Enphase Energy
stock was downgraded as Truist says the residential solar industry has longer to go before it sees a solid recovery.
Truist Securities analyst Jordan Levy downgraded shares of
Enphase
(ticker: ENPH) to Hold from Buy and cut the price target on the stock to $135 from $210 on Monday. Levy wrote in a research note that there is a potential for a more “prolonged recovery in U.S. resi solar markets than currently priced into shares.”
Enphase’s
stock has had a difficult year so far. It has sunk 54% in 2023, marking its worst year-to-date performance since 2015 as of Monday’s close, according to Dow Jones Market Data. This comes amid a challenging time for the residential solar market overall, as rising interest rates have made the cost of financing large home projects, like installing solar panels, more expensive. California also recently implemented regulatory changes that decrease how much money solar users get from putting surplus energy into the grid.
“The sell-through in the first half of 2023 in both Q1 and Q2 was approximately 20% below the fourth quarter due to the high interest rate environment in the U.S.,” Chief Executive Badri Kothandaraman said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call in July.
But it’s not all cloudy in Enphase’s future. The company said on the earnings call that it expects the Inflation Reduction Act to increase overall solar demand in the U.S. and accelerate domestic production. The IRA was passed in 2022 and provides tax incentives to home owners that install solar panels.
Enphase was also a recent Barron’s stock pick, and other analysts are more bullish in the future of the stock as interest rates come down. Of the 37 analysts surveyed by FactSet, 24 say the stock is a Buy while 12 say it’s a Hold and one says it’s a Sell.
Shares of the solar inverter maker were rising 1.4% Tuesday to $123.84.
Write to Angela Palumbo at [email protected]
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