Bar Set High for Next Week’s Slew of Solar Reports

Another Chinese solar play topped the Street’s expectations on Friday, setting the pace for a slew of earnings next week.

Earlier this week we covered JA Solar’s (JASO) record third-quarter performance , and after today’s report from Yingli Green Energy (YGE) it appears the trend could continue. Yingli’s sequential photovoltaic (PV) module shipment volume spiked by 80% during Q3 to a new company record, resulting in $326 million in net revenue. Net income came in at $17.7 million or 18 cents a share, topping EPS consensus by 2 cents.

Yingli chairman and CEO Liansheng Miao noted the company’s improved gross margin, which reached 20.1% in the third quarter after measuring 15.3% and 18.3% in Q1 and Q2 respectively. The company lifted its low-end full-year 2009 gross margin guidance, now expecting between 19% and 20% from the prior 18% to 20% forecast.

JA Solar and Yingli were the first two components of the Chinese Solar Stocks Index to announce their third-quarter numbers, with the remainder of the group reporting next week. Needless to say, investors will be expecting some pretty impressive results.

Today’s session is the Street’s last chance to place bets on ReneSola’s (SOL) Q3 performance before its pre-market report on Monday. As of Thursday’s close, the stock is the Chinese solar sector’s worst performer over the last five sessions, down by -5.6%.

China Sunergy (CSUN) and Solarfun Power Holdings (SOLF) will all report their numbers before the market opens on Wednesday.

Canadian Solar (CSIQ) is the sector’s lone report on Tuesday, reporting before the market opens.

Finally, Suntech Power Holdings (STP) and Trina Solar (TSL), China’s first and third largest solar players by market cap, will report on Thursday – Suntech pre-market, Trina after closing. Trina is outperforming one-month runner-up Canadian Solar by more than 10% for the period, up by 6.6%.

As of Thursday’s close, the Chinese Solar Stocks Index was one of the 50 worst-performing tickerspy Indexes over the last month, down by -6.5%.

Investors can track the Chinese Solar Stocks Index for performance trends and a suite of other metrics at tickerspy.com.

Tags: CSIQ, CSUN, JASO, SOL, SOLF, STP, TSL, YGE