Investing

Earnings Previews: JinkoSolar, Li-Cycle

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After U.S. markets closed 0n Wednesday, Disney reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) that beat estimates and revenue that fell less than 1% short of estimates and was up 3.8% year over year. Cost savings and impairment charges led to the adjusted EPS beat; on a GAAP basis, Disney posted a loss per share of $0.25. The stock traded up about 1.7% shortly after the opening bell.

Coeur Mining missed estimates on both the top and bottom lines. The mining company has agreed with its revolving credit lenders to increase its maximum net leverage from 4.25× to 5.5× in the third quarter before reverting in steps to 3.5× in the second quarter of next year. Coeur also agreed to sell the $50 million in new common shares through three banks. The stock traded down about 0.4%.

Plug Power missed the consensus loss per share estimate by nearly 50%, posting a loss of $0.40 where $0.27 was expected. Revenue was better than expected and up 72% year over year. The company affirmed fiscal-year revenue guidance in a range of $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion. The company’s green hydrogen projects have been delayed, and production guidance is dubious at best. Shares traded down 12% early Thursday.

Before markets opened on Thursday, Alibaba reported better-than-expected EPS and revenue. The big question is whether China’s e-commerce behemoth can weather the slowing of China’s economy. Cost cutting, including layoffs, helped boost Alibaba’s performance in the quarter. The stock traded up about 3.3%.

After Thursday’s closing bell, quantum computing company IonQ and News Corp are set to report quarterly results. No notable earnings reports are due on Friday.

Here is a look at what analysts expect to hear from two companies reporting quarterly earnings first thing Monday morning.

JinkoSolar

China-based solar module maker JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: JKS) has suffered a share price decline of almost 40% over the past 12 months. So far in August, shares are down nearly 11% for the month. The company has missed EPS estimates in four of the past eight quarters while beating revenue estimates in all but one.

In a move to cut its costs, the company sold a manufacturing site in China to the provincial government for $622 million in May. That was also the month that U.S. Homeland Security officials raided company offices in San Francisco and Jacksonville, Florida.
Of eight analysts covering JinkoSolar, six have a Buy or Strong Buy rating, and one more rates the stock a Hold. At a recent share price of around $38.00, the upside potential based on a  median price target of $70.00 is 84.2%. The upside potential based on the high price target of $78.00 is 105.3%.

Second-quarter revenue is forecast at $4.02 billion, which would be up 18.4% sequentially and by 43.0% year over year. Adjusted EPS are forecast at $1.26, down 45.6% sequentially but 13.5% higher year over year. For the full 2023 fiscal year, analysts are looking for EPS of $7.42, up 78.4%, on sales of $15.73 billion, up nearly 30%.

JinkoSolar stock trades at 5.1 times expected 2023 EPS, 4.5 times estimated 2024 earnings of $8.52 and 3.6 times estimated 2025 earnings of $10.62 per share. Its 52-week trading range is $35.66 to $69.14. JinkoSolar does not pay a dividend. Total shareholder return for the past year was negative 39.30%.

Li-Cycle

Lithium-ion battery recycler Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. (NYSE: LICY) has seen its share price decline by about 25% over the past year. A share price gain of 15.3% since the beginning of the year has helped moderate the decline. Lithium prices have dropped by 45% in the past year and by nearly half in 2023.

Canada-based Li-Cycle last week opened a new plant in Magdeburg, Germany, that, when fully functional, will be capable of annually recycling 30,000 metric tons of lithium-ion battery material. The company also has partnered with Glencore to convert a lead refinery in Sicily to a recycling plant for battery metals like lithium, nickel and cobalt with an annual capacity of 50,000 to 75,000 tons of pretreated scrap product called black mass.

Of eight brokerages covering the stock, six have a Buy or Strong Buy rating and one more a Hold rating. At a share price of around $5.50, the upside potential based on a median price target of $8.00 is 45.5%. Based on a high price target of $9.50, the upside potential on the stock is 72.7%.


Fiscal second-quarter revenue is forecast at $7.85 million, up 118.2% sequentially but 9.2% lower than in the year-ago quarter. Analysts are looking for an adjusted per-share loss of $0.16, less than the prior quarter’s loss of $0.21 per share but worse than last year’s second-quarter loss of $0.14 per share. For the full 2023 fiscal year, the adjusted loss per share is forecast at $0.73 on sales of $29.21 million, up about 395.1%.

Li-Cycle is not expected to post a profit in 2023, 2024 or 2025. The enterprise value to sales multiple for the three years is 30.7, 4.7 and 1.9, respectively. The 52-week trading range is $4.30 to $8.15. Li-Cycle does not pay a dividend, and the total shareholder return for the past year is negative 25.10%.

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