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Why Oklo Stock Popped -- Then Gave It All Back Today

By Rich Smith | December 03, 2025, 12:57 PM

Key Points

Start-up atomic technology stock Oklo (NYSE: OKLO), one of the breakout stars of 2025, jumped 5% in early trading Wednesday morning after UBS analyst Jon Windham raised his price target on the nuclear stock from $65 to $95.

By early afternoon, however, Oklo had completely flipped, given back its gains -- and as of 12:40 p.m. ET lies exactly flat against yesterday's close: No gain. No loss. But why?

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Silhouette of a nuclear power plant against the moon in the background.

Image source: Getty Images.

What UBS said about Oklo

In his note this morning, Windham admits Oklo looks "well-positioned for a potential generational build-out of nuclear power," as TheFly.com reports. Oklo aims to reach "criticality" at its Idaho National Laboratory pilot reactor in July 2026, and success could help the company win contracts -- and market share.

Success, however, is not guaranteed, and Oklo stock looks very expensive after gaining more than 350% in stock price this year.

Is Oklo stock a buy?

Just how expensive is Oklo stock? At $92 per share but with zero profits (and no profit expected before 2030), it's hard to hang an accurate valuation on Oklo stock. There's literally no way to calculate a price-to-earnings ratio for a company that has no profits.

Faced with this dilemma, investors often default to valuing a stock on its price-to-sales ratio instead. And yet, Oklo has no sales either, so that door, too, remains firmly shut. Granted, investors can always value a stock on what analysts guess it might earn eventually -- but that's precisely what this is: a guess.

And Oklo currently sells for 133 times the $0.69 per share analysts think it might (or might not) earn in 2030. Seems to me, the safest thing to do with Oklo stock is sell it -- and wait for some hard numbers before you even think about buying.

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Rich Smith has no position 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.

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