Analyst Looks Mixed, but Actually Positive, on Chinese Solar Stocks

What investors should consider in these ratings for upside is that the Credit Suisse metrics are based on a relative basis to peers. That means that the Outperform, Neutral and Underperform ratings are relative to a sector or a basket of coverage rather than relative to the market. That is why even the Neutral ratings here have large upside projections with them.

JinkoSolar Holding Co. (NYSE: JKS) was initiated with an Outperform rating in the Credit Suisse call. What stood out here was the target price of $45.00. The stock closed at $27.81 on Thursday, and shares were up over 1% at $28.20 late on Friday. Keep in mind that the 52-week range is $7.25 to $37.98, and the consensus price target is listed as being above $40. This represents about 60% upside, if Jobin is correct in the call.

Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE: TSL) was started as Neutral and with a target price of $19 at Credit Suisse. Trina Solar was trading at $12.77 late on Friday, which still implies almost 50% upside if Jobin is right. That sounds very different from a Neutral rating elsewhere — it sounds more like a Strong Buy! Trina Solar’s consensus price target is almost $19 as well.

JA Solar Holdings (NASDAQ: JASO) was also started as Neutral with a target price of $12 at Credit Suisse. With shares at $10.76 before the call and $10.84 on late Friday trading, this implies upside of more than 10%. This is nowhere close to the “neutral upside of almost 50%” of Trina Solar, but it isn’t exactly a panic call either. The consensus price target on JA Solar is $15.

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ReneSola Ltd. (NYSE: SOL) landed the Underperform rating, which signifies a “sell” rating at most firms. Still, the target price of $3.25 compared to a $2.99 close the day before. Sellers only read the headline it appears, because this ADS was down over 3% at $2.89 late on Friday. This still left almost 9% upside to the price target before the call, and it left 12% implied upside if you factor in the post-call reaction on Friday. ReneSola was shown to have a consensus price target of $3.00.