NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR) Stock Price Down 11% After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE:SMR) fell 11% during trading on Thursday after Zacks Research downgraded the stock from a hold rating to a strong sell rating. The stock traded as low as $22.77 and last traded at $23.0980. 27,367,866 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 92% from the average session volume of 14,238,435 shares. The stock had previously closed at $25.96.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on SMR. Bank of America reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $34.00 price objective (down previously from $38.00) on shares of NuScale Power in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Citigroup restated a “sell” rating and set a $37.50 price target (down previously from $46.00) on shares of NuScale Power in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. BNP Paribas lowered shares of NuScale Power from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of NuScale Power from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane lowered NuScale Power from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $37.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NuScale Power news, Director Corp Fluor sold 2,372,563 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.99, for a total transaction of $104,369,046.37. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 10,085,344 shares in the company, valued at $443,654,282.56. This represents a 19.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 15,030,641 shares of company stock worth $605,953,415. 1.27% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of NuScale Power

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SMR. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NuScale Power by 6.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,940,535 shares of the company’s stock worth $126,598,000 after buying an additional 512,618 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in NuScale Power by 20.3% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 6,841,836 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,880,000 after acquiring an additional 1,153,158 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in NuScale Power by 67.2% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,287,814 shares of the company’s stock valued at $190,362,000 after purchasing an additional 2,125,250 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in NuScale Power by 25.2% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,854,664 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,944,000 after purchasing an additional 574,295 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in NuScale Power by 37.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,736,187 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,244,000 after purchasing an additional 746,667 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.37% of the company’s stock.

NuScale Power Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.39. The company has a market capitalization of $6.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.84 and a beta of 2.03.

NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($1.85) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by ($1.74). NuScale Power had a negative net margin of 594.63% and a negative return on equity of 51.27%. The company had revenue of $8.24 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.29 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.18) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1635.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that NuScale Power Corporation will post -0.73 earnings per share for the current year.

NuScale Power Company Profile

NuScale Power Corporation engages in the development and sale of modular light water reactor nuclear power plants to supply energy for electrical generation, district heating, desalination, hydrogen production, and other process heat applications. It offers NuScale Power Module (NPM), a water reactor that can generate 77 megawatts of electricity (MWe); and VOYGR power plant designs for three facility sizes that are capable of housing from one to four and six or twelve NPMs.