The late summer sun might be shining in many parts of the world, but it wasn't illuminating Canadian Solar (CSIQ 2.81%) stock in the past few days. After the company published a fresh set of quarterly results, many investors headed for the exit doors. As a result, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, Canadian Solar's share price was down by nearly 17% week to date as of early Friday morning.
Top- and bottom-line erosion
Before market open Thursday, Canadian Solar released its second-quarter earnings report. This showed that the company earned nearly $1.64 billion in revenue for the period. That was down significantly from the $2.36 billion of the same quarter last year. Net income eroded far more dramatically, falling to $3.8 million ($0.02 per share) from second quarter 2023's almost $170 million.
Although the solar company beat the consensus analyst estimate for revenue ($1.59 billion), it fell far short of expectations for profitability. Collectively, the pundits tracking Canadian Solar were anticipating $0.20 per share for net income.
Canadian Solar explained the stark difference between this second quarter and last year's as being largely due to a notable decline in prices for solar modules.
A miss on revenue guidance
In the earnings release Canadian Solar proffered revenue guidance for both the current (third) quarter, and for full year 2024. For the latter period it's expecting a top line of $6.5 billion to $7.5 billion. Like trailing quarterly profitability, however, this range is below the average analyst projection (in this case, $7.66 billion).
