Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Musk's SolarCity Down 31% Pre-market, Chanos Scores Big (SCTY)

With a half-hour to the open the stock is at $18.15 Down $8.20 (31.12%) in frenetic pre-market action.
Investor's Business Daily, 6:03 p.m. ET, Feb. 9:

SolarCity Torched On Q1 Guidance As Losses Expected To Deepen 
SolarCity (SCTY) stock was torched after hours Tuesday, after the No. 1 residential installer guided to deepening Q1 losses and slower installation growth in 2016, despite CEO Lyndon Rive’s earlier pledge to curb losses by 2017.

SolarCity stock was down more than 30% after the close, after the company released its Q4 earnings and gave guidance, and after falling 5.7% in Tuesday’s regular session. Shares of rival installer Sunrun (RUN) also wrapped Tuesday’s regular session down 7% and were down another 6% after hours. Big solar companies SunPower (SPWR) and First Solar (FSLR) were down 6% and more than 2%, respectively, after hours.

For Q4, SolarCity reported $115.5 million in sales, up 61% year over year, and a per-share loss ex items of $2.37, widening from a $1.33 per-share loss in the year-earlier quarter.

Both measures beat Wall Street expectations for $105.6 million and $2.59, as well as SolarCity’s three-months-ago outlook for $100 million to $108 million and $2.60 to $2.75 losses.

During Q4, SolarCity installed 272 megawatts, which was up 54% vs. the year-earlier quarter but missed the company’s earlier guidance for 280 MW to 300 MW....MORE
We'll have more later tody.

On the big short:
Dec. 18, 2015
Chanos Says He's Still Shorting SolarCity ‘Not a Technology Company’ (SCTY)
Aug. 21, 2015
SolarCity's CEO When Told Jim Chanos Is Shorting His Stock: "First I've ever heard of the guy" (SCTY)
Aug. 22, 2015
SolarCity: Jim Chanos On Elon Who? (SCTY)

We've been following this one for a while:
More Elon Musk: "5 things to know about SolarCity’s IPO (and it’s not all good)"
"SolarCity postpones initial public offering, according to report" (SCTY)
After Price Cut Elon Musk's SolarCity Trades, Soars (SCTY)
The stock was priced at $8.00, down from the $13-15 range the underwriters were throwing out earlier this week.
It is currently trading at $11.60, up 45%.
 
And many, many more.

Like most of the old pros we pine for a return of the speculative glory days.
The  2005-2008 mania was probably best exemplified by First Solar:

  $20 IPO Nov. '06, $317.00 top tick in May 2008, $11.43 by June 2012. 
Yeah baby!

SCTY SolarCity Corporation daily Stock Chart  FinViz