Westport Fuel spikes 50% after Amazon orders more than 1,000 of the company's natural-gas engines for its growing truck fleet
- Shares of Westport Fuel Systems soared as high as 50% on Monday after the company agreed to supply natural-gas truck engines to Amazon.
- Amazon has ordered over 1,000 engines from Westport as the Seattle-based e-commerce giant explores new ways to reduce carbon emissions.
- Craig-Hallum analyst Eric Stine called the agreement "arguably one of the most significant events for natural gas for transportation in many years."
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Shares of Westport Fuel Systems soared nearly 50% to a five-year high on Monday after the company agreed to supply natural-gas truck engines to Amazon's shipping fleet.
The e-commerce giant has ordered over 1,000 engines from Westport as a part of a multi-year rollout, boosting Amazon's growing truck fleet. The trucks will be supplied by a joint venture between Vancouver, Canada-based Westport and Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins Inc., a power technology company.
Craig-Hallum analyst Eric Stine called the agreement "arguably one of the most significant events for natural gas for transportation in many years." Stine told The Fly that "this order will be solidly additive" to Westport's EBITDA. The analyst raised his price target on Westport from $12 to $24.
Amazon, which has been exploring new ways to reduce carbon emissions, recently said it aims to have 50% of all its shipments achieve net-zero emissions by 2030, aiming to apply that goal to the entire company by 2040.
"Amazon is excited about introducing new sustainable solutions for freight transportation and is working on testing a number of new vehicle types including electric, CNG and others," the company said in a statement.
The online retailer reportedly delivers 2.5 billion packages per year.
In October last year, Amazon revealed its first planned custom electric-delivery vehicles made by startup Rivian, which could possibly hit the road delivering packages in 2021. The electric vehicle maker, backed by Amazon, just announced another major funding round in January 2021, cementing its spot as one of Tesla's formidable challengers.
Westport Fuel Systems shares traded at $12.25 at 12:34.PM E.T. on Monday.