Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: BW) shares rose 6.4% in premarket trading on Monday after Needham initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $20 price target.
Analyst Sean Milligan set the target at $20, implying roughly 179% upside from the prior close of $7.16. The firm cited an improved balance sheet and recent contract wins as key factors supporting the rating. The analyst noted that the current valuation largely reflects the core business and the net present value of the Base Electron project.
The firm highlighted a $2.4 billion FastPower award secured with Base Electron, lifting Babcock & Wilcox’s backlog to approximately $2.6 billion. A second project is expected to reach final notice to proceed before the end of 2026. Needham also pointed to potential for FastPower to emerge as a repeatable data-center generation platform, given extended gas-turbine lead times and rising combined-cycle costs.
Looking ahead, the analyst projected FastPower’s pipeline to expand into a quoted $14 billion-plus opportunity by 2027 and beyond. BrightLoop was mentioned as a potential contributor starting in 2028 and beyond.
