Should GE Try To Acquire FuelCell Or Plug Power In 2021?

Every week, Benzinga conducts a survey to collect sentiment on what traders are most excited about, interested in or thinking about as they manage and build their personal portfolios.

This week we posed the following question to over 1,000 traders and investors on whether General Electric Company GE should acquire a clean energy manufacturing company:

• Over the next year, should GE buy FuelCell or Plug Power?
• Buy FuelCell Energy Inc FCEL?
• Buy Plug Power Inc PLUG?
• Buy Neither?

About GE

General Electric is known for its digital industrial offerings and massive installed base spread across a variety of products and services, including aircraft engines, gas turbines, wind turbines, and medical diagnostic equipment, among others.

After the sale of GE Transportation to Wabtec and a majority of its stake in Baker Hughes, as well as the sale of GE Biopharma to Danaher, the company's focus turns to aviation, legacy healthcare, power and renewable energy.

The Boston-based conglomerate’s market cap comes in at nearly $100 billion, more than double FuelCell ($7.7 billion) and Plug Power’s ($32.7 billion) market caps combined.

See Also: How To Buy GE Stock

Sentiment was extremely tight for this study. Our survey revealed 39% think GE should complete an M&A deal with FuelCell in 2021.

FuelCell Energy designs manufactures, sells, installs, operates, and services fuel-cell products, which efficiently convert chemical energy in fuels into electricity through a series of chemical reactions.

Meanwhile, 43% believe GE would be better served acquiring Plug Power by the end of the year.

Plug Power provides hydrogen fuel cell turnkey solutions for the electric mobility and stationary power markets in North America and Europe. The clean energy company focuses on proton exchange membrane fuel cell and fuel processing technologies, fuel cell and battery hybrid technologies and related hydrogen storage and dispensing infrastructure.

Plug Power garnered an abundance of attention from investors in 2020 for its GenDrive system, a hydrogen-fueled PEM fuel cell system that provides power to material handling electric vehicles.

Only 18% thought GE should not acquire either clean energy manufacturing company in 2021.

This survey was conducted by Benzinga in February 2021 and included the responses of a diverse population of adults 18 or older.

Opting into the survey was completely voluntary, with no incentives offered to potential respondents. The study reflects results from over 1,000 adults.