SolarCity Corp Q3 Earnings Preview: Yet Another Quarterly Loss

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SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) is scheduled to report its third-quarter results on Wednesday, Nov.5 after the market close. You can listen to the live webcast here. The residential solar installer continues to innovate, acquire and take market share. However, the company’s shares have declined more than 17% in the last three months. Analysts expect the company to post a wider loss for the September quarter.

SolarCity’s Q3 revenue expected to jump 24%

The San Mateo-based company last posted a profit in Q4, 2013. If you exclude certain items, SolarCity has never reported a profit since its IPO in 2012, reports MarketWatch. For the latest quarter, analysts polled by FactSet expect losses to widen from $0.43 to $1.11. Wall Street expects Q3 revenue to increase 23.90% YoY from $48.6 million to $60.23 million.

Analysts polled by FactSet have an average rating of Buy on the stock, with average price target of $89.40. At the earnings call, investors will be looking for commentary on whether the solar installer’s recent bets have started paying off. In the past few months, the company has acquired solar panel maker Silevo, and started selling solar bonds directly to investors.

SolarCity unveils ZS Beam

SolarCity has been on an aggressive acquisition spree. So, investors would also want to know whether the company is planning any further acquisitions. Another important metric will be the number of customers added during the third-quarter. SolarCity aims to have at least one million customers by 2018. At the end of the second-quarter, the company had 141,034 customers.

The Elon Musk-backed company has announced a new product called ZS Beam to make the carport solar system installation cheaper, easier and safer. The product should attract business, organizations and schools that are interested in solar carparks. GTM Research estimates that the U.S. carport solar market will increase from an estimated 180.2MW in 2014 to 317.9MW in 2016.

SolarCity shares surged 4.92% to $59.10 at 11:58 AM EDT on Friday.

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