PLUG hit a new 52-week high today and closed up 13.7%:
Plug Power chairman buys 200,000 shares, pushing stock price up 9 percent
Chelsea Diana ReporterAlbany Business Review
Sep 19, 2017, 11:37am EDT Updated Sep 19, 2017, 2:05pm EDT
George McNamee, chairman of Plug Power's board of directors, purchased 200,000 shares of Plug stock worth more than $426,000 in September.
McNamee now owns 661,131 shares of Plug’s common stock, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure filed on Monday.
McNamee, a former chairman of First Albany Cos. and Mechanical Technology Inc., has invested in Plug Power since the Latham, New York, fuel cell manufacturer was founded in 1997. He is the 14th largest shareholder of Plug.
Following the disclosure, Plug Power's stock increased more than 9 percent, closing at $2.47 on Monday. Tuesday morning the stock was selling around $2.40.
Plug Power (NASDAQ: PLUG) makes fuel cells, called GenDrive, used to power forklifts in warehouses and distribution centers. Fuel cells are seen as an alternative to lead-acid batteries. As part of the package, Plug offers hydrogen fueling stations called GenFuel to attract more recurring revenue. The full system is called GenKey.
CEO Andy Marsh has been working to make Plug profitable for the first time in 20 years. He came to Plug Power in 2008 with an overhauled business plan and has spent the last nine years converting Plug from a research company into a manufacturer.
Plug Power made moves toward that goal this year in new agreements with Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN) and Wal-Mart(NYSE: WMT). Revenues from those commercial agreements are expected to be about $70 million and $80 million, respectively, in 2017.
Today, Plug has more than 15,500 fuel cells powering industrial electric vehicles for some of the largest companies in the world, including Home Depot, Nike and Carrefour, Europe's largest big-box store.
It is one of the largest manufacturers in the Albany area, employing more than 400 engineers, researchers and technologists. Plug is also one of the area's few public companies.
Plug had $85.9 million in revenue in 2016. Marsh has a goal to increase revenue by 50 percent in 2017 to $130 million.
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