By Maria Armental
First Solar Inc. swung to a loss in the first quarter as revenue
plunged, saddled by project delays and completed projects held
ahead of its proposed joint venture with fellow solar-panel maker
SunPower Corp.
The Tempe, Ariz., company had warned last quarter it would post
a loss in the quarter as it held on to completed projects, rather
than sell them, as it moved to form a "yieldco" with SunPower.
The results were worst than projected. Tradiing in First Solar
shares was halted ahead of the release.
The stock, down nearly 12% over the past 12 months, closed at
$59.67 on Thursday, and was off 8% to $54.56 after trading resumed
at about 5:20 p.m. EDT Thursday.
Similar to real-estate investment trusts (REITs) and master
limited partnerships (MLPs), yield companies, known on Wall Street
as yieldcos, are publicly traded companies that hold power plants
and issue regular dividends to shareholders.
First Solar and SunPower plan to take their venture public by
Dec. 31, according to regulatory filings.
In the current quarter, First Solar projects a profit of 45
cents to 55 cents a share on net sales of $750 million to $850
million, compared with the consensus of a profit of 40 cents a
share on revenue of $779.7 million, according to Thomson
Reuters.
First Solar has been expanding internationally to soften the
expected impact of a slowdown in installations in the U.S. as a 30%
tax credit is scheduled to drop to 10% after Dec. 31, 2016. In a
conference call with analysts last quarter, company officials said
a "vast majority" of the company's roughly 1.5 gigawatts of mid- to
late-stage deals were outside of North America. Still,
international operations accounted for only 10% of net sales for
the year ended Dec. 31, according to a regulatory filing.
For the latest period, First Solar reported a net loss of $62.3
million, or 62 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit
of $112 million, or $1.10 a share.
Net sales plunged nearly 51% to $469.2 million.
First Solar had projected a loss of 25 cents to 35 cents a share
on sales of $550 million to $650 million.
Gross margin narrowed to 8.3% from 24.9% a year earlier.
First Solar reported 593 megawatts of new bookings, bringing its
year-to-date bookings to 905 megawatts.
One gigawatt, or 1,000 megawatts--roughly the amount produced by
an average nuclear reactor--can power 216,000 homes in California
and 155,000 in New York, according to the Solar Energy Industry
Association. Weather and other factors affect a system's energy
production.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
Access Investor Kit for Total SA
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=FR0000120271
Access Investor Kit for First Solar, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US3364331070
Access Investor Kit for SunPower Corp.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US8676524064
Access Investor Kit for Total SA
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US89151E1091
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires