Contrasting CSLM Acquisition (NASDAQ:SPWR) and Fluence Energy (NASDAQ:FLNC)

Fluence Energy (NASDAQ:FLNC) and CSLM Acquisition (NASDAQ:SPWR) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Fluence Energy and CSLM Acquisition, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fluence Energy	7	14	4	0	1.88
CSLM Acquisition	1	0	0	0	1.00

Fluence Energy presently has a consensus target price of $12.42, suggesting a potential upside of 61.97%. Given Fluence Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Fluence Energy is more favorable than CSLM Acquisition.

Risk and Volatility

Fluence Energy has a beta of 2.77, suggesting that its stock price is 177% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CSLM Acquisition has a beta of 0.71, suggesting that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Fluence Energy and CSLM Acquisition’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fluence Energy	-3.13%	-16.79%	-3.37%
CSLM Acquisition	-4.82%	N/A	-5.38%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Fluence Energy and CSLM Acquisition”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fluence Energy	$2.26 billion	0.63	-$48.31 million	($0.61)	-12.57
CSLM Acquisition	$300.00 million	0.20	-$45.35 million	($0.19)	-1.54

CSLM Acquisition has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Fluence Energy. Fluence Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CSLM Acquisition, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

53.2% of Fluence Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.4% of CSLM Acquisition shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Fluence Energy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 24.5% of CSLM Acquisition shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Fluence Energy beats CSLM Acquisition on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fluence Energy

Fluence Energy, Inc., through its subsidiaries, offers energy storage products and solution, services, and artificial intelligence enabled software-as-a-service products for renewables and storage applications in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company sells energy storage products with integrated hardware, software, and digital intelligence. Its energy storage products include Gridstack Pro, a large-scale front-of-the-meter application; Gridstack, a front-of-the-meter application; Sunstack, a DC-coupled energy storage product for DC-coupled solar + storage projects; Edgestack, for smaller-scale commercial and industrial use cases; and Ultrastack, for critical system requirements of distribution and transmission networks. The company also provides engineering and delivery services to support the deployment of its storage products; operational and maintenance services; and digital applications. It serves independent power producers, developer, utilities, and other generators. Fluence Energy, Inc. was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Fluence Energy, Inc. is a joint venture of Siemens Aktiengesellschaft and The AES Corporation.

About CSLM Acquisition

Complete Solaria, Inc. engages in the provision of solar services. It offers sales enablement, project management, partner coordination, and customer communication. The company is headquartered in San Ramon, CA and does business as SunPower Corporation.