Blink Charging (BLNK)

EV charging infrastructure provider Blink Charging (NASDAQ:BLNK) fell short of the market’s revenue expectations in Q1 CY2025, with sales falling 44.8% year on year to $20.75 million. Its non-GAAP loss of $0.18 per share was 52.1% below analysts’ consensus estimates.

Company Overview

One of the first EV charging companies to go public, Blink Charging (NASDAQ:BLNK) is a manufacturer, owner, operator, and provider of electric vehicle charging equipment and networked EV charging services.

Renewable energy companies are buoyed by the secular trend of green energy that is upending traditional power generation. Those who innovate and evolve with this dynamic market can win share while those who continue to rely on legacy technologies can see diminishing demand, which includes headwinds from increasing regulation against “dirty” energy. Additionally, these companies are at the whim of economic cycles, as interest rates can impact the willingness to invest in renewable energy projects.

Competitors in the electric vehicle charging industry include ChargePoint (NYSE:CHPT), EVgo (NASDAQ:EVGO), and Wallbox (NYSE:WBX).

Examining a company’s long-term performance can provide clues about its quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul. Over the last five years, Blink Charging grew its sales at an incredible 99.3% compounded annual growth rate. Its growth beat the average industrials company and shows its offerings resonate with customers.

Long-term growth is the most important, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss new industry trends or demand cycles. Blink Charging’s annualized revenue growth of 22.4% over the last two years is below its five-year trend, but we still think the results suggest healthy demand. Blink Charging recent performance stands out, especially when considering many similar Renewable Energy businesses faced declining sales because of cyclical headwinds.

This quarter, Blink Charging missed Wall Street’s estimates and reported a rather uninspiring 44.8% year-on-year revenue decline, generating $20.75 million of revenue.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 24.5% over the next 12 months, an improvement versus the last two years. This projection is eye-popping and indicates its newer products and services will fuel better top-line performance.

At StockStory, we prefer high gross margin businesses because they indicate the company has pricing power or differentiated products, giving it a chance to generate higher operating profits.

Blink Charging’s unit economics are better than the typical industrials business, signaling its products are somewhat differentiated through quality or brand. As you can see below, it averaged a decent 32.7% gross margin over the last five years. Said differently, Blink Charging paid its suppliers $67.28 for every $100 in revenue.

In Q1, Blink Charging produced a 35.5% gross profit margin, marking a 4.9 percentage point decrease from 40.4% in the same quarter last year. On a wider time horizon, however, Blink Charging’s full-year margin has been trending up over the past 12 months, increasing by 1.3 percentage points. If this move continues, it could suggest better unit economics due to some combination of stable to improving pricing power and input costs (such as raw materials).

Operating margin is a key measure of profitability. Think of it as net income - the bottom line - excluding the impact of taxes and interest on debt, which are less connected to business fundamentals.

Blink Charging’s high expenses have contributed to an average operating margin of negative 155% over the last five years. Unprofitable industrials companies require extra attention because they could get caught swimming naked when the tide goes out. It’s hard to trust that the business can endure a full cycle.

On the plus side, Blink Charging’s operating margin rose over the last five years, as its sales growth gave it operating leverage. Still, it will take much more for the company to reach long-term profitability.

In Q1, Blink Charging generated a negative 102% operating margin. The company's consistent lack of profits raise a flag.

Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.

Blink Charging’s earnings losses deepened over the last five years as its EPS dropped 10.2% annually. We’ll keep a close eye on the company as diminishing earnings could imply changing secular trends and preferences.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.

For Blink Charging, its two-year annual EPS growth of 38.6% was higher than its five-year trend. Its improving earnings is an encouraging data point, but a caveat is that its EPS is still in the red.

In Q1, Blink Charging reported EPS at negative $0.18, down from negative $0.13 in the same quarter last year. This print missed analysts’ estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street is optimistic. Analysts forecast Blink Charging’s full-year EPS of negative $0.67 will reach break even.

If you’ve followed StockStory for a while, you know we emphasize free cash flow. Why, you ask? We believe that in the end, cash is king, and you can’t use accounting profits to pay the bills.

Blink Charging’s demanding reinvestments have drained its resources over the last five years, putting it in a pinch and limiting its ability to return capital to investors. Its free cash flow margin averaged negative 87.4%, meaning it lit $87.43 of cash on fire for every $100 in revenue.

Taking a step back, an encouraging sign is that Blink Charging’s margin expanded during that time. In light of its glaring cash burn, however, this improvement is a bucket of hot water in a cold ocean.

Blink Charging burned through $14.39 million of cash in Q1, equivalent to a negative 69.4% margin. The company’s cash burn was similar to its $24.31 million of lost cash in the same quarter last year.

As long-term investors, the risk we care about most is the permanent loss of capital, which can happen when a company goes bankrupt or raises money from a disadvantaged position. This is separate from short-term stock price volatility, something we are much less bothered by.

Blink Charging burned through $45.87 million of cash over the last year. With $42.02 million of cash on its balance sheet, the company has around 11 months of runway left (assuming its $10.34 million of debt isn’t due right away).

Unless the Blink Charging’s fundamentals change quickly, it might find itself in a position where it must raise capital from investors to continue operating. Whether that would be favorable is unclear because dilution is a headwind for shareholder returns.

We remain cautious of Blink Charging until it generates consistent free cash flow or any of its announced financing plans materialize on its balance sheet.

We struggled to find many positives in these results. Its revenue missed significantly and its EBITDA fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this was a weaker quarter. The stock traded down 8.4% to $0.79 immediately after reporting.

Updated: May 22, 2025 at 11:20 PM EDT

Before making an investment decision, investors should account for Blink Charging’s business fundamentals and valuation in addition to what happened in the latest quarter.

Blink Charging is a pretty good company if you ignore its balance sheet. For starters, its revenue growth was exceptional over the last five years. And while its declining EPS over the last five years makes it a less attractive asset to the public markets, its rising cash profitability gives it more optionality. Additionally, Blink Charging’s expanding operating margin shows the business has become more efficient.

Blink Charging’s forward price-to-sales ratio is 0.7x. Certain aspects of its fundamentals are attractive, but we aren’t investing at the moment because its balance sheet makes us uneasy. We recommend investors interested in the company wait until it reduces its leverage or increases its profits before getting involved.

Wall Street analysts have a consensus one-year price target of $2.42 on the company (compared to the current share price of $0.70).

Want to invest in a High Quality big tech company? We’d point you in the direction of Microsoft and Google, which have durable competitive moats and strong fundamentals, factors that are large determinants of long-term market outperformance.

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