The latest quarterly report from the Solar Energy Industries Association and GTM research has analysts at Raymond James extremely bullish on SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY). They used industry data from that report to estimate SolarCity’s residential market share during the third quarter.
What the report means for SolarCity
Analyst Pavel Molchanov noted that photovoltaic solar panel installations in the U.S. amounted to 1,354 megawatts in the third quarter. That’s a 41% year over year increase that splits the difference between the first quarter’s 79% growth rate and the second quarter’s 21% growth rate. The analyst noted that as has been the case in the past, utility-scale projects were still the biggest part of the market at 825 megawatts or 61% of the market.
He estimates that SolarCity had about a 39% market share of PV installations during the third quarter based on the company’s reported 119 megawatts of residential installations. He points out that this is a record high percentage of market share for the company. He adds that it is 9% higher than their long-term assumption for SolarCity and 4% higher than last year’s market share of 35%.
Only up from here for SolarCity?
The analyst noted further that SolarCity’s market share was in the low 30% range in the first half of this year. He said there’s always “noise in short-term market share statistics,” but he doesn’t think SolarCity’s share of the market will fall back down to 30%. In fact, he thinks the company’s market share will approach 50% within the next 12 months.
Molchanov also pointed out that SolarCity has been aggressively investing, which unfortunately brings higher corporate operating expenses along with it. However, he said the company is obviously growing more quickly than the overall residential PV market and is still the biggest player by far.
The analyst continues to rate SolarCity at Outperform and has a $75 per share price target on the solar panel installer’s stock.
SolarCity announces new financing program
Another bit of news that’s undoubtedly boosting SolarCity shares today is the company’s announcement about the financing deal it struck with Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC). Under the terms of that deal, the company will finance approximately $400 million in solar projects through Bank of America in the rest of this year and throughout n ext year.
Shares of SolarCity Corp climbed as much as 4% during regular trading hours today.
