Plug Power (PLUG) closed the latest trading day at $1.57, indicating a -1.26% change from the previous session's end. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.47%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.37%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.35%.

Heading into today, shares of the alternative energy company had lost 18.46% over the past month, lagging the Industrial Products sector's loss of 8.18% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.78% in that time.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Plug Power in its upcoming release. On that day, Plug Power is projected to report earnings of -$0.23 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 78.5%. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $260.18 million, indicating a 17.11% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Plug Power. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 2.85% decrease. Plug Power is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

The Manufacturing - Electronics industry is part of the Industrial Products sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 81, finds itself in the top 33% echelons of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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Plug Power, Inc. (PLUG) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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