It's not uncommon for a company to be labeled as a "story stock" by market observers. This usually happens when investors are buying into a story about the future of a company that has yet to be built and has immature financial results. In the case of Blink Charging (NASDAQ: BLNK), the stock itself is the story. Investors know the company is building a charging network, and that's a very real business (albeit small). But if you're investing in Blink Charging today, you're betting it can use its stock to build a massive electric vehicle (EV) charging network, and that's a risky bet long term. Image source: Getty Images. Acquiring a market-leading position I think the investment thesis behind Blink has been laid out by the company's management in earnings calls, company actions, and recent interviews. Let's start with comments on Blink's third-quarter 2020 conference call when management said it's making "great progress" executing its acquisition strategy. The biggest acquisition recently was BlueLA, a network of 200 charging stations in California. Clearly, acquisitions are going to be a part of the company's strategy, and its actions have proved that. I also took a lot from a recent interview with the website IPO Edge where CEO Michael Farkas said he sees an opportunity for a market leader in EV charging to buy up smaller charging companies. Acquisitions are key to the company's strategy. But how would they drive growth for Blink Charging? A stock as currency When buying other companies, a company like Blink can use its stock as currency. It can either do this by acquiring a company with its shares or by selling stock and then using cash to buy competitors. On the cash side, Blink Charging has generated proceeds of $19 million between April 17 and Sept. 30 to fund operations and acquire competitors. So it could continue this strategy. But I'm most interested in how its stock could be used. At the end of the third quarter, Blink had deployed 15,716 charging stations and had 6,944 in the Blink Network. In other words, at a $1.09 billion market cap, investors are valuing the company at $69,400 per charger deployed, or $157,000 for each charger in the Blink Network. If it can buy competitors for less than that valuation, and potentially for far less, the deals would be accretive on this valuation metric. Acquisitions are also an easy way for Blink Charging to get into new markets and build its business relatively quickly. Using stock to buy companies can be a useful tool in this phase of growth. Why it's boom or bust for Blink Charging The problem with this strategy is that eventually, you have to live up to investor expectations or the stock drops. So, if the acquisition rate slows, or the utilization of the charger fleet doesn't grow, or if the margin on electricity sold goes down, it could send the stock lower. That would make it harder to acquire more companies to grow the network, which could also send the stock lower. If you're expecting Blink Charging to use its stock to buy companies to grow, it's really the stock itself that's the story we need to watch. If it keeps going up, this could be a great renewable energy stock. But if the stock falls, it could end with a downward spiral because there isn't much operationally to fall back on at this point. 10 stocks we like better than Blink Charging CoWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Blink Charging Co wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of November 20, 2020 Travis Hoium 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.Source