Westport Fuel Systems delivered a better-than-expected 4Q performance, driven by strength in original equipment manufacturer (OEM) sales. Shares of the alternative fuel systems and components provider were up about 6% in the pre-market trading session today.
Westport Fuel’s (WPRT) revenue jumped 13% year-over-year to hit $83.9 million, topping analysts’ estimates of $69.3 million. On the back of continued growth in HPDI 2.0 sales volume and higher light-duty OEM sales, the company saw a 32% jump in its OEM segment revenue.
Driven by lower operating costs, higher investment income and forex gains, the company posted earnings of $0.03 per share, exceededing analysts’ expectations of $0.00 per share.
The company’s CEO David M. Johnson said, “Despite the challenges of COVID-19, our team showed resilience and an ongoing commitment to providing exceptional service to our global customers. We made substantial progress on our business objectives this year, including engine certification in China, growth in key geographies like Europe and India, and strengthened the balance sheet and our overall liquidity.”
Westport Fuel plans to expand its manufacturing capacity through its vendor supplier network as well as its own manufacturing capability to address higher customer demand.
Significantly, this month, the company successfully started up and conducted an initial test of a heavy-duty internal combustion engine running on hydrogen fuel, with preliminary results validating its combustion simulations. Westport Fuel plans to review technical details at the Vienna motor symposium, which is scheduled to take place on April 29-30. (See Westport Fuel stock analysis on TipRanks)
Recently, Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch assigned the stock a Buy rating with a target price of $10 (2.4% downside potential).
Commenting on Westport’s research project focused on the viability of its High Pressure Direct Injection (HPDI) technology for use with hydrogen in ICE vehicles, Rusch said, “Should the technology get proven out, WPRT’s growth opportunity becomes substantially larger and derisked as it would have both low emissions and zero emissions solutions to offer customers.”
Turning to the rest of the Street, Westport Fuel has a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 3 unanimous Buys alongside an average analyst price target of $11.50, indicating a potential 12.2% upside from current levels.
Shares have risen by a massive 632% over the past year and are going to be added to the S&P/TSX Composite index from March 22.
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