With SunPower set to report earnings on Thursday after the close, solar analysts have taken a fresh look at the company this morning–and at least three of them did not like what they saw. Analysts at Friedman Billings Ramsey, Thomas Weisel Partners and Pacific Crest all had words of warning this morning for investors in the stock, sharply reducing their forecasts for 2009.
More analysts are cutting estimates on Oracle ahead of its earnings report on Dec. 18. David Hilal of Friedman Billings Ramsey expects the company to perform at the low end of guidance. But while Oracle is expected to implement cost-cutting measures–with only 23 percent loss in stock price (compared to 41 percent for the Nasdaq Composite and 39 percent on the S&P 500)–at least it’s beating the market. For now, anyway.
There’s a dire outlook for PC chip production–most key chip companies are predicting a production drop of at least 13 percent. Taiwan Semi, the leading contract chip manufacturer, is forecasting a 29 percent drop in revenue for Q4. Accordingly, semiconductor companies are drastically reducing their output.
An early plunge in JA Solar today set off a widespread loss across the industry. Analysts expect solar companies to miss forward earnings expectations at the very least. In a post-earnings conference call, Mehdi Hosseini of Friedman Billings Ramsey characterized the mood in the industry as “near-panic.” Almost every major solar stock suffered double-digit percentage losses today.
Heath Terry, the new Internet analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey, has launched coverage of the sector this morning, setting Outperform ratings on Google (GOOG), eBay (EBAY) and ComScore (SCOR), while starting Bankrate (RATE) with a Market Perform rating, and setting Yahoo’s (YHOO) rating at Underperform.
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