Wall Street analyst John Hardy focused on SunPower this morning in a research note on the state of the company’s business.
But he might as well have been writing about the solar industry as a whole. Stocks have been beaten down as solar cell prices have fallen and demand slumped.
More utility scale projects are being planned and demand from Germany and Italy continues.
But Wall Street likes to look six months or so into the future, and Hardy, of Broadpoint AmTech, said he sees growth resuming in 2010. More utility-scale solar projects and being planned and solar companies will react to the eventual expiration of the recovery act investment funds in the U.S. with initiatives.
On top of that there is “an improving commercial installation financing environment,” Hardy wrote in his Monday note.
More immediately, demand seems better than expected in Germany and Italy.
Regarding SunPower, in particular , investor sentiment on the company is negative, he said. But improving fundamentals could confound the naysayers.
Hardy says his 2010 earnings estimate for the company is about 20 percent above the consensus on Wall Street, meaning that if he is right, the stock will have room to run.
