FCEL’s Short Interest Is At A 2026 High, Earnings Miss Estimates – So Why Does One Analyst See Nearly 100% Upside?

• The firm said there are enough data points to suggest that a ‘transformative data center deal is within reach.’
• The brokerage also said it has greater conviction about the company’s ‘data center dreams’ materializing.
• FuelCell’s second-quarter revenue came below Wall Street’s expectations while its loss widened.

Shares of FuelCell Energy (FCEL) rose more than 10% in premarket trading on Tuesday after a bullish analyst call boosted investor sentiment, putting the clean-energy stock on course to snap a four-session losing streak. 

The bullish call helped overshadow a disappointing second-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street expectations and comes as bearish bets against the stock sit at their highest level of 2026. 

The sharp four-day sell-off resulted in a 37% erosion in FCEL’s stock value.

Why Is FCEL Stock Rising Today?

On Tuesday, Canaccord upgraded FuelCell Energy to ‘Buy’ from Hold and raised its price target to $30 from $12, according to The Fly. This represents a near 100% potential upside to the stock’s closing price on Monday.

The firm backed FuelCell’s potential in the data center market over the coming years. There are enough data points to suggest that a “transformative data center deal is within reach” for FuelCell, along with “plenty more behind that,” Canaccord said in a note. The brokerage has greater conviction that the company will soon see its “data center dreams materialize.”

FuelCell’s CEO Jason Few said the company’s pipeline includes opportunities in data centers, utilities, distributed power, and industrial markets in the U.S. and abroad.

“Potential data center customers make up about 89% of our pipeline,” Few told analysts in an earnings call on Monday.

Short Interest Hits Highest Level Of 2026

According to Koyfin data, short interest in FCEL is at 10.3% of the float as of June 8, the highest so far this year. However, this is significantly lower than 22.3% last June. The company has roughly 52.9 million outstanding shares.

FCEL Posts Wider-Than-Expected Q2 Loss

On Monday, FuelCell Energy reported a second-quarter loss of $1.45 per share on revenue of $35.6 million, missing Wall Street’s estimates for a loss of $0.52 per share and revenue of $40.5 million, according to Fiscal.ai data.

The company said the wider loss was mainly due to a non-cash impairment charge tied to its Groton power plant project serving the U.S. Navy Submarine Base in Connecticut.

FCEL Stock: Retail Traders Remain Skeptical

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits remained in the ‘bearish’ zone over the past 24 hours, while message volumes surged by more than 1000%.

One user expects the stock to drop to $9.

FCEL shares have already gained around 88% so far in 2026.

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