Is Centrus Energy Stock a Buy Now -- or Is Its Potential Overhyped?

The MIT Technology Review reports that data centers already consume 4.4% of all the electricity generated in the U.S. and that artificial intelligence (AI) will require as much electricity as 22% of all American households combined by 2028.

To solve that power crunch on the horizon, the United States has been focusing on nuclear power. The Department of Energy has set a goal to triple American nuclear energy production by the middle of the century.

And all those nuclear reactors both operating and planned run on uranium. Over the past year, as the prices of just about every other energy resource have declined, uranium's spot price has climbed 38%.

However, unlike coal, uranium isn't ready to use when you pull it out of the ground. It needs to be refined by a company like Centrus Energy (NYSE: LEU).

Image source: Getty Images.

Enriching uranium, enriching investors

Centrus' ticker symbol, LEU, represents what it does, it enriches yellow cake uranium (with two of its biggest partners being in France and Russia) that has been converted into UF6 gas to increase the concentration of U-235 (the isotope of uranium used in nuclear fuel) which is needed for light enriched uranium (LEU). LEU is the most basic ingredient in the fuel pellets that go into the fuel rods a nuclear reactor uses.

The company enriches uranium through its CTS segment and is the only Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed producer of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), which is a form of LEU meant to allow reactors to get smaller.

Centrus has two plants in addition to its corporate headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. The Oak Ridge, Tennessee, facility is where it manufactures its AC100M centrifuge machines for uranium enrichment. Those centrifuges are then used at Centrus' Piketon, Ohio, plant to enrisch LEU and HALEU.

And in order to meet the increasing demand for uranium, Centrus is investing in both of those facilities. In January 2026 it announced a $560 million investment into the Oak Ridge centrifuge plant and then in early February it announced a multibillion-dollar expansion of its Ohio facility, for which it has partnered with Fluor.

Through its LEU business segment, Centrus provides enrichment element of LEU for companies that operate commercial nuclear reactors. It has a long-term deal with France's state-run nuclear fuel company Orano. And it has a contract with Russian nuclear fuel company TENEX which expires next year.

In January, the Department of Energy selected Centrus for a $900 million HALEU order. And the company has LEU or HALEU agreements with ICHNP (South Korea's nuclear and hydroelectric operator), Oklo, TerraPower, and X-energy.

The result of this has been solid, steady growth for Centrus over the past few years. As of the company's full-year 2025 report, it achieved annual net income growth of 5.6% for the year and a 13% revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for 2020 to 2025. It also grew its backlog to $2.3 billion in LEU sales agreements.

The company also almost tripled its cash reserves from $671.4 million at the end of 2024 to $1.95 billion at the end of 2025. Total debt stands at $1.17 billion, so Centrus has a healthy balance sheet that, based on its investments in its manufacturing capabilities, it is eagerly investing in itself.

There was a considerable demand for Centrus' LEU even before the AI data center build-out. But Centrus is taking all the right steps to emerge as America's premier uranium enricher over the next few years, and that makes it worth a look. The company's strong bottom line has me thinking it's not just hype, even after the company's 83% surge over the past 12 months.

James Hires 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.