NuScale Stock Now Trades for About the Cash on Its Books. Should You Buy It Now?

Shares of NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR) closed at $4.37 on Thursday, Nov. 5, down 15% for the day and around 92% below their record close of $53.43 in October 2025. It was the stock's lowest close since March 2024. NuScale's third-quarter report was released after the close that day.

At that price, the small modular reactor developer's market value is around $1.88 billion, including both its Class A and Class B shares. NuScale had around $1.86 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short- and long-term investments at the end of September, with no debt. Put another way, the market's arguably assigning almost no value to the only small modular reactor design certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

When the growth stock closed at $5.69 in October, I wanted to read this filing before buying. It answered one worry: NuScale didn't sell any shares. But I'm still not sure the cash is as safe as it looks.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

The cash is hardly moving

Losses deplete a cash pile like this, and share sales spread it across more shares. Neither did much harm in the third quarter.

Showing how slowly the cash is shrinking, NuScale's cash and investments dipped by only about $29 million in the third quarter, from about $1.89 billion to about $1.86 billion. Its operating loss of $64.8 million in the third quarter was about even with $64.0 million in the second quarter, after growing from $57.5 million in the first. In other words, losses seem to be leveling out. And interest on all that cash helps. Investment income was $19.1 million, more than three times the year-ago amount, reducing the net loss to $45.7 million.

In the first nine months of 2026, operations used about $142 million in cash, excluding a $260 million payment to commercialization partner ENTRA1 Energy. That's roughly $47 million a quarter.

Also, NuScale didn't sell any new stock during the third quarter. It started a program in August to sell up to $750 million of shares over time. But its share count on Oct. 30 (around 430 million across both classes) was basically unchanged from the end of September.

Spending may rise as NuScale pays a South Korean manufacturer to produce parts for its first module. Even so, I think the cash could fund operations for years at the nine-month rate.

Still no order

Third-quarter revenue dropped to $281,000 from $8.2 million in the year-ago quarter -- when NuScale was still doing engineering work for a planned plant in Romania.

And the deal investors care most about is still non-binding. In September 2025, ENTRA1 signed a non-binding agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to develop up to 6 gigawatts of new nuclear power capacity, and has said it plans to use NuScale's equipment.

Asked on the earnings call when a commercial agreement might be reached, CEO John Hopkins didn't name a date.

"It is a process. It has been lengthy, we know," he said.

Even a signed power purchase agreement wouldn't be a module sale. CFO Ramsey Hamady explained on the call that the power deal would be between ENTRA1 and TVA, with module sales coming later under a separate agreement.

Does the cash protect shareholders?

A stock trading at its cash can look like a safe value stock. With NuScale, I'm not sure it is.

Under a 2025 milestones agreement, NuScale owes ENTRA1 payments as the TVA program advances. The first, triggered by the non-binding agreement for 72 of NuScale's modules, was a $507 million expense, which NuScale's filings say is 15% of the total. A binding power purchase agreement triggers the second, at 35%. A module order triggers the third, at 50%.

If that 72-module scope holds, the second payment would be nearly $1.2 billion, around 64% of NuScale's current cash and investments. The third would add almost $1.7 billion more.

Sure, an order should eventually bring money in from the buyer. But the good news investors are waiting for is also the event that could send much of this cash to ENTRA1.

Is NuScale stock a buy at about the price of its cash?

I don't think so.

The third-quarter filing eased my worries about share sales, and losses aren't eating into cash quickly. But if the TVA deal moves ahead, NuScale's own agreement could send most of that cash to its partner before NuScale sells a single module. I don't see cash as much of a protection for shareholders.

Daniel Sparks and his clients do not have positions 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.