SolarEdge shares sink after company offers weak Q4 guidance

Shares of SolarEdge tumbled on Wednesday after hours, following the solar product manufacturer’s soft guidance for its fourth quarter amid demand struggles in the renewable energy sector.

Here’s how the company did:

• Loss per share: 55 cents vs. 89 cents per share expected by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv
• Revenue: $725 million vs. $768 million expected by LSEG

For its coming fourth quarter, the solar producer reported expected revenue of between $300 million to $350 million. For the overall solar sector, it expects revenue to be between $275 million and $320 million.

SolarEdge CEO Zvi Lando said in a Wednesday statement that the third-quarter disappointment is a reflection of “a slow market environment, which has resulted in high inventory of our products in the distribution channels—in particular in Europe.”

SolarEdge warned Wall Street in October that its third-quarter earnings would come in below expectations, which sent its stock plummeting 30 percent. At the time, Lando said that installation rates for solar panels had declined, though installation rates typically increase during the third quarter.

SolarEdge is based in Israel, but Lando said in October that the Israel-Hamas war has not impacted manufacturing.

The solar sector has faced headwinds over the past year as rising interest rates weigh on the demand for solar energy. Last December, California voted to cut the compensation rate for a solar incentive program for homeowners. That lower incentive went into effect in April, causing a spike in demand for solar installation as homeowners tried to squeeze in before that April deadline. A further cut to California’s solar incentive programs for multifamily apartment buildings, schools and farms could soon be coming and has the potential to further deepen the demand decline.

Other solar stocks dipped slightly after the bell Wednesday. Enphase Energy was down seven percent, while Sunrun saw a four percent decrease.