Aug. 18 at 1:01 AM
Margins, one table, straight from the Fintel API — matches Koyfin to the decimal. 2 different sources, identical result.
TTM —
$FLNC vs
$BE:
Gross: 9.4% vs 31.7%
Operating: -4.2% vs +11.7%
Net: -3.1% vs +7.9%
$BE keeps roughly a THIRD of its gross margin all the way through to operating income.
$FLNC goes negative one line below gross — at single-digit gross, there's nothing left to fund opex. The structural gap: proprietary fuel-cell systems vs battery-pack integration at near-commodity terms.
Direction makes it worse:
$BE's gross margin expanded ~4.5 pts over the past year.
$FLNC's went 12.7% → 9.4%. Fluence's one positive line is the one eroding.
The multiple pays accordingly (LTM EV/revenue): 0.76x vs 21.7x. A dollar of FLNC revenue converts to roughly nothing; a dollar of BE revenue carries ~8 cents of net profit.
$BE has a margin structure that needs its growth to persist.
$FLNC has growth estimates (+56% next yr) that need a margin structure to be worth anything.
