Oklo Stock: Buy, Sell or Hold?

This little microweactor company still has a lot to prove.

Oklo (Oklo -21.71%?A nuclear power start supported by Openai CEO Sam Altman was published by merging with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) on May 10, 2024. The share opened to $ 15.50 on its first day, but eventually threw himself and closed to $ 8.45.

Oklo’s stock eventually sank to a lowest time of $ 5.59 on September 3rd, but it then rose to about $ 42 from this writing. The massive rally would have reversed an investment of $ 10,000 to more than $ 75,000 in less than five months. Let’s take a closer look at Oklo’s business and see if it’s the right time to buy, sell or keep this unstable stock.

A digital illustration of trading screens.

Image source: Getty Images.

What does Oklo do?

Oklo was founded in 2013 by my candidates Jacob Dewitte and Caroline Cochran. Sam Altman, who owned a share of 2.6% in the company at the time of his public debut, served as CEO for three years before handing over the reins to Dewitte in 2024. Altman stays aboard as the company’s chairman and is still the most person closely associated with his brand.

Oklo develops microreactors running on metallic uranium fuel, which is closer and cheaper to produce than traditional uranium fuel pellets. This process produces minimal carbon emissions, while traditional nuclear power plants can emit between 2 to 130 tonnes of CO2 per year. Gigawatt Time (GWH) produced energy.

Oklo’s flagship microreactor, Aurora, costs $ 70 million and can generate 15 megawatts (MWE) electricity. In comparison, the construction cost of a traditional nuclear reactor is $ 5,500 to $ 8,100 per year. Kilowatt (KWE), so it would cost $ 82.5 million to $ 121.5 million to build a comparable 15 MWE reactor. Oklos Aurora reactors can be scaled up to 50 MWE, and they can operate for more than 10 years without being thought.

Oklo began collaborating with the US Nuclear Regulations Commission (NRC) back in 2016. The US Ministry of Energy (DOE) then approved its permission to build its first reactor in Idaho in 2019, and Doe gave it additional design and environmental approvals compared to after year. However, it does not expect to bring its first reactor online until 2027.

So how do we appreciate Oklo’s stock?

Without any turnover, Oklo is a difficult company to appreciate correctly. Nor did it present any long -term revenue or surplus forecasts during its pre -municipal presentation in 2023. Therefore, it is difficult to see if this company has a business value of $ 4.5 billion, is underestimated or overrated.

Bulls believe its revenue will increase when it exposes its first reactors and scales its business. It should also benefit from the expansion of the adjacent small modular reactor (SMR) market. Big Tech companies like Alphabet‘s Google and Amazon Already ramps their investments in SMRs to support their rapid expanding data centers, and recently DOE green -lit up to $ 900 million in cost sharing funds to develop more SMRs.

Over the past year, Oklo has signed new data center partnerships with the US government as well as Natural Gas and Backup Solutions provider RPOWER. It is also supposed to explore a potential partnership with Nuclear Fuel Company Lightbridge (Ltbr -16.56%?. All of these offers – which caused its pipeline (as measured by its declaration of intent) to about triple to 2,100 MW since July 2023 – could create some regular foundations to quickly expand its business beyond its initial project in Idaho.

With a single microweactor of $ 70 million that generates 15 MW electricity, 2,100 MW power would be translated into approx. $ 9.8 billion in sales for Oklo. Still, it could take years before it actually recognizes all these revenue – and it will continue to collect losses and burn more cash until it happens. On the bright side, Oklo does not go bankrupt soon as it ended its last quarter with $ 288.5 million in cash and equivalents with a low debt-to-earity ratio of 0.1.

Unfortunately, Oklo’s insiders and top investors do not seem so enthusiastic about its future. Its insiders were Netto sellers over the past three months, while Cathie Woods Ark Invest has cropped its ETFs’ positions in Oklo since last October.

Is it time to buy, sell or keep Oklo’s stock?

Oklo, like Smr Builder Nuscale Power (Smr -17.91%?is still a very speculative investment. Its technology sounds incredible, but I wouldn’t touch its high -flying stock until I see that it makes some more progress towards implementing its first reactor. Its pipeline certainly looks healthy with so many intentions, but these letters are not one’s guaranteed revenue yet. Therefore, this is still a stock to either sell or avoid until it is almost term hype cool.

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, a director of Alphabet, is a member of Motley Fool’s Board of Director. Leo Sun has positions in Amazon. Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Amazon. Motley Fool recommends Nuscale Power. Motley Fool has a dismissal policy.