to react since then.
Really, the only new news we've seen today is a series of insider "purchases" reported by StreetInsider.com, which notes that board members Eddie Zervigon, John Chambers, and Colin Powell (yes, that Colin Powell) each acquired 12,734 shares of Bloom Energy stock on May 15. Ordinarily, this would appear to be good news. But as the acquisition price paid for these shares was zero in each case, these appear to be stock grants to the board members in compensation for their service, and thus not indicative of any particular confidence company insiders are expressing in Bloom's prospects.
Now what
Still, if you ask me, this news, too, is of the "no news" variety. If stock grants to board members aren't exactly good news, neither are they bad news -- certainly not bad enough to justify a near-10% sell-off in Bloom Energy stock.
If you're among the shareholders who thought Bloom Energy stock was worth $14 or thereabouts back on earnings day, there's really very little reason to think it's worth nearly $3 less than that today. Sometimes, stocks really do go down for no reason at all.
10 stocks we like better than Bloom Energy CorpWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has quadrupled the market.*
David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Bloom Energy Corp wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.
*Stock Advisor returns as of March 1, 2019
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.