The stock's daily moves, both up and down, are not for the faint-hearted:
That's a pretty big gap-up between April 21 and 22. (almost $85)
And the headline story from Al Root at Barron's, April 28:
GE Vernova GEV -2.79% stock has had a tremendous run, leaving Wall Street analysts with choices: raise price targets, upgrade, or downgrade.
BNP Paribas opted for the latter.
GE Vernova stock hit new 52-week highs this past week after reporting strong first-quarter results. Shares jumped nearly 14% on Wednesday. Coming into the week, Vernova stock was up 209% over the past 12 months, boosted by red-hot demand for power generation equipment.
Electricity demand is rising faster than it has in a generation, thanks in part to power-hungry AI data centers being built around the country.
Wall Street reacted to GE Vernova’s quarter by raising price targets. The average target is currently about $1,179 a share, up from more than $210, or 22%, from $968 before earnings.
The stock’s rise has also brought a couple of downgrades. The latest is from BNP Paribas analyst Moses Sutton, who cut his rating to Hold from Buy. Things are good, but GE Vernova has essentially sold out its turbine capacity through the end of the decade, making further growth more difficult.
“The journey from [a 2024] $40 billion market cap to greater than $300 billion was enabled by GE Vernova continuously upping the bar—contracting out one to two years to four to five years of expanded gas turbine capacity at rising prices,” wrote Sutton. “With capacity 90%-plus contracted through 2030, it’s becoming difficult to underwrite [stock] momentum….”
His new target price is $1,190, up from $765. Shares were below that latter level as recently as February....
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Also at Barron's, Friday April 24:
GE Vernova Gets Another Price Target Hike. Wall Street Is Chasing the Stock.
That was the day after GEV set its all-time intraday and closing high prices.
Pretty good timing for both Mr. Root's headline comments.
