Plug misses 2022 revenue growth target, CEO still confident

Image Credits: Plug Power Inc.

Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) on Wednesday further downgraded its top-line expectations for 2022 due to a delay in the completion of some larger projects, but its head expressed confidence that the company will be a USD-20-billion (EUR 18.4bn) enterprise in terms of revenue by 2030.

Initially, the US hydrogen technology major projected a year-on-year top-line rise of more than 80% before adjusting the growth guidance in November to 70%. Now, it forecasts full-year revenue growth of 45%-50%.

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“It was a tougher quarter than expected,” chief executive Andrew Marsh said on a conference call. “We did grow in the fourth quarter versus the fourth quarter of 2021 [by] 60%, but we run into some hiccups. [...] It’s really not a supply chain issue. It really had to do with the fact that the new products came out a little slower than we hoped, manufacturing had a few more issues than we hoped, but we feel that those issues have been overcome,” the CEO explained.

Marsh blamed the ramp-up of the new products for about two-thirds of the company’s missed revenue in 2022. The remaining one-third was the result of customers’ inability to finish construction on time, which should happen in the first quarter of 2023.

“I really like to reiterate, and this is an important point. We didn’t lose any backlog, we didn’t lose any deal. The business keeps on growing and that is why we remain confident in our goals for 2023 of USD 1.4 billion of revenue with 10% gross margin,” Marsh stressed and added that the Plug is looking to achieve break-even quarterly operating income in the next 12 months.

The table below shows the company’s mid-term financial targets as included in its latest presentation.