Analysts Cautiously Recommend Clean Energy Fuels and Trade Desk Amid External Challenges

Clean Energy Fuels and Trade Desk face cautious outlooks due to slow RNG adoption, economic uncertainties, and disappointing earnings. Analysts have downgraded both stocks to 'Hold' citing concerns about growth prospects and limited potential for significant rebounds. Investors should consider broader trends and company-specific challenges when evaluating these stocks.

Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE) and The Trade Desk (TTD) have both faced cautious outlooks from analysts due to a combination of factors, including slow adoption of renewable natural gas (RNG), economic uncertainties, and disappointing earnings reports. Both companies have seen their stocks downgraded to 'Hold' by analysts, reflecting concerns about their growth prospects and the limited potential for significant rebounds.

Clean Energy Fuels, a provider of natural gas as an alternative fuel for vehicle fleets, reported break-even quarterly earnings per share (EPS) compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of $0.07 [1]. This was a significant improvement from a year ago when the company reported earnings of $0.01 per share. However, the company has underperformed the market so far this year, with shares losing about 19.1% since the beginning of 2025 compared to the S&P 500's gain of 7.9%. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement will largely depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

The Trade Desk, a digital ad campaign optimization company, experienced a significant plunge of 40% on Friday following a warning from CEO Jeff Green about the impact of tariffs on ad spending [2]. The company reported mixed Q2 results with 18.7% revenue growth but missed EPS forecasts. The appointment of Alex Kayyal as the new CFO is seen as a strategic move to drive sustained growth and scale for the company.

Analysts have downgraded both stocks due to concerns about growth prospects and limited potential for significant rebounds. Investors should consider broader trends and company-specific challenges when evaluating these stocks. The outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock, and the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1 [1].

References:
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/clean-energy-fuels-clne-reports-220502513.html
[2] https://www.ainvest.com/news/trade-desk-stock-drops-40-tariffs-cfo-change-2508/