It's natural to see the stock market pull back after a multiday rally, and that's exactly what happened on Wednesday. As some big giants in the tech world reported financial results that seemed to support the idea that there's an economic slowdown going on, major stock indexes were broadly lower, with the worst of the damage felt among companies most prone to macroeconomic pressures.
Yet even on a down day for the markets overall, a couple of companies stood out with strong financial results. Both Enphase Energy (ENPH 2.69%) and Wingstop (WING 2.81%) have had a history of generating extremely fast growth, and their share prices have held up better than many of their peers' during the bear market. The latest financial reports from the two companies gave more fuel to bullish investors in the two growth stocks, and that has share prices moving sharply higher.
Enphase keeps powering up
Enphase Energy added to recent gains, with its stock climbing more than 10% on Wednesday morning. The marker of inverters and tracking technology for solar power systems keeps on cashing in on strong demand for its products.
The third-quarter numbers from Enphase tell the story. Total revenue of nearly $635 million was up 20% just in the past three months and more than 80% year over year. Earnings soared to $0.80 per share, up from just $0.15 per share in the third quarter of 2021.
Nearly every part of Enphase's business showed strength. The company shipped more than 4.34 million solar panel microinverters, working out to about 1.71 gigawatts. Moreover, the Enphase IQ battery business produced continued gains, as shipments amounted to 133.6 megawatt-hours. Enphase pointed to a dramatic uptick in adoption in Europe, where soaring energy prices are providing big incentives to turn to solar power as an alternative to increasingly unreliable fossil fuel supplies.
Enphase sees the good times continuing, projecting fourth-quarter revenue of between $680 million and $720 million on shipments of 120 to 135 megawatt-hours of IQ batteries. That has shareholders celebrating on Wednesday, and although the stock still remains about 10% to 15% below its all-time highs, Enphase is in the right business at exactly the right time to generate excitement among its investors.
Wingstop heats up
Elsewhere, shares of Wingstop heated up, rising 12% early Wednesday. The chicken wing restaurant specialist has found ways to prosper in a very tough industry environment, and shareholders are riding the positive momentum in the stock higher.
Wingstop's third-quarter financial results for the period ending Sept. 24 delivered the consistency that investors have come to expect. Total revenue jumped 41% to $92.7 million, with the company opening 40 net new locations during the past three months and seeing systemwide sales among its franchises climb 17.7%. Domestic same-store sales rose 6.9%, and adjusted net income climbed 58% to $13.6 million. That worked out to earnings of $0.45 per share on an adjusted basis.
Among restaurants, Wingstop has done a great job of encouraging orders through its digital channels, with digital sales rising to make up 62% of overall revenue. At the same time, Wingstop has also benefited from a countertrend drop in the prices of bone-in chicken wings, which flies in the face of rising inflation in just about every other part of the economy.
As a result, Wingstop boosted its full-year projections, now expecting earnings of $1.61 to $1.63 per share. With store network expansion coming faster than projected and solid gains in sales from hungry customers, Wingstop shares have doubled since June and are now getting close to returning to the all-time highs they set late last year.
