TLDR
- NuScale Power hit a new 52-week low of $8.85 after Director Corp Fluor sold 13.5M shares for ~$163M on April 9
- Fluor’s sale cut its stake by 33.8%, leaving it with 26.4M shares still held
- Multiple class-action lawsuits are active, tied to ENTRA1 disclosure allegations claiming investors lost ~70%
- Q4 earnings missed badly â EPS came in at ($0.80) vs. the ($0.10) estimate, with revenue of $1.81M against $8.76M expected
- The stock rebounded 11.90% on April 14 as traders bought the dip, with eyes on the May 7 earnings call
NuScale Power has had a rough stretch. The stock dropped to a new 52-week low of $8.85 on April 14 before bouncing back sharply by 11.90% as dip buyers stepped in.
NuScale Power Corporation, SMR
The catalyst for the slide was a large insider sale. On April 9, Director Corp Fluor sold 13.5 million shares at an average price of $12.07, bringing in roughly $162.9 million. That cut Fluor’s stake by 33.8%, leaving it with around 26.4 million shares.
The size and timing of that sale rattled investors. A director cutting a third of its position in one move tends to raise questions.
The stock last traded at $9.59 on April 14, down sharply from its 200-day moving average of $21.41. It also sits well below the 50-day moving average of $12.56. Year-to-date, SMR is down 32.39%.
Legal Pressure Adds to the Overhang
On top of the insider sale, NuScale is facing multiple class-action lawsuits. Several law firms â including Faruqi & Faruqi, Rosen Law, and Levi & Korsinsky â have filed or announced investigations related to the ENTRA1 disclosure. Lead-plaintiff deadlines are set for April 20.
Plaintiffs allege that ENTRA1 “veterans” had no active nuclear projects and claim investors lost around 70% as a result. The legal noise is keeping sentiment under pressure.
NuScale’s most recent earnings didn’t help. For Q4, the company reported EPS of ($0.80), missing the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by $0.70. Revenue came in at $1.81 million, well below the $8.76 million analysts had expected. The company carries a negative net margin of 1,130.26%.
Analysts Are Split
Wall Street isn’t in agreement on where SMR goes from here. The average analyst rating sits at Hold, with an average price target of $20.96 â still more than double the current price.
Barclays cut its target from $45 to $15 with an Equal Weight rating. Goldman Sachs trimmed its target from $20 to $14, keeping a Neutral rating. B. Riley holds a Buy with a $24 target. Texas Capital went the other way, upgrading to Strong Buy in January.
On the institutional side, several big names were actually adding in recent quarters. Vanguard raised its position by 40.5% in Q4. Morgan Stanley increased its stake by 81%. Van ECK nearly doubled its holdings, up 117.8%.
Institutional investors now own 78.37% of the stock.
The April 14 rebound appeared driven by short covering and dip-buying. Traders are looking ahead to the May 7 earnings call, where investors hope for updates on the project pipeline and any new contract news.
Trading volume on April 14 hit over 25 million shares, well above the average of 23.8 million.
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