Shares in X-Energy (XE), the small modular reactor (SMR) manufacturer backed by tech giant Amazon (AMZN), gained over 2% early Friday, building on a similar advance posted on Thursday. The rally comes as the Maryland-based company has expanded its partnership roster with a deal with utility holding company PPL Corporation (PPL).
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New trading tool for SMR bulls/bearsXE Stock Plunges after Public Debut
X-Energy went public last Friday, raising $1 billion from its initial public offering on Nasdaq. XE stock debuted at an offer price of $23 but reached $34.11 on its first trading day, closing over 23% higher.
However, shares in X-Energy — which already boasts nuclear energy deployment agreements with Amazon, specialty chemical producer Dow (DOW), and British energy services company Centrica (CPYYY) — soon started to unravel. The shares fell by 5.20% on April 28 and sank further by 8.88% the following day.
X-Energy Secures New Deal to Deploy SMRs
Now, X-Energy’s new deal is boosting investor confidence again. Moreover, bullish comments by the United Nations’ climate secretary about how the ongoing U.S.-Israel-Iran war is “supercharging” renewable and clean energy gave a strong boost to SMR rivals Oklo (OKLO) and NuScale Power (SMR) on Thursday.
Under the arrangement, X-Energy will work with PPL Corporation’s subsidiaries Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities (KU) to deploy its Xe-100 SMRs across Kentucky to meet the growing energy demand in the U.S. state. The deployment is also expected to support large-load customers, including data centers.
‘One of the Safest Nuclear Designs’
Already, the companies have started to take early steps to evaluate the feasibility of the deployment. The collaboration comes as Andy Beshear, governor of Kentucky, this month signed the Nuclear Reactor Site Readiness Pilot Program.
The program plans to offer $25 million each to three projects to support nuclear site feasibility studies as well as construction permit and licensing efforts.
“The X-Energy Xe-100 reactor is one of the Gen 4 nuclear SMRs being developed in the U.S. today and is one of the safest nuclear designs on the market today,” noted John R. Crockett III, president for LG&E and KU.
Which Is the Best Nuclear Stock to Buy?
X-Energy does not yet have analyst coverage on Wall Street. However, TipRanks’ Stock Comparison tool shows NuScale Power (SMR) offers the biggest upside of roughly 31%.
This is based on an average price target of $16.30 and comes with a Moderate Buy consensus rating.
