Evergreen Solar: Piper Downgrades, Cuts Target
Piper Jaffray analyst Jesse Pichel this morning cut his rating on Evergreen Solar (ESLR) to Neutral from Buy, chopping his target price in half to $2.50, from $5. The move follows the company’s release after the close yesterday of disappointing Q4 results.
Pichel offered three reasons for his more cautious approach to the stock:
- He contends the company is “rapidly losing its polysilicon cost advantage” as the price of polysilicon approaches $100/kg and as “competition intensifies in an over-supplied environment.”
- Pichel says he has “little visibility” into the company’s new strategy to outsource production in Asia.
- The company’s balance sheet “leaves little flexibility for pursuing alternative expansion strategies in Asia.”
He says the stock at $2 “represents an option on solar’s growth in the U.S.,” but that “future growth and profitability prospects have become murkier in the last two months in an intensely competitive environment.”


























comments so far. Add yours.