Why Oklo Stock Popped -- Then Gave It All Back Today

Start-up atomic technology stock Oklo (NYSE: OKLO), one of the breakout stars of 2025, jumped 5% in early trading Wednesday morning after UBS analyst Jon Windham raised his price target on the nuclear stock from $65 to $95.

By early afternoon, however, Oklo had completely flipped, given back its gains -- and as of 12:40 p.m. ET lies exactly flat against yesterday's close: No gain. No loss. But why?

Image source: Getty Images.

What UBS said about Oklo

In his note this morning, Windham admits Oklo looks "well-positioned for a potential generational build-out of nuclear power," as TheFly.com reports. Oklo aims to reach "criticality" at its Idaho National Laboratory pilot reactor in July 2026, and success could help the company win contracts -- and market share.

Success, however, is not guaranteed, and Oklo stock looks very expensive after gaining more than 350% in stock price this year.

Is Oklo stock a buy?

Just how expensive is Oklo stock? At $92 per share but with zero profits (and no profit expected before 2030), it's hard to hang an accurate valuation on Oklo stock. There's literally no way to calculate a price-to-earnings ratio for a company that has no profits.

Faced with this dilemma, investors often default to valuing a stock on its price-to-sales ratio instead. And yet, Oklo has no sales either, so that door, too, remains firmly shut. Granted, investors can always value a stock on what analysts guess it might earn eventually -- but that's precisely what this is: a guess.

And Oklo currently sells for 133 times the $0.69 per share analysts think it might (or might not) earn in 2030. Seems to me, the safest thing to do with Oklo stock is sell it -- and wait for some hard numbers before you even think about buying.

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.