What happened
Shares of solar-energy inverter maker SolarEdge (SEDG 2.81%) tumbled as much as 10% in early morning trading Wednesday, before leveling off at a still precipitous 8% loss as of 1:45 p.m. EDT today.
The reason likely doesn't involve SolarEdge at all.
Instead, the stock appears to be suffering in response to a case of nerves afflicting investors in its rival, Enphase Energy (ENPH 3.80%).
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Enphase, as you may have heard, plunged 26% earlier today after reporting some really rather powerful earnings -- 131% sales growth year over year and an all-time high operating profit margin of 18.7%.
But as my fellow Fool Maxx Chatsko pointed out in his review of Enphase's report earlier today, the company also raised some nagging questions for investors, such as: Is the U.S. government's solar investment tax credit, which allows companies to take a 30% rebate on the cost of their solar projects, artificially inflating sales and earnings at Enphase? And will those sales and profits tank in future years, as the credit slowly phases out from 2020 through 2022?
Investors seem to think so, and are selling off Enphase stock on that fear -- and taking SolarEdge down with it.
Now what
And yet, not all investors are thinking along these lines. In fact, just a few hours ago, investment bank JMP Securities put out a report raising its price target on SolarEdge. Ignoring the tax credit noise and focusing in on how the businesses are performing, JMP pointed out that both SolarEdge and Enphase appear to be taking away large chunks of market share from "less capable" competitors.
JMP further notes, as reported by TheFly.com today, that the 10 gigawatts worth of inverter capacity the two companies are expected to ship in 2020 account for less than 25% of the total global demand for such products, leaving plenty of room for both rivals to grow faster than the market as a whole.
With a $111 price target of SolarEdge shares, JMP sees another 30% worth of profits for shareholders who stay the course, and don't join in today's selling.
