Key Takeaways:
Fuel cell stocks are giving back gains on Tuesday as traders book profits from multi-hundred-percent rallies, even as each of the three major names carries fresh positive news.
Shares of FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ:FCEL) fell 10% to $26.89 in midday trading, leading a coordinated sell-off across hydrogen and fuel cell names. Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) slid 8% to $271.32, while Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) dropped 5% to $2.50. The declines arrived on a broadly weak tape, with the Nasdaq 100 down 1.3%.
"Today's move is a textbook profit-taking event after an extraordinary run," said Lucas Herrera, energy transition analyst at Edgen. "The fundamental catalysts are still intact — the Brookfield expansion for Bloom, the Australian hydrogen order for Plug, the pipeline growth at FuelCell — but when stocks have tripled or quadrupled, a single risk-off session can trigger a 10% pullback without any change in the operating story."
The sell-off came despite a string of bullish developments. Bloom Energy and Brookfield Asset Management expanded their AI-infrastructure partnership to $25 billion, up from the initial $5 billion announced last October. The joint venture aims to deliver onsite power for hyperscalers and AI data centers, marking the clearest institutional validation yet of Bloom's data-center power thesis. Plug Power won a 50-megawatt electrolyzer order tied to Orica's Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub in Australia, the largest Australian renewable-hydrogen project to reach final investment decision. FuelCell Energy had ridden a stack of catalysts into month-end, including Russell index inclusion and a $49 million EXIM financing deal to support deployments in South Korea.
The 2026 runs that set up the pullback
Bloom Energy has been the standout of the trio. Shares are up more than 1,000% over the past year, powered by the AI power-demand thesis and successive guidance raises. Management lifted fiscal 2026 revenue guidance to $3.4 billion to $3.8 billion after first-quarter non-GAAP earnings per share blew past estimates. The company reported a net profit of $70.6 million in the first quarter, a sharp reversal from a $23.8 million net loss in the year-ago period.
FuelCell Energy shares carried a triple-digit percentage gain into Tuesday's session. The company's sales pipeline grew to 4 gigawatts, up 267% from the first quarter of 2026, with data centers making up roughly 90% of proposals. Chief Executive Officer Jason Few has anchored the strategy on a standardized 12.5 MW Energy Block aimed squarely at AI power demand.
Plug Power has lagged the group but still climbed 79% over the past year off multi-year lows. First-quarter revenue rose 22% year over year to $163.5 million, and management is targeting positive EBITDAS by the fourth quarter of 2026 and full profitability by the end of 2028.
What the sell-off means for investors
Composite sentiment gauges still lean positive on the group. Readings sit at 65, or bullish, on FCEL; 64, or bullish, on BE; and 58, or neutral, on PLUG. Reddit chatter on Bloom Energy stayed in the 76-to-78 bullish range over the long weekend, suggesting retail investors are not panicking on the drawdown.
The bull case for the group remains intact. Bloom Energy's expanded Brookfield joint venture, Plug Power's Australian electrolyzer order, and FuelCell Energy's growing data center pipeline all point to real revenue tied to the AI hyperscaler build-out. The secular trend of data center operators seeking onsite power generation has not changed.
However, these are unprofitable, high-volatility names. FuelCell Energy's trailing earnings per share sits near negative $6.20 with no meaningful price-to-earnings ratio. Plug Power still runs at deeply negative gross margins. Bloom Energy's valuation now embeds heroic growth assumptions after a 10x rally. When names like these post multi-hundred-percent runs, single-session drawdowns of this magnitude come with the territory. Investors should consider keeping position sizes modest across this cohort given the swings, as a single risk-off session shows how quickly sentiment can flip on stocks trading more on momentum than earnings.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
