FuelCell Energy (FCEL 7.00%) stock jumped 7% through 11:10 a.m. ET Wednesday on what appears to be rather ho-hum news. This morning, the manufacturer of stationary fuel cells for off-grid power production set a date for reporting its Q4 2024 earnings results. Earnings will come out next Thursday, Dec. 19, at 10 a.m. ET.

Time for a reset at FuelCell

Next Thursday will be a big day for FuelCell, as the company has been undergoing some big changes. On Nov. 7, FuelCell announced plans to revive its lagging stock price and avoid Nasdaq delisting by running a 1-for-30 reverse stock split. This traded one high-priced FuelCell share for every 30 penny stock FuelCell shares its investors were holding at the time.

Had FuelCell not reverse-split its shares, investors who hold one FuelCell share worth $12 today would instead own 30 shares costing about $0.40 each.

One week later, FuelCell took the next step of announcing cost cuts and growth initiatives to (hopefully) get its stock price moving higher a bit less artificially. Aiming to "significantly reduce operating costs" by about 15% in 2025, FuelCell said it would lay off 17% of its workers and slash its research and development spending -- at the same time as it works to develop new markets for selling CO2 to the food and beverage industry, and make new investments in "molten carbonate technology" and "solid oxide technology" as well.

Is FuelCell stock a buy?

Can FuelCell successfully make these kinds of technological advancements even as it cuts spending on R&D? I admit I'm skeptical -- but FuelCell still needs to try.

Analyst forecasts for the upcoming earnings report see FuelCell reporting as much as $6.90 in per-share losses for fiscal 2024 (i.e., FuelCell will lose roughly half of what its own stock is now worth), on a 17% decline in sales. All the R&D in the world won't make much difference if FuelCell runs out of money and has to close up shop.

Here's hoping next week's earnings show the company is making some progress.