NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR) Trading Up 10.5% - Should You Buy?

Key Points

• Shares jumped 10.5% intraday to $12.51 on Thursday, with about 27.4 million shares traded (roughly 4% below the average session volume).
• Analyst views are mixed and the consensus rating is "Hold" with a $19.77 average target, despite several recent price-target cuts and a range of Buy/Hold/Sell opinions.
• Fundamentals and insider activity raise concerns: NuScale reported a large quarterly EPS miss (-$0.80 vs. -$0.10 expected), has negative margins/ROE, insiders sold sizeable stakes recently, and institutions own about 78% of the stock.

Shares of NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE:SMR - Get Free Report) shot up 10.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $12.52 and last traded at $12.5140. 27,420,318 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 4% from the average session volume of 28,671,629 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.32.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SMR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of NuScale Power from $20.00 to $13.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on NuScale Power from $55.00 to $20.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Barclays decreased their target price on NuScale Power from $45.00 to $15.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. HSBC began coverage on NuScale Power in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. They issued a "hold" rating and a $13.00 target price for the company. Finally, Northland Securities raised NuScale Power from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $19.77.

NuScale Power Stock Up 10.5%

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $11.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.28. The firm has a market cap of $4.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.33 and a beta of 2.27.

NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported ($0.80) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by ($0.70). NuScale Power had a negative return on equity of 55.23% and a negative net margin of 1,130.26%.The firm had revenue of $1.81 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.76 million. Equities analysts forecast that NuScale Power Corporation will post -0.44 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NuScale Power news, CEO John Lawrence Hopkins sold 82,667 shares of NuScale Power stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.22, for a total value of $1,010,190.74. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 117,018 shares in the company, valued at $1,429,959.96. The trade was a 41.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Carl M. Fisher sold 22,197 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.22, for a total transaction of $271,247.34. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 140,141 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,712,523.02. This represents a 13.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 40,572,082 shares of company stock worth $481,029,608 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NuScale Power

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SMR. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in NuScale Power by 117.8% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 11,515,561 shares of the company's stock worth $163,176,000 after purchasing an additional 6,227,747 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of NuScale Power by 40.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,545,018 shares of the company's stock worth $220,273,000 after buying an additional 4,482,254 shares during the last quarter. Clear Street Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NuScale Power during the 3rd quarter worth about $155,616,000. Voloridge Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NuScale Power during the 4th quarter worth about $48,993,000. Finally, Samsung C&T Corp increased its holdings in shares of NuScale Power by 98.9% during the 3rd quarter. Samsung C&T Corp now owns 5,185,804 shares of the company's stock valued at $186,689,000 after acquiring an additional 2,578,702 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.37% of the company's stock.

NuScale Power Company Profile

NuScale Power Corporation, trading on the NYSE American under the ticker SMR, is a pioneering developer of small modular nuclear reactors. Established in 2007 as a spinout from Oregon State University, the company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. NuScale’s mission is to deliver zero-carbon baseload power through scalable modular reactor technology, aiming to transform traditional nuclear energy deployment.

At the core of NuScale’s offering is the VOYGR small modular reactor design, featuring 77-megawatt electric (MWe) modules with passive safety systems.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.