MEMC Electronic Materials has laid off 200 employees in Missouri and Texas. The company will pay $2.5 million in severance-related charges in the second quarter as a result of the layoffs.
In a regulatory filing, the company commented on the purpose of the layoffs, saying
“The action was taken to better align the company’s workforce to current manufacturing needs as demand for semiconductors and semiconductor wafers has been significantly impacted by the current global economic … Read the rest
Earlier this week, MEMC Electronic Materials announced it would decrease the price that Suntech Power Holdings is paying for its solar wafers. Now, they have changed their contract with Gintech Energy as well. The change in the contract is similar to the change made to Suntech’s contract-price per wafer is dropping, but the volume of wafers will be increased so that the ultimate revenue from the contract remains unchanged.
StreetInsider.com reports that MEMC Electronic Materials has amended its supply agreement from July 25, 2006 with Suntech Power. Under the agreement, MEMC Electronic Materials agreed to sell silicon wafers to Suntech for a period of 10 years. The change to the agreement does not alter the aggregate revenues for sales at all. Rather, MEMC has agreed to a volume increase for this year’s sales and a price reduction. … Read the rest
MEMC Electronics (WFR) beat Wall St estimates after the bell today, but the good news ends right there. The company posted non GAAP profits of .65/share, which beat estimates of .61 but represented the first quarter of negative growth (-12%) over the year ago quarter in a couple years. Revenues came in about 17 million ahead of estimates but were also significantly lower than the year ago quarter.. 21% lower. However, it was at the … Read the rest
It was a very good day for solar stocks, particularly for First Solar (FSLR) which surged above its 50 day moving average for the first time in 4 months and continues to look like it put in a bottom down there around 100. I said on October 31st, that if you can get it anywhere close to 100, it’s one heck of a buy.. now I think if you can get it close to … Read the rest
It’s getting late but wanted to run down the upgrades/downgrades of today as well as a few notes..
Lazard Capital Markets analyst Sanjay Shrestha said this week that although macroeconomic factors continue to depress alternative energy stocks, the future looks bright. “We believe Barack Obama’s election is a long-term positive for the alternative energy group,” Shrestha said. “Until the financial markets show signs of stability, the economy will likely continue to overshadow other policy agenda … Read the rest
Not a good day for MEMC Electronics (WFR) today. It didn’t start out well with Collins Stewart downgrading the stock from Buy to Hold on falling polysilicon prices which resulted in reducing Q4 08 and 1H 09 projections to reflect the falling prices. The stock closed down today nearly 13% to a new multi year low.
For good measure the company is out after the bell downgrading itself, cutting Q4 sales guidance from $540 – … Read the rest
Investors have filed a class-action lawsuit against MEMC Electronic Materials, claiming that the company did not disclose production issues at its facilities in Italy and Texas. These issues caused the results for the quarter ending June 30th, 2008 to be unexpectedly below target.
Here’s a little bit more detail on the lawsuit from the press release linked to above:
… Read the restThen on July 23, 2008 MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. first disclosed that in early June 2008
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 StreetInsider.com, Collins Stewart has initiated coverage on MEMC Electronics (WFR) with a BUY rating and price target of $27. The firm believes the departure of CEO Nabeel Gareeb is bullish in that it may open up more long term relationships. They said:
“… the company’s $6.18 in net cash and potential to deliver $2.58 GAAP EPS in FY10 under a stress test forecast should provide support at current levels…CEO Nabeel Gareeb resigned … Read the rest