Two analysts have now trimmed their price targets on Plug Power following the company’s Monday quarterly release, and neither cut was driven by the headline numbers. The more pressing question for the market is timing: whether large electrolyser projects awaiting final investment decisions will move fast enough to justify current expectations.
Susquehanna lowered its target to $1.50 from $1.75 while reaffirming a neutral rating. A day earlier, Craig-Hallum had cut its own target to $3.00 from $5.00 but kept a buy recommendation, citing uncertainty over the schedule for those electrolyser projects. The two houses therefore remain split on the stock itself — one neutral, one positive — even as both marked their estimates down.
What the quarter actually showed
The results themselves offered plenty for the bulls. Plug Power reported revenue of roughly $201 million for the third quarter of 2026, an increase of about 13% year on year. Gross margin improved to approximately minus 3%, a striking swing from roughly minus 68% in the same period a year earlier — an improvement of about 65 percentage points.
Cash consumption told a similar story. Net cash used in the quarter fell to about $28 million, down 54% from roughly $61 million in the second quarter of 2026. That figure, however, comes with an accounting caveat: the result included some $192 million in non-cash valuation gains.
Management left its full-year guidance untouched, reiterating expected revenue growth of 15% to 16% for 2026 and holding firm to its goal of positive EBITDAS in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Plug Power?
The bar management set for itself
That fourth-quarter pledge now functions as the clearest test of whether the operational improvement is durable rather than a single strong quarter. Rising revenue and a narrowing margin loss carry more weight when they arrive together; the combination is what gives the stabilization thesis any substance. Until the EBITDAS target is met, the progress deserves recognition, but confidence in its staying power still calls for discipline.
The analyst moves capture that tension neatly. Craig-Hallum’s reduced target and retained buy rating suggest the broker sees value in the operational trajectory while acknowledging that the electrolyser pipeline carries schedule risk. Susquehanna’s neutral stance and lower target point to a similar caution, expressed more conservatively.
For investors, the takeaway is less about any single quarter than about whether Plug Power can keep building on each step — converting a better margin and a lighter cash burn into results that hold.
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