Blink Charging Expands Footprint With U-Go Stations Acquisition

One of the hottest stocks over the last month has been Blink Charging Co BLNK, with shares up over 290%.

What Happened: Blink Charging on Tuesday announced it's acquiring U-Go Stations, which includes a portfolio of 44 DCFC charging locations and grants for an additional 45 new stations. The stations are in 10 states and expand the network of Blink, which primarily owns West Coast locations.

“In addition to their existing charging locations at attractive locations such as hotels, gas stations, and auto dealerships, U-Go has substantial grant awards for more DCFC deployments in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Vermont,” said Blink COO Brendan Jones.

Thirty-one of the stations under the EVGo network will transition to the Blink network in the next 30 days. Thirteen of the charging stations that are not active will be evaluated for future upgrades.

The company said it looks forward to building out the granted stations in 2021.

Related Link: Cramer Advises Viewers On Ballard Power Systems, Blink Charging And More

Why It’s Important: On Monday, Blink was the target of a short report from Citron Research. The report said it's "insulting" to call Blink an electric vehicle stock and called the company a "total scheme." Citron mentioned price targets of $10 and $1 for Blink over the short and long term.

The report also highlighted peer ChargePoint, which is set to go public via SPAC Switchback Energy Acquisition Corporation SBE. Citron said ChargePoint has a similar valuation to Blink, but has a much larger 73% market share.

Blink reported third-quarter revenue of $900,000 and nine-month revenue of $3.8 million earlier this month.

The U-Go acquisition could be the first of several done by Blink to help offset the allegations from Citron on market share and revenue.

Price Action: Blink shares were down 16% to $28.33 on Tuesday. Shares are up over 1,700% year-to-date.

Switchback shares hit new all-time highs of $42.30 Tuesday before closing up 8% to $36.82.

Disclosure: The author has a long position in SBE.