Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) reported results this morning that were better than analyst expectations, but the company remains deep in the red.  The company reported a non GAAP EPS of .32 which excludes one time costs which compares to the analyst estimate of a .60/share loss.  Revenues beat as well coming in at $86.2 million vs the estimate of $72 million.  While that’s a 40% increase in revenue quarter over quarter, it’s a much steeper loss than the year ago loss of just .05, but a significant improvement sequentially.

====> Click Here For Your FREE Daily ENER Technical Analysis

Mark Morelli, ECD’s President and Chief Executive Officer said, “Our fourth quarter results demonstrate solid progress. We have expanded shipments, reduced inventory, improved cash flow and increased revenue on a sequential basis. We remain aggressively focused on improving sales and margins and bringing our overall costs down. Our demand creation activities continue to gain traction as we have added 150 megawatts to our project pipeline.”

Looking ahead, the company sees Q1 2011 revenue at $63 – $68 million and full year 2011 revenue at $280 – $330 million.  Those numbers are shy of analyst estimates of $80 million and $334 million respectively, but the CEO is still optimistic.

“We expect to grow our business substantially in fiscal 2011, although our quarterly results may show unevenness due to project timing uncertainties and the relative growth in our systems business, for which revenue recognition can be delayed by several quarters following initial product shipments. For example, we expect to nearly double shipments year over year in the first quarter, but will not recognize the revenue for many of these shipments until later in the fiscal year. As a greater proportion of our business is generated from projects, we will see continued revenue growth, enhanced system-derived margin, and increased visibility moving forward.”

There are certainly some positive developments to take away from this report if you’re an ENER shareholder and it may be enough to give the stock a bit of a boost in the short term, but until it can prove it can get costs down significantly, it’s a stock that will likely remain stuck in the mud.  It’s up a bit in pre-market trading.