Plug Power Revenue, Fuel Cell Demand Soar

Plug Power Inc's quarterly revenue more than doubled, beating the average analyst estimate, helped by a rise in demand from customers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which uses its hydrogen fuel cells to power forklifts.

Shares of Plug Power, which also turned a net profit for the first time due to a gain on stock warrants, rose about 7 percent to $6.23 in premarket trading.

The company said it deployed its first hydrogen fuel cell unit at a Wal-Mart site in the second quarter. Wal-Mart has placed orders for such units at seven sites.

Plug Power said it expects "a plethora of global opportunities" from the auto-manufacturing market as its customers begin to use hydrogen fuel cells at manufacturing sites worldwide.

Plug Power customers such as Daimler AG (DDAIF) and BMW AG use fuel cells to power forklifts and other material handling devices at their warehouses.

The Latham, New York-based company shipped 687 fuel-cell units in the quarter ended June 30, higher than the 650 it had forecast earlier.

Rivals Hydrogenics and Ballard Power Systems Inc also reported smaller quarterly losses, helped by rising demand for fuel cells used in forklifts, telecom networks and power backup systems.

Plug Power's second-quarter revenue rose 131 percent to $17.32 million. Analysts on average had expected $16.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net income was $3.8 million, or 2 cents per share, in the second quarter, compared with a net loss of $9.3 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding the gain, the company reported a loss of 4 cents per share, matching estimates.

Reporting by Sneha Banerjee and Shubhankar Chakravorty