Canadian Solar (CSIQ) is one of the top suppliers of photo-voltaic (:PV) modules to the solar industry. With headquarters in Canada, they also have a thriving business unit in China that builds and sells large-scale PV projects customized for municipal or corporate energy grid applications.
The company has operations in North America, Europe and Asia that allow them to serve a wide geographic base of customers. In addition to their core businesses in building PV panels and larger projects, they also design and produce specialty solar modules and products such as solar-powered bus stop lighting and solar-powered car battery chargers.
Estimates Are Hot
My colleague Eric Dutram chose CSIQ as Bull of the Day about six weeks ago. I wanted to revisit the name for two reasons. First, estimates have gone even higher since their Q4 earnings report propelled the stock to a Zacks #1 Rank.
Secondly, I bought CSIQ shares for my Follow The Money portfolio this month based on this growth and the fact shares have gone 'on sale' since their all-time high at $44.50 on February 28. Here's what Eric had to say on February 10...
'The firm has a definite tilt towards European operations, as this segment accounts for about 50% of total revenues. While this was a bit of an issue in years past, European is turning around and CSIQ is looking to clean up in this market once again.
'Beyond Europe, the company is also making a name for itself in Asian markets, and particularly in the fast-growing Japanese solar space. This is a very important market -- given Japan's desire to replace nuclear power -- and since Canadian Solar is now the top foreign solar company in Japan, the firm looks to have a bright future in this key country.'
Since Eric's report, the 2015 full-year EPS consensus has gone from $4.16 to $4.65, representing 27% yoy growth against 2014's spectacular 480% growth.
And using this year's estimate of $3.66, the stock is trading at just 9X forward earnings. From these numbers it's easy to see why the stock has been one of the top price performers of the past year, moving up 10-fold from below $4 last March.
Price Targets Still Haven't Cooled
But Wall Street analyst still like the growth story so much, that they are maintaining $50 price targets on the shares.
One such view comes from the Alternative Energy analyst group at JPMorgan, who had this to say recently...
'We expect at least 20% y/y GigaWatt shipment growth globally in 2014 to ~46GW, largely driven by rapid adoption in the Asia Pacific region, though investors should expect seasonal softness in 1Q14.'