Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE) stock experienced a significant 17% slump in premarket trading Friday following its fourth-quarter earnings report, which revealed both earnings and revenue falling short of analyst expectations.
The company reported an adjusted EPS of $0.07, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10. Revenue for the quarter was $356.9 million, a sharp decline of 22.8% compared to the $462.6 million reported in the same quarter last year, and also below the analyst forecast of $472.85 million.
The energy company's full-year revenue reached a record $1.3 billion, marking an 11.2% increase YoY, driven by growth in product and service revenue.
Despite the annual gains, the fourth-quarter performance and the provided financial guidance for fiscal year 2024, which anticipates revenue between $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion—well below the analyst consensus of $1.77 billion—have raised concerns among investors.
Bloom Energy's CEO, KR Sridhar, emphasized the company's commitment to operational excellence and innovation as key factors in achieving record annual revenue in 2023. Sridhar highlighted the launch of new products, including the Combined Heat and Power system and the Be Flexible™ load following product offering, as part of the company's strategy to meet the increasing demand for efficient, clean energy solutions.
Despite the positive note on innovation and operational milestones, the company's financial performance in the fourth quarter has overshadowed the achievements, as reflected in the market's reaction. Greg Cameron, President and CFO, expressed pride in the company's record revenues and positive adjusted operating income for the year, but his announced departure from the company adds to the uncertainty around Bloom Energy's future financial management.
The company's fourth-quarter gross margin improved significantly to 25.9%, up from 15.4% in the previous year, but the adjusted gross margin saw a decrease of 3 percentage points YoY. Operating profit for the quarter showed an improvement of $53.5 million, turning from a loss to a profit compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.
In summary, while Bloom Energy has shown year-over-year growth in annual revenue and improvements in operating profit, the fourth-quarter results and forward-looking guidance have not met market expectations, leading to a notable decline in the company's stock price.
Following the report's release, KeyBanc analysts downgraded the stock to Sector Weight from Overweight and lowered estimates.
"While we believe that the weakness is mostly a result of the evolving CHPS in Korea and interest for BE servers appears robust (especially given baseload power demand from data centers), the lack of clarity around the timing of shipments to Korea and data center-related bookings makes for an uncertain 1H24, at least," they wrote.
Similarly, JPMorgan analysts also demoted BE to Neutral from Overweight, citing worse-than-expected FQ4 results, soft 2024 guidance, and unexpected CFO departure.