NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE: SMR) shares surged 13.5% in the last trading session, closing at $11.74, driven by notably elevated trading volume well above typical levels.
The rally followed NuScale Power’s announcement of a new contract with Paragon, a division of Mirion Technologies (NYSE: MIR), to complete the final design of the Highly Integrated Protection System, known as HIPS.
The HIPS contract represents continued progress along NuScale’s commercialization roadmap and reinforces investor confidence in the company’s small modular reactor technology deployment plans.
The stock’s jump also comes amid broad constructive sentiment toward nuclear power developers, fueled by surging electricity demand from AI data centers and growing appetite for reliable, carbon-free baseload power.
Despite the single-session surge, NuScale shares had actually declined 0.5% over the prior four weeks, putting the latest move in context against a period of relative weakness.
Looking ahead, the company is expected to report a quarterly loss of $0.13 per share in its next earnings release, representing no change from the same quarter one year ago.
Revenue expectations are considerably weaker, with analysts forecasting just $1 million for the quarter, reflecting an 87.6% decline compared to the year-ago period.
Notably, the consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days, a factor that typically limits sustained upward price momentum in a stock.
NuScale currently carries a Zacks Rank of #3, or Hold, placing it in the middle tier of the research firm’s stock rating system.
NuScale operates within the Zacks Electronics – Power Generation industry, alongside peer Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises (NYSE: BW), which closed its last trading session 1.3% higher at $17.38, though BW has returned -10.5% over the past month.
Babcock & Wilcox’s consensus EPS estimate for its upcoming report stands at $0.03, unchanged over the past month, but representing a substantial year-over-year improvement of 130% compared to the company’s prior-year EPS figure.
Babcock & Wilcox also carries a Zacks Rank of #3, or Hold, suggesting analysts see similarly limited near-term directional conviction for both players in the sector.
With earnings estimate trends flat for both companies, investors in the nuclear power generation space will need to watch closely for any fundamental catalysts capable of sustaining recent price gains.
