Enphase cuts prices by 19% to alleviate weak Q3 sales growth

Share

Enphase Energy, the California-based supplier of microinverters, has suffered its biggest slump since the company went public in 2012 having endured a tough third quarter that saw sales growth slow significantly in the face of sustained competition from its main rival in the U.S., SolarEdge.

Shares in the company fell 37% to $2.33 in New York on Wednesday as Q3 financial results showed that the company sold just 219 MW of inverters over the period, up 28% year-over-year and a 12% increase on Q2, but revealed the fact that revenue – at just $102.9 million – equated to an average selling price of just $0.47/W, down from $0.58/W at the same stage in 2014.

This 19% price reduction was triggered by sustained competition from SolarEdge, the Israeli power optimizer company that is set to become the market leader in the U.S. residential market this year. Enphase, meanwhile, has lowered its Q4 sales forecast by around 40% to just $62 – $70 million based on lower prices and high inventory levels in its distribution network.

On an earnings call discussing the results, Enphase CEO Paul Nahi said: "The fourth quarter of 2015 is more challenging than expected. To accelerate the expansion of our business we have adopted a more aggressive pricing strategy."

Deutsche Bank analyst Vishal Shah duly lowered its outlook for the company based on Enphase’s financials and forecast, stating: "Cautious Q4 outlook and comments indicating increased pricing pressure in 2016 support our cautious view on shares. Enphase is working on an aggressive cost roadmap to bring product costs down to optimizer cost levels by end of 2016 and string inverter cost levels by end of 2017."

Shah added, however, that margins could remain under pressure until then, with challenging market conditions delivering a strong headwind for shares. An absence of positive cash flow over the current quarter may also prompt Enphase to draw down some $17 million on an existing bank credit facility, the company’s CEO revealed.

Enphase’s Q3 performance is in stark contrast to that of SolarEdge, which this week reported record revenues of $115 million for the quarter, a healthy balance sheet and shipments of 356 MW in the U.S. alone.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Rooftop PV installations could raise daytime temperatures in urban environments by up to 1.5 C

09 October 2024 New research from India shows that rooftop PV system may have "unintended" consequences on temperartures in urban environments. Rooftop arrays, for ex...

Share

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.