Shares of Plug Power Inc. PLUG, -5.05% slumped 5.6% toward a three-year low in afternoon trading Tuesday, after the hydrogen and fuel cell systems company was downgraded at KeyBanc Capital, saying near-term headwinds make a bullish rating “untenable.”
Analyst Sophie Karp cut the stock’s rating to sector weight from overweight. “The recent bank collapses have created a risk-off atmosphere for project financing — right when PLUG is in a capital-intensive part of its growth cycle,” Karp wrote in a note to clients, as she believes the company will need external funding to meets its hydrogen production capacity goals. And the recent departure of the general manager of the company’s Electrolyzers business is “potentially negative” and is likely slowing down the pace of activity and new order buildout. Plug Power’s stock, which is on track to close at the lowest price since July 31, 2020, has tumbled 27.5% year to date, while the Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy exchange-traded fund PBW, -1.83% has slipped 2.3% and the S&P 500 SPX, +0.09% has gained 8.2%.