Shares of Oklo (OKLO 1.61%), a start-up developer of “micro” nuclear reactors, suffered a downgrade to neutral at the hands of Seaport Global analyst Jeff Campbell, as StreetInsider.com reports today.
The stock fell nearly 6% in early trading, but as of 10:40 a.m., trades down only 1.3%.
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Valuation matters
Oklo stock has been on a tear this year, rising nearly 16-fold over 12 months, and Campbell acknowledged the company’s recent groundbreaking for its first nuclear reactor pilot project at Idaho National Laboratory is a positive for the stock.
Nevertheless, the rapid rise of Oklo stock — in the absence of profit, or indeed revenue, and with most analysts forecasting nothing but losses for the next five years — does give the analyst pause.
Says Campbell: “While we continue to see a number of positives in Oklo’s business development, we are stepping to the sidelines for now, based on the current stock valuation.”
How much is Oklo stock worth?
That’s a curious statement, though. As I just mentioned, Oklo stock is up 15x in value over 12 months, and now costs more than $20 billion.
Campbell apparently thinks this is too much to pay for the stock, but the question must be asked: $20 billion is too much to pay for a start-up stock with no profits. Agreed.
But what about when Oklo stock cost half as much as it did today — $69 a share? Wasn’t $10 billion also too much to pay for a profitless stock? Or how about half that amount — $34.50? Was $5 billion perhaps too much to pay?
The thing that should worry Oklo investors today: Once Oklo stock stops skyrocketing and investors start questioning the valuation, there’s almost no limit to how low this stock could go.
Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
