Bloom Energy Doubles Quarterly Revenue, Losses Continue

Fuel cell market leader Bloom Energy had its first quarterly financial disclosure as a public company this week — although there was no earnings call because of the post-IPO quiet period.
 
In light of CEO K.R. Sridhar's verbal missteps of late (more on that below), Bloom may have dodged a bullet.
 
As a refresher, late last month Bloom sold 18 million shares at $15 each, at the height of the price range, generating $270 million and valuing the firm at more than $2 billion. Shares closed at $28.15 on Wednesday. For now, the market seems to really like Bloom's story.

The company's second quarter results were strong when it came to revenue and the usual story when it came to losses.
 
Bloom had Q2 revenue of $168.9 million — on the high end of its guidance, flat compared to last quarter, and up 95 percent year-over-year. Losses for the quarter were $37.9 million.
 
Here are the takeaways from the shareholder letter:

• Bloom's installed base has grown to 328 megawatts
• The firm is seeing healthy demand in data center and healthcare markets
• Installation began in South Korea on an 8.4 megawatt project with KOEN, a KEPCO firm
• Bloom manufactured its one-millionth solid-oxide fuel cell stack
• Total installed system cost is $5,607 per kilowatt

When we interviewed Matt Ross, Blooms' executive VP and CMO last month, he said the stock jumped because the market understands the story. Investors are seeing rapid growth, significant customer adoption and a major expansion in data center sales. Ross said his customers are looking for greater reliability and resiliency than the grid can provide.
 
According to the S-1 form, Bloom had a product backlog of 108 megawatts, valued at $743 million, at the end of the first quarter.