NuScale Stock Closed at Its Lowest Level Since May 2024. Is It Finally a Buy?

Almost exactly a year ago, on Oct. 15, 2025, shares of NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR) finished the day at a record $53.43. On Monday, they ended at $5.69. That's around 89% lower, and it's the stock's lowest close since May 2024.

Shares are down about 60% for 2026, including a 26% fall from their Oct. 7 close at $7.67.

At this price, most of what a buyer pays for every share is cash. To me, that's the biggest shift in this stock over the last year. A stock trading so close to its cash can look like a value stock. But it isn't necessarily cheap when the company keeps selling new shares to refill the cash.

Most of the share price is cash

As of June 30, 2026, NuScale's cash, cash equivalents, and short- and long-term investments totaled $1.9 billion, and it has no debt. Divided by the roughly 430 million Class A and Class B shares outstanding on June 30, that's about $4.41 per share.

That means cash and investments equal around 78% of Monday's closing price. And with no net income to measure the stock against, that cash is arguably the best gauge.

NuScale's filing for its newest stock offering put its net tangible book value (assets minus liabilities, not counting intangibles like goodwill) even higher, at $4.63 per share at the end of June.

So a buyer at $5.69 pays a bit over $1 per share (about $450 million in all) for everything else -- the reactor technology, the engineering team, and whatever orders eventually come through partner ENTRA1 Energy.

How long does $1.9 billion last?

NuScale has almost no revenue yet, just $75,000 for the second quarter of 2026, down from $8.1 million a year before.

Still, the company doesn't burn cash very fast. Its operating activities used $314.7 million in the first quarter of 2026. But $259.9 million of that was one payment to ENTRA1.

Take that payment out, and the company used around $55 million of cash over those three months, then about $58 million from April through June. That rate is accelerating, though, up from about $33 million in the second quarter of 2025.

Losses are rising, too. NuScale's operating loss was $64 million in the second quarter -- 49% higher than a year before and over the first quarter's $58 million.

That said, at roughly $230 million a year, $1.9 billion could fund several years of spending. Cash likely isn't NuScale's short-term issue.

The bigger drain may come from the deal shareholders hope for. Under NuScale's agreement with ENTRA1, a binding power purchase agreement (like the one ENTRA1 has been working toward with the Tennessee Valley Authority) triggers NuScale's next milestone payment. That tranche is set at 35% of the total, compared to 15% for the first, which cost $507 million.

NuScale keeps selling new shares

The cash behind each share also looks healthy for another reason -- NuScale keeps issuing stock. Over the first half of 2026, it sold around 89.7 million new shares at an average price of $11.14, raising $1 billion before fees.

Including both share classes, the share count climbed 27% over six months, from around 338 million at year-end 2025 to about 430 million on June 30. And because those shares went for much more than the cash already behind each share, cash per share grew from about $3.81 to $4.41, even after the ENTRA1 payment.

A lower stock price changes that. On Aug. 11, NuScale set up a new program to sell up to $750 million in stock over time. When NuScale filed it, the previous day's closing price was $9.18, and the full amount would've taken around 82 million new shares.

At Monday's price, it would take about 132 million, or about 31% of the shares NuScale had in June. And each new share would bring in only about $1 more than the cash behind every existing one.

In the end, NuScale's balance sheet now backs most of its valuation, making the stock more interesting to me than it was a few weeks ago. But the cash isn't fixed. It drops with every quarter of losses and any milestone payment, and it's mainly been refilled by selling shares. NuScale's third-quarter filing, expected with its Nov. 5 report, should show how much of the $750 million program it has already used.

Is the growth stock finally a buy at $5.69? Not yet, in my view. I'd want to see that filing first, and know how thin the cash behind each share has gotten.

Daniel Sparks and his clients do not have positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.