Shares of natural gas-as-vehicle-fuel provider Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE) soared 17% through 9:50 a.m. ET this morning after beating on both the top and bottom lines last night.

Heading into the first-quarter 2024 report, analysts forecast Clean Energy would lose $0.04 per share (adjusted for one-time items) on sales of $99.6 million. In fact, Clean Energy's adjusted loss was only $0.01 per share, and sales exceeded expectations at $103.7 million.

Clean Energy Fuels' Q1 earnings

Still, not all the news was good. While Clean Energy exceeded sales expectations handily, its sales nonetheless declined year over year -- down 22%. And while the $0.01 per share adjusted loss was less than expected, when calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), this alternative energy stock actually lost $0.08 per share.

On the plus side, that was less than half last year's $0.17 per share Q1 loss. So basically, Clean Energy lost less money despite selling less stuff. Make of that what you will. (Which is to say, it either means that the company's operating more efficiently... or that the more stuff Clean Energy sells, the more money it loses, which is a less optimistic take.)

Is Clean Energy stock a buy?

And what about the rest of 2024? Unchanged since the last time we heard from management, Clean Energy still says it expects to lose between $101 million and $111 million this year -- although management was silent on how much revenue it thinks it will take to cause these losses.

That works out to a per-share loss of perhaps as much as $0.50 per share, which if it happens, would actually be significantly worse than the $0.35 per share GAAP loss that Wall Street is forecasting for the company. On balance, I'd call that bad news. And it means that investors who are buying Clean Energy stock on the belief that today's earnings beat is good news are reading this news exactly wrong.

For my money, money-losing Clean Energy stock remains a sell.

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Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Clean Energy Fuels. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Why Clean Energy Stock Exploded Higher Today was originally published by The Motley Fool