NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) is on a roll, heating up 15.8% through 11 a.m. ET on Monday -- its third straight trading day of gains, after announcing plans this morning to participate in several institutional investor conferences over the next couple of months.
A coincidence in timing?
NuScale hasn't called these conferences itself. Two will be hosted by investment banks UBS and Bank of America, respectively, and the third by the NYSE. NuScale will be just one of many companies participating. There's no guarantee the company has groundbreaking news to announce.
Still, the fact that NuScale will participate in the first of these conferences (UBS') on March 19 may be driving investor optimism about the small modular (nuclear power) reactor company. After all, that conference will take place only a few days after NuScale is scheduled to report its Q4 and full-year earnings on Thursday this week. If NuScale has good news to report Thursday, then next Tuesday's conference would be a logical time to try to capitalize on the news by attracting more institutional investors to invest in its stock.
Is NuScale stock a buy?
And good news shouldn't be too hard for NuScale to come by. Expectations for the stock are pretty reasonable, with sales expected to more than double -- but still be less than $9 million in Q4. Partnerships with Seoul National University in Korea and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S., both announced in Q4, could have provided the revenue needed to meet this goal. NuScale won't even need to report any profits on its revenue in order to impress investors. Simply slimming down its losses to about $0.14 per share in Q4 2023 should suffice.
All that being said, NuScale remains a speculative stock. Analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence think it will be 2026 before the company begins generating positive free cash flow, and another year after that before earnings turn positive. Small modular nuclear reactors may be the future of energy -- but the future remains by definition some time away.
Should you invest $1,000 in NuScale Power right now?
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Bank of America is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bank of America and NuScale Power. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
