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what it is
ESS makes iron-based batteries for buildings and utilities that need power for hours, not minutes.
how it gets paid
Last year Ess Tech made $2M in revenue. Energy Warehouse was the main engine at $1.0M, or 50% of sales.
why growth slowed
Revenue fell 74.9% last year. The key number was n/a gross margin, because it says the business is still losing far more than it sells.
what just happened
Revenue hit $3M in the latest quarter, but EPS was still -$3.08.
At a glance
C+ balance sheet — struggling to keep the lights on
-$7.32 fy2024 eps est
$6M fy2024 rev est
n/a operating margin
~$35M market cap
xvary composite: 29/100 — weak
What they do
ESS makes iron-based batteries for buildings and utilities that need power for hours, not minutes.
VL says ESS uses salt, iron, and water instead of lithium-ion chemistry. Your battery room gets a chemistry that can cycle over 20,000 times without capacity fade. That is the whole pitch: fewer replacements, less battery grief.
How they make money
$2M
annual revenue · their business grew -74.9% last year
Energy Warehouse
$1.0M
Energy Center
$0.6M
Service and support
$0.3M
Other systems
$0.1M
The products that matter
commercial-scale battery system
Energy Warehouse
part of a $2M revenue base
it is the main product, and it has to support a business that produced only $2M in trailing revenue after a 75% drop.
core product
utility-scale storage deployment
Energy Center
early market push
it targets grid-scale projects, but ESS Tech is entering that fight with a $35M market cap and a n/a gross margin.
scale test
service and project support
Services & Other
$0.4M revenue
this line brought in $0.4M and also fell 75%, which tells you the installed base around the product is still tiny.
20% of mix
Key numbers
$2M
annual sales
That is tiny next to a $35M market cap. You are paying about 17.5x sales for a company still losing money.
n/a
gross margin
Prior margin KPI failed sanity check — verify in filings. Every $1 of sales lost $5.67 before overhead. That is not a cushion. That is a sinkhole.
20,000
cycle life
VL says the batteries can cycle over 20,000 times without capacity fade. That is the number behind the chemistry pitch.
$8M
debt
Debt is 19% of capital. That is manageable only if revenue stops shrinking.
Financial health
C+
strength
- balance sheet grade C+ — weak — may struggle to fund operations
- risk rank 5 — safer than 5% of stocks
- price stability 5 / 100
- long-term debt $8M (19% of capital)
C+ — below average. watch for debt servicing and cash burn.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for GWH right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
missed estimates
Revenue hit $3M in the latest quarter, but EPS was still -$3.08.
Growth came off a tiny base. Gross margin stayed at -n/a, so the company still loses money on each sale.
$3M
revenue
$3.08
eps
n/a
gross margin
gross margin
The key number was n/a gross margin, because it says the business is still losing far more than it sells.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the #1 risk is failing to turn iron-flow battery pilots into repeat orders before cash burn and credibility do the talking.
high
liquidity and cash-burn risk
A business with $2M of revenue, a C+ balance sheet, and a n/a gross margin does not have much room for error. The $8M of long-term debt is not huge in absolute dollars. It is large relative to a company with a $35M market cap.
If financing tightens before orders improve, operations get constrained before the turnaround gets a chance to work.
high
commercial adoption failure
Revenue fell 75% and trailing revenue is only $2M. That means the commercial case is still unproven. If utilities and developers stick with cheaper or more familiar storage options, the size of the addressable market does not help you.
This risk touches almost the entire business because 100% of the story depends on deployments scaling beyond pilot size.
med
leadership reset execution
A new CEO arrived in january 2026 and management is repositioning the company. That may help if the reset improves sales execution and manufacturing discipline. Until then, you are underwriting a plan, not a result.
If the reset does not improve orders or margins within the next few quarters, the market may stop extending patience.
med
extreme share-price volatility
The stock has traded between $1 and $14 over the last 52 weeks and carries a price stability score of 5 out of 100. That is not noise. It is a market struggling to value a company with unstable fundamentals.
Even decent headlines can get overwhelmed by financing fears, thin trading, or another weak quarter.
with only $2M of trailing revenue and a n/a gross margin, ESS Tech is still losing money on the product itself. more revenue helps only if the unit economics stop getting worse with it.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
next catalyst
q1 2026 earnings on may 21, 2026
this is the first hard checkpoint for the reset. you want cleaner commentary on orders, shipments, and cash needs — not a longer explanation of the strategy.
unit economics
gross margin moving up from -n/a
that number does not need to become good overnight. it does need to become less broken. if margin stays this negative, scale is not helping you.
balance sheet
cash runway versus $8M of long-term debt
a small-cap hardware turnaround lives or dies on financing. watch filings for liquidity language, debt pressure, or signs that fresh capital is arriving before customers do.
commercial traction
whether project announcements become revenue
the salt river project and EPRI update matters only if it turns into booked business. announcements are easy. revenue recognition is the test.
Analyst rankings
street target
$2.50
Analysts on average see the stock above the current $1.46 price. In human-speak: coverage is still giving management a chance.
implied upside
71%
That looks dramatic because the denominator is tiny. A stock that fell from $14 to $1.46 does not need much math to print a big upside percentage.
coverage quality
thin
There is not enough ranking detail here to lean on formal scoring systems. Treat the target as a sentiment datapoint, not operating proof.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for GWH is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$1
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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