What happened
Shares of solar power inverter maker SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG 3.96%) are racing ahead 17.2% as of 1 p.m. EDT Tuesday, after the company reported a sizable earnings beat yesterday evening.
Heading into earnings, analysts had projected that SolarEdge would earn $1.12 per share on under $455 million in revenue for its fiscal second quarter. In fact, SolarEdge earned $1.28 per share, and on sales of more than $480 million.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Granted, that $1.28 was a pro forma number. But even the $0.82 per share SolarEdge earned when calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) represented a solid 17% improvement over last year's Q2.
Sales improved by 45% year over year, giving SolarEdge a new record for sales in a single quarter, and SolarEdge scored a 32.5% gross profit margin on those sales -- up 150 basis points from last year.
Now what
And the news could get even better from here. Citing "continued strong demand for our products in the various geographies and across the different segments," SolarEdge is guiding for revenue to grow as much as 60% year over year in the third quarter, to a range from $520 million to $540 million -- well above the $505 million Wall Street has been expecting.
Earnings growth might not be quite that strong. Management gave only pro forma guidance on this point, but its projection of 32% to 34% adjusted gross margin implies a likely downtick from the 33.9% pro forma margin posted in Q2. Still, when applied to 60% revenue growth, my hunch is that SolarEdge's Q3 earnings will be heading quite a bit higher.
