Bloom Energy rises 8% after S&P 500 inclusion

Bloom Energy’s stock climbed about 8% after S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the company will join the S&P 500, with the change taking effect on Sept. 21. The announcement came after Friday’s market close and is set to place Bloom in the benchmark index ahead of next month’s rebalancing.

UBS analyst Manav Gupta raised his price target to $325 from $300 while maintaining a Buy rating; the new target implied more than 28% upside from the prior close. Gupta noted that S&P 500 inclusions have historically produced a meaningful increase in passive ownership as index funds purchase shares of newly added companies.

Bloom is the first energy company added to the S&P 500 since 2022. The company was selected over other candidates under consideration for the slot on the index.

Demand for on-site power has grown with the rapid buildout of artificial intelligence data centers, where securing a traditional transmission connection to a regional grid can take four to seven years and operators face equipment backlogs. Bloom supplies factory-built solid-oxide fuel cell systems that can run on natural gas, biogas or hydrogen and can be installed on-site in roughly three to four months, offering an alternative to lengthy grid hookups.

In 2024 Bloom delivered a fuel cell power system for an Oracle cloud infrastructure AI data center in 55 days. On the company’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO K.R. Sridhar said that “over a dozen US neoclouds, AI labs and colocation data center operators have validated and approved our power solutions.”

Bloom reported quarterly revenue above $1 billion for the first time in the second quarter and raised its full-year revenue forecast to $3.9 billion to $4.2 billion, with the midpoint about double the prior year. Management also projects full-year non-GAAP operating income between $800 million and $900 million.

The company expanded its financing and project partnerships as deployments grow. Brookfield Asset Management increased its project financing framework with Bloom from $5 billion to $25 billion. Industrial Development Funding, together with Oaktree, MUFG and Morgan Stanley, arranged a $1.7 billion project investment to support Bloom fuel cell deployments for Nebius’ AI infrastructure. Bloom introduced a product called Power Connect that the company says cuts on-site power installation time by more than 40%.

Analysts forecast earnings per share of $2.67 for the current year, up from $0.76 in 2025, and expect continued EPS growth in the coming years. The stock was trading at about 94 times projected earnings. With index funds set to add shares ahead of the Sept. 21 inclusion, analysts and market participants say passive buying should increase demand, and retail investors may seek exposure through brokerage platforms.