Trina Solar Earnings Reinforce Positive Message Sent by JinkoSolar

Sequentially, revenues improved nearly 20% and module shipments were up the same amount. Operating margins improved to 1.1%, up from a negative 5.4% in the second quarter and a negative 25.5% in the third quarter of last year..

For the fourth quarter Trina Solar expects module shipments in the range of 760 to 790 megawatts, compared with shipments of 774.6 megawatts in the third quarter. For the full-year the company raised its forecast for shipments from a range of 2,300 to 2,400 megawatts to a new range of 2,580 to 2,620 megawatts.

Like JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: JKS), which reported results on Monday, both sequential and year-over-year revenues rose and higher average selling prices and an increase in volume shipments have righted the Trina Solar ship. Also like JinkoSolar, Trina has turned to new, larger-scale projects to help boost revenues and margins. The Chinese government, however, has cut its plan for utility-scale systems, choosing instead to encourage development of distributed solar PV systems.

The change in the government’s focus, utility-scale projects have been cut from a prior target of 11,800 megawatts to 7,600 megawatts. The other 4,200 megawatts will be installed in distributed systems. Project pipelines at Trina, JinkoSolar, JA Solar Holdings Co. Inc. (NASDAQ: JASO), and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: YGE) are weighted toward utility-scale projects, and planned revenue streams could be affected by the new targets.

Solar stocks got a nice bounce yesterday from JinkoSolar’s results, so today’s bounce on Trina’s report looks a bit muted. Trina Solar’s shares are up about 1.3% during the noon hour, at $16.43 in a 52-week range of $2.04 to $18.30. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $12.50 before today’s results were announced. That lack of enthusiasm among analysts for Chinese solar stocks could be another reason that the share price has not bounced more today.