Plug Power to Restate Financials, Stock Plummets

Shares of Plug Power (PLUG) -Get Report plummeted more than 13% on Wednesday, after the fuel-cell company said it will restate its financial results going back to 2018.

Plug Power said in anews releasewill restate its financial statements for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 and its quarterly filings for 2019 and 2020, which will be disclosed in the Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2020.

KPMG, the company's accounting firm, management and the audit committee of Plug Power’s board of directors "determined that the company’s prior period financial statements need to be restated due to errors in accounting primarily related to several non-cash items, including:

• The reported book value of right of use assets and related finance obligations;
• Loss accruals for certain service contracts;
• The impairment of certain long-lived assets; and
• The classification of certain costs, resulting in a decrease in research and development expense and a corresponding increase in cost of revenue.

“The accounting related to the restatement is complex and technical and involves significant judgments in how to apply U.S. GAAP, given the innovative nature of the company’s business and its leading position in a new and rapidly developing industry,” Plug Power said.

As a result of the corrections, Plug Power will not file its form 10K by Tuesday as planned, it said, but will do so “as soon as possible.”

After it reported fourth-quarter results in February, the company and KPMG identified the issues, which it said did not “result from any override of controls or misconduct.”

Shares of Plug Power were up 1,446% over the past year, compared with gains of more than 60% for the S&P 500 index. At the start of March,JP Morgan upgraded the hydrogen fuel cell companyto overweight from neutral.

Shares fell 8.14% in regular trade Tuesday to close at $42.68. In late trade, the stock was down 11.4% to $37.82.

On Wall Street Tuesday,stocks finished mixedas the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 fell from records and investors turned their attention to the Federal Reserve for the central bank's projections on the economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 127 points, or 0.39%, to 32,825. The blue-chip index closed higher Monday for a seventh straight session.