Lithium stocks are exploding.
- Albemarle (ALB) is up $15 at the moment
- Lithium Americas (LAC) is up $2
- Livent (LTHM) is up $6.15
- Piedmont Lithium (PLL) is up $2.52
That’s happening for two reasons.
One, Livent’s Q1 revenue just rocketed 56% higher, which was above the expected growth rate of 53%. Adjusted EPS of 21 cents was above estimates for 14 cents.
“Strong lithium demand growth has continued in 2022,” said Paul Graves, president and chief executive officer of Livent. “Published lithium prices in all forms have increased rapidly amid very tight market conditions and Livent continues to achieve higher realized prices across its entire product portfolio.”
It also significantly raised guidance.
For the full year, Livent now projects revenue to be in the range of $755 million to $835 million from prior guidance of $540 million to $600 million. It also raised Adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $290 million to $350 million from $160 million to $200 million.
Two, the Biden Administration is investing $3 billion to boost lithium.
“To help make electric vehicles work, we need also to increase the production of lithium ion batteries and we need responsible and sustainable domestic sourcing of the critical materials used to make lithium ion batteries such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite,” infrastructure implementation coordinator and senior Biden adviser Mitch Landrieu told reporters, as quoted by CNN.
With demand showing no signs of slowing – and plenty of demand, lithium stocks could see higher highs moving forward.