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Gold/Mining/Energy : SunPower Announces Initial Public Offering SPWR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam who wrote (148)	1/29/2009 6:38:20 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 196

SunPower profit leaps on rising solar panel sales Thursday January 29, 6:12 pm ET Sunpower profit surges on increased demand for solar panels in US and Europe SAN JOSE, Calif., (AP) -- Solar power company SunPower Corp. said Thursday its fourth-quarter profit grew nearly fivefold on increased solar panel sales in the U.S. and Europe. For the period ended Dec. 28 the company posted a profit of $29.6 million, or 35 cents per share, compared with $4.9 million, or 6 cents per share, in the same period last year. Revenue grew nearly 80 percent to $401 million for the period. Adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation and other one-time items, the company would have earned 70 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings per share of 57 cents on revenue of $397.2 million. For the full-year the company earned $92.3 million, or $1.09 per share, compared with $9.2 million, or 11 cents per share. Full-year revenue grew to $1.43 billion from $774 billion. Adjusted earnings per share were $2.28 per share. Analysts predicted $2.15 per share. The company said it opened 350 dealerships for the year targeting residential and small-business customers. For the current year SunPower said it expects earnings per share between $2.20 and $2.80 on revenue between $1.6 billion and $2 billion. Analysts expect earnings per share of $2.64 on revenue of $1.88 billion. "The long-term solar industry fundamentals remain very positive," said Dennis Arriola, SunPower's chief financial officer. "Given the continuing weak credit environment, our ability to meet the high-end of the revenue and earnings-per-share ranges will be dependent on improved access to the project financing markets." Shares of SunPower Corp. rose $3.02, or 10.5 percent, to $31.70 in after-hours trading. Shares fell $1.80, or 5.9 percent, to close at $28.68 in regular trading. biz.yahoo.com

To: Sam who wrote (148)	2/1/2009 1:30:21 AM
From: Petz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 196

Personally, I don't think the argument that Sunpower will lose share because of its "premium" products makes any sense. Installation cost is pretty proportional to the square feet of panel space, and SPWR's more efficient panels take less space. It's pretty amazing that SPWR beat revenue estimates in Q4, what with everything happening in the credit markets, poor consumer confidence, and, most of all, the fact that the limit on tax credits to homeowners was lifted at the very beginning of the quarter, but only for projects completed in 2009. You'd have to be an idiot to put solar panels on your roof in Q4'09, yet SPWR still beat estimates. Petz