SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

SunPower Co. (NASDAQ:SPWR)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Thursday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $3.00 to $2.50. The stock had previously closed at $2.87, but opened at $2.81. Citigroup currently has a sell rating on the stock. SunPower shares last traded at $3.01, with a volume of 895,525 shares traded.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of SunPower in a report on Friday, December 15th. They set a “hold” rating and a $5.50 price objective on the stock. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of SunPower from $4.00 to $4.25 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of SunPower from $4.00 to $2.50 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Raymond James lowered shares of SunPower from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of SunPower from $6.00 to $5.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.33.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in SunPower by 24.2% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 19,353,725 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $189,667,000 after acquiring an additional 3,770,195 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in SunPower by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,640,772 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $46,565,000 after acquiring an additional 197,291 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its position in shares of SunPower by 18.8% during the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 8,082,152 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $49,867,000 after acquiring an additional 1,279,226 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of SunPower by 144.3% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,926,951 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $42,739,000 after buying an additional 4,091,748 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of SunPower by 12.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,726,404 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $29,162,000 after purchasing an additional 531,800 shares in the last quarter. 47.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

SunPower Stock Up 4.9 %

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $3.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.33. The company has a market capitalization of $527.83 million, a PE ratio of -2.16 and a beta of 1.74.

SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.54) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.30) by ($0.24). SunPower had a negative net margin of 14.15% and a negative return on equity of 40.95%. The firm had revenue of $356.91 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $364.58 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that SunPower Co. will post -0.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SunPower Company Profile

SunPower Corporation, a solar technology and energy services provider, offers solar, storage, and home energy solutions primarily in the United States and Canada. Its solutions include the Equinox and SunVault systems which are pre-engineered modular solutions for residential applications that combine solar module technology with integrated plug-and-play power stations, cable management systems, and mounting hardware that enable dealers and installers to complete system installations, as well as for end customers to manage their energy production.