Tag Archives: spwr

Tesla Motors And ‘Cousin’ SolarCity Breach Key Support

Loading the player… SolarCity ( SCTY ) and Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) are breaching support at key levels in the stock market today. SolarCity reports quarterly results next Monday. The stock rose nearly 5% Wednesday morning on a bullish analyst rating, but it reversed lower amid a market sell-off. SolarCity fell 10.6% to 23.65, breaking below its 50-day moving average in quick turnover. The stock has fallen for five straight sessions. SolarCity is trading about 63% off its 52-week high, as shares have been scorched in recent months by Nevada’s new net-metering rules. Guggenheim initiated coverage on the solar panel installer with a buy rating and a price target of 38. On Monday, Credit Suisse cut its price target on SolarCity to 62 from 89 while maintaining its outperform rating. When it reports after the close next Monday, SolarCity is expected to report a 61% revenue rise, while its per-share loss widens to $2.34 a share from $1.52 a share last year. SolarCity’s “cousin company” Tesla — which is helmed by SolarCity Chairman Elon Musk — reports after the close tonight, Wednesday evening. Tesla stock sank 4.2% to 222.56, breaching support at its 50-day and 200-day lines. Tesla is projected to show a widened bottom-line loss on sales growth of 45% as the automaker ramps up production of its Model X car, projected to go for $80,000 and up. Tesla’s Powerwall battery storage units are now beginning residential installations. SolarCity, whose founders are Musk’s cousins, is incorporating the Tesla batteries into its own energy storage system. Meanwhile, SolarCity rival Sunrun ( RUN ) reports earnings next Thursday. The August 2015 IPO’s sales are projected to come in at $83.4 million, down 16% from Q4, while its loss deepens from last quarter to 53 cents a share. Sunrun is up nearly 60% from its February low, but it is still nearly 50% below its all-time high reached in December. Sunrun fell 1.6% Wednesday . Elsewhere in the solar panel space, Solaredge ( SEDG ) fell 4%, and First Solar ( FSLR ) retreated by 2%. First Solar has lost 16% in five days since reporting weaker-than-expected revenue last week. Sunpower ( SPWR ), which reports earnings Thursday, fell 2.35%.

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.

First Solar Q1 Torched On ITC Extension; SunPower, Sunrun Burned

First Solar ( FSLR ) stock tumbled Thursday on its $100-million-plus Q1 sales miss late Wednesday and the “understandable” but likely-to-raise-questions resignation of CEO Jim Hughes, Credit Suisse analyst Patrick Jobin says. CFO Mark Widmar will succeed Hughes, effective July 1. Alexander Bradley, vice president of global project finance and treasurer, will step in for Widmar. Hughes led First Solar out of its rocky May 2012 “crisis,” Jobin wrote in a research report. “Polysilicon costs were plummeting and First Solar’s technology was becoming cost disadvantaged,” Jobin wrote. “He successfully regained First Solar’s position of strength, the company’s panel is close to multi-crystalline,” he wrote. The management shift was inevitable, but “changes always tend to raise questions,” Jobin noted. He kept his neutral rating and 72 price target on First Solar stock. In afternoon trading on the stock market today , First Solar stock was down 6.5%, leading a broad 3% tumble in IBD’s 20-company Energy-Solar industry group. Shares of No. 2 rival SunPower ( SPWR ) were down nearly 2%. Residential installers Vivint Solar ( VSLR ) and Sunrun ( RUN ) stocks were down 3.5% and 2.5%, respectively, but shares of No. 1 rival SolarCity ( SCTY ) were up a fraction. For Q1, First Solar reported 3% year-over-year sales growth to $848 million and $1.66 earnings per share, swinging from a 62-cent per-share loss in the year-earlier period. EPS topped views after First Solar sold a 15% stake in its Desert Stateline project to Southern Co. ( SO ) and gained a one-time $38 million cash boost from its module recycling program, Mizuho analyst James von Riesemann wrote in a report. But analysts called for $958.3 million in sales, up 106% year over year. Adjusting for the Stateline and one-time asset sale, First Solar’s EPS would have come in around $1.06, Jobin wrote, still beating the consensus of 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for 93 cents. First Solar blamed shifting to lower-priced, module-only sales for the disappointing Q1 sales, von Riesemann reported. He reiterated his neutral rating and 67 price target on First Solar stock. “The key issue appears to be how First Solar’s customers re-sort the timing of projects, given the ITC (investment tax credit) extension and how those customers’ procurement projects will be built up,” he wrote. Hughes noted as much in his remarks on the the company’s late Wednesday earnings conference call. Congress extended the key solar subsidy in December, pushing its expiration date out five years from the initial Dec. 31, 2016, end date. Analysts had predicted a sharp drop-off in installations following the ITC expiration. “In the U.S., the ITC extension has led to an increase in overall opportunity, but customers continue to work through revisions to project timing,” he said. That “has led to some temporary delays in new contracted bookings.”