GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) reported good earnings results yesterday, beating analyst estimates. The company reported an EPS of .12/share on revenues of $153 million vs the expectations for .08/share on revenues of $146 million. However, it’s still well below the year ago quarter when the company posted $263 million in revenue as the solar market continues to struggle. There are some positive signs though particularly with the surge in demand in Germany which has helped push the solar stocks up in recent weeks.
=== > Click Here For Your FREE GT Advanced Technologies Analysis
CEO Gutierrez commented on the quarter:
“We saw continued success in our polysilicon business, including our first ever reactor booking with an incumbent manufacturer. This helped drive a positive book-to-bill ratio and strengthened our overall backlog to $2.2 billion at quarter’s end. Our reactors and supporting technologies continue to be validated as the industry’s most technologically-advanced and efficient solutions for building viable polysilicon production facilities.
“In our sapphire business, we completed installation, received acceptance and recorded revenue on a significant number of sapphire furnaces. We continue to believe that our ASF™ solution offers the most viable path to low-cost, high-quality sapphire production. In PV, while we saw some pockets of improvement, on balance we continue to believe a broad-based turnaround is unlikely in the near to mid-term. With less than 10 percent of our current backlog coming from PV, our current exposure in this space is limited. Longer term, as the PV industry’s well-financed technology leader, we are well positioned to drive our customers’ critical move to higher efficiency and lower cost products with our DSS™450 MonoCast™ and HiCz™ products.
Looking ahead, guidance remains largely intact. While the company is taking down top line guidance for its EPS number from $1.45 – $1.65 to $1.45 – $1.60 due to a higher tax rate, the revenue target remains unchanged at $950 million to $1.05 billion. For fiscal 2013 which begins April 1st, the company sees modest growth over 2012.
Technically, shares of GTAT continue to round out a bottom and I believe a long term bottom is in at the $6.40 level. It may take some time for this bottom to complete but the trend is clearly up. The stock looks primed for a test of the next major level of resistance around the $10.50 level.