Enphase Energy surges after record quarter despite supply chain woes
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Jonathan Fisk (Solaray Director) moves a sunroof at the Sydney solar installation company’s Sydney location.
Jason Reed | Reuters
Shares Enphase EnergyExtended trading Tuesday saw a more than 12 percent increase in the stock market after the company posted record third-quarter revenue, despite continuing headwinds due to supply chain bottlenecks.
Microinverters for solar systems and back-up energy storage were made by the company. Sales of the firm’s products topped $345M, according to StreetAccount.
Quarter-over-quarter, revenue increased 11% and nearly doubled the $178.5million earned in the third quarter 2020. It also gave positive guidance and said it expected fourth-quarter revenue between $390 million to $410 million. StreetAccount’s estimates indicated that Wall Street analysts had expected revenue guidance in the range of $373.6 to $410 million.
While CEO Badri Kouthandaraman stated that business was booming, Enphase is, as companies in other industries and sectors, facing tight supply chains. The company also used airshipping to ship microinverters in an attempt to speed up delivery. This significantly increased costs. With ocean freight rates increasing eight-fold, Enphase decided to increase prices to pass some of these costs on to consumers. Enphase will increase prices once more in the fourth-quarter.
CNBC’s Kothandaraman stated that “every component of the supply chain has been stressed.” It is “all hand to mouth…every expense is increasing and that is happening now.” It is now $16,000 to ship a container of shipping that was $2,000 last year, according to him.
Kothandaraman said that the company should be able navigate supply chain challenges during the current quarter. However, he has not provided any guidance for the next year. But this is not a deviation from the normal — Enphase never issues outlook beyond the current period.
The situation is changing. He said that logistics may change tomorrow and the situation could look completely different. However, he also stated that the fourth-quarter microinverter outlook is better than it was in the previous quarter. The third quarter was better than its predecessor. The logistics of batteries which cannot be shipped via air has gotten worse.
However, Enphase doesn’t anticipate any decrease in the demand for its products due to longer delivery times. Enphase will ship storage systems weighing between 90-100 megawatts in the fourth quarter. That’s up from the 65 megawatts it shipped during the previous quarter.
Enphase’s focus has been on cost cutting. Increasing prices for consumers can offset increasing expenses. Gross margins might be lower in this quarter. Gross margins for GAAP third-quarter were at 39.9%. The guidance for the fourth quarter places that figure between 37%-40%.
It is increasing its product line. On Monday Enphase announced the IQ8 — a new microinverter that allows a solar system to continuing functioning even if the grid goes down, and without on-site storage.
Citi wrote that the quarter was strong, despite higher logistic costs being offset by price increases and cost management. “Microinverter demand continues outstrip supply,” Citi stated in a post to clients after the earnings announcement.
Enphase’s shares were down 1% on Tuesday, as per the close of trading.
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