Suntech will open a new sales and customer service office in Milan, Italy, to cater to its customers in the growing Italian solar market. Solar energy is expected to expand next year in sunny Italy, helped along by generous government subsidies of up to EUR0.49/kWh.
Here’s what Mauro Sgherri, Suntech’s Director of Sales, Italy, had to say about Suntech’s expansion:
… Read the rest“Suntech’s involvement in many of the highest profile solar projects in Europe combined
with
Suntech Power (STP) is celebrating the inauguration of Israel’s largest and most efficient solar power station, which it helped to build with local company, Solarit Doral. The 50 KW rooftop farm will produce approximately 85,000 kw hours of clean energy annually.
In other news today, the company has announced a licensing agreement with Open Energy Corp (OTC: OEGY) in which Suntech will manufacture, license, distribute and market Open Energy’s solar roof tile product.
“The … Read the rest
Suntech Power (STP) and a + f (a subsidiary of Spain’s Gildemeister Group) worked together to complete two solar power plants in Spain. STP supplied about half of the modules used to complete the plants in Alange (8.5MW) and Alconera (7.4MW) which will be enough power for around 9K households.
Jerry Stokes, President of Suntech Europe, said, “Suntech’s dedication to producing premium quality, high power output solar products is a key factor leading to our … Read the rest
Suntech Power reported its 3rd quarter results this morning. Although the company’s results do show continued growth, they were well below what analysts had expected to see. For example, Suntech reported revenues of $594.4 million. Although this was an increase of 53.7% from last year, it was still below analysts predictions of $571.7 million. Earnings came in at .35/share, excluding one-time items. Analysts had expected to see earnings of $.42/share.
Due to the … Read the rest
Here’s a rundown of today’s analyst notes on several solar names according to StreetInsider.com
Downgrades
– Raymond James downgrades Suntech Power (STP) from Strong Buy to Outperform and has price target of $15
– FBR downgrades GT Solar (SOLR) from Outperform to Market Perform
– Credit Suisse downgrades JA Solar (JASO) from Outperform to Neutral
– Wedbush Morgan downgrades SunPower (SPWRA) from Strong Buy to Buy and slashed the price target from $100 to $32. … Read the rest
According to Barrons, Wedge Partners was out with a research note this morning saying that the China based solar companies are slowing production in anticipation of falling demand and prices.
Some highlights:
– Suntech (STP) is laying off about 10% of its employees, idled half its production lines and shelved plans to expand to 1.2GW by the end of the year
– JA Solar (JASO) is seeing customer orders down drastically and half of its … Read the rest
Solar stocks were up nicely today and the option volume spiked in many of the names.
The following showed up on my nightly scan for highest % change in option volume above its 10 day average:
SOLF 576%
LDK 346%
TSL 223%
STP 197%
YGE 196%
Most of the volume came from call buying so it will be interesting to see if these bullish bets pay off.… Read the rest
24/7WallStreet.com notes that Credit Suisse has lowered price targets on several major solar stocks. Apparently, with the economic downturn, shares just aren’t selling for as much as the used to, and the price targets were adjusted to reflect the new economic reality. According to the article, they may be starting a trend, as we can expect other brokerage firms to start taking similar actions. Here’s a quick rundown of the affected companies:
… Read the restJA Solar Holdings
Collins Stewart analyst Dan Ries . Ries gave the following reasons for the downgrade:
… Read the restRies notes that the credit crisis has lead to increased borrowing costs for solar projects, putting pressure on solar module prices. Also hurting: a 13% drop in the Euro against the dollar since July. Ries also notes that the stock has been trading at about 9.6x estimated FY ‘09 EPS, a premium to the 3-5x ‘09 multiples carried by most of
Goldman Sachs is out this morning with several calls on solar stocks:
Upgrades
* Upgraded Applied Materials (AMAT) from Sell to Buy and added to their Conviction Buy List
* Upgrades Yingli Green Energy (YGE) from Neutral to Buy but cut price target from $20 to $9
* Upgrades Trina Solar (TSL) from Sell to Neutral but cuts price target from $24 to $12
Maintain
* Maintains Buy rating on Suntech Power (STP) but cuts … Read the rest