Thursday, May 28, 2009

Solar: European Cold and Snow Smack Trina Numbers, Stock Will Probably Trade Up (TSL)

In early pre-market trade the stock is down $0.62 (2.74%). The pattern of the Chinese solars has been "Let's get this quarter out of the way and hope for better days". From the press release:
...First Quarter 2009 Financial and Operating Highlights

-- Solar module shipments were 48.8 MW, compared to the Company' s previous guidance of 50 MW to 55 MW, representing a decrease of 15.3% sequentially and an increase of 65.5% year-over-year

-- Total net revenues were $132.1 million, a decrease of 38.9% sequentially and an increase of 9.5% year-over-year

-- Gross margin was 17.2%, exceeding the Company's previous guidance of between 15% and 17%, compared to 9.6% in the fourth quarter of 2008

-- Operating income and operating margin were $6.8 million and 5.2% respectively, compared to $3.9 million and 1.8% respectively in the fourth quarter of 2008

    -- Net loss was $10.6 million, which includes
-- a $6.5 million tax liability accrued in the first quarter resulting
from a reversal in the government's approval for a past tax holiday

-- a charge of $4.6 million for the estimated cost in connection with
the cancellation of two polysilicon supply agreements

-- Earnings per fully-diluted ADS was negative $0.42, which includes a negative impact of $0.44 per fully diluted ADS for the above reasons

"Our first quarter was adversely affected by unusually harsh weather in our key European markets, tightened credit conditions for our customers and the general slowdown in world economic activities," said Mr. Jifan Gao, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar. "Improved conditions beginning in April have contributed to increasing customer deliveries and higher levels of new contracts and projects."...MORE

The conference call is in progress, I'll have the transcript tomorrow. The replay is available here.