Will SunPower’s Expected Q1 Loss Torch First Solar, SolarCity?
No. 2 solar developer SunPower ( SPWR ) is expected late Thursday to report its first quarterly loss minus items since Q1 2012, and declining year-over-year sales, a week after top rival First Solar ( FSLR ) missed quarterly sales views by $100 million, citing project timing. IBD’s 20-company Energy-Solar industry group has been whacked daily since First Solar’s report late Wednesday, and on Thursday it fell 4.9%. On Tuesday, reports of slow Q2 bookings for SolarCity ( SCTY ) and Sunrun ( RUN ) prompted a 5.4% plunge for the group. Early afternoon on the stock market today , the group was down a fraction, at a nearly three-month low, with shares of SolarEdge ( SEDG ), First Solar and SunPower — down 5%, nearly 2% and 2.5%, respectively — topping the deluge. Enphase Energy ( ENPH ), which trades around 2, was down hardest at 12%, after its Q1 sales and earnings miss late Tuesday. Enphase’s stock topple likely tugged SolarEdge stock, which competes with Enphase in the module and inverter market. Late Tuesday, Enphase CEO Paul Nahi blamed pricing pressure in the U.S. and internationally for the sales miss. As for SunPower, the consensus of 16 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Q1 sales to fall 24% from Q1 2015, to $328.5 million. They see a 20-cent per-share loss minus items vs. a 13-cent per-share profit in the year-earlier quarter. Three months ago, SunPower guided to $290 million to $340 million in sales, but didn’t offer EPS guidance. The company saw 315 megawatts to 340 MW deployed during Q1.