Key Highlights

  • About 31% of FuelCell Energy's (FCEL) float is sold short, with roughly 2.6 to 3.2 days to cover.
  • State Street Corp. bought 1,910,356 FCEL shares.
  • Barclays started coverage at Equal Weight on Sept. 24, saying the pipeline is not yet converting into orders.

FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ:FCEL) rose 2.2% to $16.75 in pre-market trading after State Street disclosed buying 1,910,356 shares, putting a big institutional name behind a stock where 31.1% of the float is sold short. With AI data centers hungry for on-site power, fuel cells are back in focus, but lawsuits and a new neutral rating from Barclays keep the bears active.

FuelCell's 31.1 percent short interest means nearly a third of its tradable shares have been borrowed and sold by investors betting on a decline, one of the more heavily shorted positions among clean-energy names right now. What tempers the squeeze potential is speed: at roughly three days to cover, the average time it would take those short sellers to exit, FCEL's shorts can close their positions relatively quickly if the stock keeps climbing. That combination, a large short base but a fast exit, means good news could still spark a sharp move, just not necessarily the kind of prolonged, forced buying that defines the most extreme squeezes.

The bull case centers on power demand. FuelCell's SureSource plants provide round-the-clock baseload electricity and hydrogen, a pitch that has gained traction as AI data centers look for power sources outside the strained grid. The bear case: law firm Robbins LLP is investigating claims that the company misled investors on Manufacturing capacity, and securities class actions have been reported.

FuelCell Energy (FCEL) Diverges From Clean Energy Peers

Clean energy peers rose, with Shoals up 2.8%, Fluence 1.6% and Amprius 1.6%, while FCEL's session move was -4.6% before the pre-market rebound. FuelCell is up year-to-date but down over the past month. Its 52-week range is $5.71 to $37.88, showing how violently the stock can move, and the market Capitalization is about $1.33 billion.

FCEL Technical Levels

The 14-day RSI is 44.7. RSI measures buying versus selling pressure on a 0 to 100 scale, and a reading in the mid-40s is neutral, leaving room for a move either way.

For squeeze traders, the key is whether the stock can hold its pre-market gain and break above recent resistance on heavy volume, the usual trigger for short covering.

Analyst View

The consensus rating is Buy, with an average target of about $20.33, about 21% above the pre-market price.

Peers Moving on This News