SunPower returns to Q3 profit

Oct 31, 2013 - US photovoltaics (PV) maker SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) said yesterday it had returned to a third-quarter net profit of USD 108.4 million (EUR 79m) from a loss of USD 48.5 a year back.

The turnaround is due to the company’s diversified downstream strategy and also the growing demand for solar systems, president and CEO Tom Werner said. In addition, the company managed to beat its cost cutting targets for the quarter and boosted the overall equipment effectiveness and average solar cell conversion efficiency.

In the second quarter of this year, Suntech posted a USD-19.6-million profit.

Diluted earnings per share (EPS) in the three months stood at USD 0.73 against a loss of USD 0.41 in the same period of 2012. SunPower explained that the results include some USD 53.1 million in net, pre-tax benefits, against USD 47.5 million of charges in the year-ago results. On a non-GAAP basis, excluding those effects, the company’s diluted EPS amounted to USD 0.44, up from USD 0.03.

GAAP gross margin rose to 29.4% from 12.4% and non-GAAP margin improved to 19.1% from 14.1%.

SunPower’s revenue in July-September increased to USD 657.1 million from USD 648.9 million a year earlier. Solar power equipment output in the reporting period rose to 313 MW from 227 MW. The company unveiled plans to hike its solar cell production capacity by over 25% to 1.8 GW.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.729)

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