Why Oklo Stock's Bouncing All Over the Place Today

Key Points

• BNP Paribas initiated coverage of Oklo stock with an underperform rating today.

• The French bank forecasts buyers of Oklo stock could lose 80% of their investment -- or worse.

• Oklo's not profitable, and it's burning cash rapidly.

• 10 stocks we like better than Oklo ›

Oklo (NYSE: OKLO) stock tumbled nearly 5% in early trading Friday before recovering, moving into positive territory -- then falling again. As of 10:25 a.m. ET, shares of the small nuclear reactor R&D shop are back in the red, down 1.3% and falling further.

And you can blame the French for all of it.

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Bearish on Oklo

In a note covered on The Fly this morning, French investment bank BNP Paribas analysts blasted Oklo as a bad investment and likely to "underperform" the stock market. Initiating coverage with a $14 price target on the $74 (!) stock, BNP basically told investors to buckle up and prepare for losses of more than 80%.

So no wonder the stock is selling off. The bigger surprise is that Oklo stock isn't down much, much more than it already is today.

Is Oklo stock a sell?

BNP Paribas is based out of France, one of the biggest builders and users of nuclear power in the world. It's probably safe to assume the bank has good insight into nuclear economics, and the likelihood that Oklo will end up earning a profit. It's disappointing, then, that The Fly really didn't give us a lot of detail on why it thinks the stock will underperform.

But we can still guess.

Unprofitable since its foundation, and forecast by most analysts to keep on losing money through 2029 at least, Oklo's future is anything but certain. Worse, the company has only about $200 million in the bank, but at current rates of cash burn, could blow through that by mid-2027 -- long before reaching profitability.

Maybe Oklo will beat the odds. Maybe it will be a fabulous investment... eventually. For now, however, the company seems on financial thin ice. I agree that Oklo stock is a sell.

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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.