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Credit Suisse analyst Maheep Mandloi launched coverage of electric-vehicle-charging company EVgo with a Buy rating and an $11 price target.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Electric vehicles are poised to take over as the dominant source of personal transportation. All the coming EVs will need somewhere to plug in. That’s good news for EV-charging stocks.
And EV charging company
EVgo
(ticker: EVGO) picked up a new Buy rating on Tuesday. Credit Suisse analyst Maheep Mandloi launched coverage of the company with a Buy rating and an $11 price target.
The positive take has shares on the move. EVgo stock is up 4.1% in early trading to $7.58 a share. The
S&P 500
and
Dow Jones Industrial Average
are up about 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively.
“EVgo is a U.S. market leader in building direct current…fast chargers for passenger and commercial electric vehicles,” writes Mandoli in a Tuesday report. He likes the company’s market position and first-mover advantage. “EVgo benefits from rapidly growing EV adoption, supportive policies and potential incentives for the industry under the infrastructure bill…and an attractive valuation after recent pull back.”
EVgo stock has hit a rocky patch. Shares are down 43% over the past three months. The market capitalization is down to about $2 billion. Mandoli sees sales growing from roughly $20 million in 2021 to more than $1.2 billion by 2027. In 2027, he projects $340 million in operating profit and $120 million in free cash flow by then.
Over that span, the number of EVs on U.S. roads should grow from about 2 million to 20 million. There are about 276 million cars, trucks, motorcycles and buses on U.S. roads today.
Wall Street overall is split on EVgo stock. Three analysts rate shares at Buy, while three others have Hold ratings, for a Buy-rating ratio of 50%. The average Buy-rating ratio for small-capitalization stocks is about 60%.
ChargePoint
(CHPT) is the Street’s favorite EV-charging stock with a Buy-rating ratio north of 70%.
Volta
(VLTA) has 100% Buy-rating ratio, but only one analyst covers it.
WallBox, Tritium and EV Box haven’t wrapped up special-purpose-acquisition-company mergers yet—all three have little or no analyst coverage yet. That’s typical for companies that haven’t completed SPAC mergers.
Beam Global
(BEEM) and
Blink Charging
(BLNK) both have 50% Buy-rating ratios.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com