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SPWR $2.87

SPWR target price
2.87
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SunPower Corporation
Type
Public
Traded as NASDAQ: SPWR
Russell 1000 Component
Industry Solar Energy
Founded 1985
Founder Richard Swanson
Headquarters San Jose, California, U.S.
Key people
Thomas H. Werner (CEO)
Products Solar panels
Revenue Decrease US$ 1,576,470,000 (2016)
Operating income
Decrease US$ -206,290,000 (2016)
Net income
Decrease US$ -187,020,000 (2016)
Total assets Decrease US$ 4,856,990,000 (2016)
Total equity Decrease US$ 1,449,150,000 (2016)
Number of employees
8,902 (December 2016)
Parent Total S.A. (66%)
Website sunpower.com

Footnotes / references
Financials from SunPower Corporation

Footnotes / references
Financials from SunPower Corporation

SunPower Corporation is an American energy company that designs and manufactures crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and solar panels based on an all-back-contact solar cell invented at Stanford University. The company is majority owned by Total, the fourth largest publicly-listed energy company in the world and is publicly traded on the NASDAQ as SPWR.

SunPower was started when Richard Swanson, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University, was awarded grants to support his solar power explorations. With the help of these funds – as well as financial support from two venture capital firms – SunPower was officially incorporated on April 24, 1985. The original plan was to develop and market solar concentrator systems.

In 1990 the company received a research and development contract from EPRI and the US Dept. of Energy. Two years later, SunPower began shipping concentrator cells to customers. In 1995 SunPower's all-back contact solar cells powered Honda's solar car to victory in the annual Darwin to Adelaide race across Australia beating the second place winner by one full day. In 1997, the company's solar cells were used in the NASA Pathfinder high altitude aircraft.

in 2002, Cypress Semiconductor invested $8 million in SunPower. The following year Tom Werner joined as CEO. In 2004, SunPower opened manufacturing facilities in the Philippines and Bavaria. The company held an IPO in 2005.

In January 2007, SunPower acquired PowerLight Corporation, a large-scale solar power systems company. In February 2010, it acquired Europe's SunRay Renewable Energy for $277 million.

In April 2011, Total S.A. agreed to buy 60% of SunPower for US$1.38 billion. In December 2011, the company announced an agreement to acquire Tenesol SA. In 2013 SunPower acquired Greenbotics, Inc., maker of robotic solar panel cleaning products and services for large-scale solar power plants.

The company's main product is a high-efficiency solar cell, trademarked "Maxeon", the same size and shape as conventional 6-inch/160 mm single-crystal silicon cells, packaged into conventional 60-cell solar panels. The cells have a conversion efficiency of 21.5%, and each panel produces up to 345 W; typical conventional panels produce up to 250 to 270 W.

Silicon solar cells typically consist of a thin layer of silicon chemically treated to produce an electrically active layer near the front that produces electricity when the sun shines on it. Collecting that energy is normally handled via a series of very fine wires embedded on the front. There is an inherent paradox in the wiring design; larger wires lower electrical resistance and improve energy collection but reflect light that would otherwise reach the cell and improve energy creation. The wires are normally made of silver for a variety of reasons, although less expensive copper and aluminum wiring has been attempted with no great market success. The circuit is completed by a thin layer of aluminum that is deposited on the back of the cell.

The Maxeon design starts with the same basic silicon cell, but changes the electrical connections. The silver wiring on the front is eliminated and replaced by a transparent electrode material, similar to the materials used in LCD televisions and similar devices. These electrodes have poorer electrical characteristics than silver, but by covering the entire face of the cell they improve overall performance, while eliminating light blockage. The back of the cell replaces the thin aluminum layer with a thicker copper one, which both improves electrical performance as well as offering a much more physically robust platform while eliminating corrosion that occurs in the aluminum over time. On June 23, 2010, The company announced that it has produced a full-scale solar cell with a sunlight to electricity conversion efficiency of 24.2 percent, a world record confirmed by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL).

After the cells are constructed, conventional assembly system uses a robot to place the cells into a grid of 6 columns of 10 cells - other arrangements are used, but rare outside commercial settings. As they are placed, wiring consisting of a strip of silver is woven between the cells and soldered to the connectors on the front and back. A small amount of space is required between the cells to allow the strips to pass over and under the cells. The layout takes place on top of a plastic sheet known as the backsheet, and the cells and wiring are glued to the sheet as the assembly advances. When the glue dries, the resulting laminate is ready for assembly into a panel, which consists of gluing the cell side of the laminate to a glass sheet, adding a junction box for electrical connections, and adding an aluminum frame around the outside for mechanical robustness. Different assembly systems may use different steps, but the end result is a glass sheet on top, cells and wiring in the middle, and the backsheet on the back.

The company's panels are similar in concept and layout, but include a number of additional changes to further improve the system. Instead of using silver strips to connect the cells together, which is no longer needed due to the lack of silver on the cells, its panels use a robust edge-connector that includes a built-in strain relief to reduce mechanical stress. According to the company, these changes eliminate 85% of the failures in conventional designs, which is due primarily to corrosion and electrical breaks. Only 14% of failures are due to cell or component failures.

The downside to these design changes is cost, both the materials and construction methods are more expensive and drive up the price of the panels. However, the price of the panel is not the only input to a solar power system's total cost, and in recent years it accounts for much less than half of the total. In this case, using a more expensive panel can actually produce a lower overall system cost if savings can be found in installation time or there are artificial limits on system size. These are both true in the case of residential installs, where the roof defines the total size of the system that can be installed, and the cost of labor is the largest single cost of the system. Simply replacing conventional panels with SunPower panels will increase the total power of the system as much as 25% without having any effect on install times, in which case the total install cost in terms of price per watt can improve in spite of higher prices on the panels.

The company's shares have been listed on the Photovoltaik Global 30 Index since the beginning of this stock index in 2009.

Q reports

Period Date Adjusted Actuals EPS GAAP EPS
Q3 2022 2022-11-01 Future report Set alerts
Q2 2022 2022-08-02 0.03 0.03
Q1 2022 2022-05-05 0.00 0.00
Q4 2021 2022-02-16 0.03 0.03
Q3 2021 2021-11-03 0.06 0.06
Q2 2021 2021-08-03 0.06 0.06
Q1 2021 2021-05-05 0.05 0.05
Q4 2020 2021-02-17 0.14 0.14
Q3 2020 2020-10-28 0.00 0.00
Q2 2020 2020-08-05 -0.22 0.11

Ratings

2016-07-07 Reiterated Rating Robert W. Baird Outperform $37.00
2016-06-01 Initiated Coverage Wells Fargo Market Perform
2016-06-01 Initiated Coverage Wells Fargo & Co. Market Perform
2016-05-14 Reiterated Rating Robert W. Baird Outperform $37.00
2016-05-10 Reiterated Rating Barclays Overweight $32.00 to $23.00
2016-05-10 Reiterated Rating Barclays PLC Overweight $32.00 to $23.00
2016-05-09 Reiterated Rating Janney Montgomery Scott Buy to Buy $17.00 to $30.00
2016-05-08 Reiterated Rating Robert W. Baird Buy
2016-05-06 Reiterated Rating Morgan Stanley Buy
2016-04-12 Initiated Coverage Guggenheim Neutral
2016-04-07 Reiterated Rating Robert W. Baird Outperform
2016-03-30 Initiated Coverage Mizuho Neutral $25.00
2016-03-01 Reiterated Rating Deutsche Bank Buy
2016-03-01 Reiterated Rating Deutsche Bank AG Buy
2016-02-26 Initiated Coverage Northland Securities Outperform $37.00
2016-02-20 Reiterated Rating Robert W. Baird Outperform $44.00
2016-02-18 Reiterated Rating JPMorgan Chase & Co. Buy
2016-02-18 Boost Price Target Janney Montgomery Scott Buy $28.00 to $30.00
2016-02-18 Lower Price Target Goldman Sachs Neutral $34.00 to $31.00
2016-02-18 Lower Price Target Deutsche Bank Buy $41.00 to $37.00
2016-02-18 Reiterated Rating Cowen and Company Buy $43.00 to $38.00
2016-02-18 Lower Price Target Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Neutral $34.00 to $31.00
2016-01-22 Upgrade Barclays Equal Weight to Overweight $26.00 to $32.00
2016-01-21 Upgrade Janney Montgomery Scott Neutral to Buy $28.00
2016-01-05 Boost Price Target Raymond James $32.00 to $35.00
2016-01-05 Boost Price Target Oppenheimer Outperform $31.00 to $40.00
2016-01-05 Downgrade Goldman Sachs Buy to Neutral $33.00 to $35.00
2016-01-05 Boost Price Target Raymond James Financial Inc. $32.00 to $35.00
2016-01-05 Boost Price Target Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. Outperform $31.00 to $40.00
2015-12-22 Reiterated Rating Morgan Stanley Buy
2015-12-21 Boost Price Target Morgan Stanley Overweight $41.00 to $43.00
2015-12-21 Boost Price Target Janney Montgomery Scott Fair Value to Neutral $23.00 to $28.00
2015-12-17 Upgrade S&P Equity Research Buy to Strong-Buy
2015-11-17 Boost Price Target Barclays Equal Weight $25.00 to $26.00
2015-11-14 Reiterated Rating Robert W. Baird Buy
2015-11-06 Initiated Coverage Macquarie Outperform
2015-10-29 Reiterated Rating Janney Montgomery Scott Neutral to Fair Value $23.00 to $23.78
2015-10-29 Lower Price Target RBC Capital Outperform $37.00 to $32.00
2015-10-29 Lower Price Target Royal Bank Of Canada Outperform $37.00 to $32.00
2015-09-21 Reiterated Rating JPMorgan Chase & Co. Overweight $42.00 to $38.00
2015-09-09 Initiated Coverage Janney Montgomery Scott Neutral $23.00
2015-09-08 Initiated Coverage Oppenheimer Outperform $31.00
2015-09-01 Initiated Coverage Barclays Equal Weight $25.00
2015-08-02 Reiterated Rating Deutsche Bank Buy
2015-07-29 Lower Price Target Northland Securities Outperform $49.00 to $45.00
2015-07-15 Reiterated Rating Goldman Sachs Buy $37.00
2015-07-14 Initiated Coverage JPMorgan Chase & Co. Overweight to Overweight $42.00
2015-05-07 Upgrade Credit Suisse Outperform $36.00
2015-05-07 Upgrade RBC Capital Outperform $35.00
2015-05-07 Upgrade Credit Suisse Group AG Outperform $36.00
2015-05-01 Reiterated Rating Northland Securities Outperform $49.00
2015-02-25 Reiterated Rating Cowen and Company Buy
2015-02-25 Set Price Target Morgan Stanley Overweight $35.00 to $45.00
2015-01-30 Upgrade RBC Capital Sector Perform to Outperform $35.00 to $36.00
2015-01-13 Upgrade Credit Agricole Neutral to Outperform $35.00
2015-01-13 Upgrade Credit Suisse Neutral to Outperform $25.51 to $35.00
2015-01-13 Upgrade Credit Agricole SA Neutral to Outperform $35.00
2014-12-30 Set Price Target JPMorgan Chase & Co. Buy $40.00
2014-12-30 Set Price Target Raymond James Buy $35.00
2014-12-30 Upgrade Morgan Stanley Equal Weight to Overweight
2014-12-16 Upgrade Morgan Stanley Equal Weight to Overweight $35.00
2014-11-17 Boost Price Target JPMorgan Chase & Co. Overweight $39.00 to $40.00
2014-11-14 Reiterated Northland Capital Outperform $47 to $49
2014-11-14 Reiterated Rating Canaccord Genuity Buy $36.00
2014-11-14 Boost Price Target Northland Securities Outperform $47.00 to $49.00
2014-10-30 Upgrade Canaccord Genuity Hold to Buy
2014-10-27 Reiterated Rating Robert W. Baird Buy
2014-10-13 Upgrade Raymond James Market Perform to Outperform $35.00
2014-10-03 Upgrade JPMorgan Chase & Co. Neutral to Overweight $32.56 to $43.00
2014-08-01 Upgrade Brean Capital Hold to Buy $41.00
2014-08-01 Reiterated Rating Cowen and Company Outperform
2014-07-15 Reiterated Rating JPMorgan Chase & Co. Neutral $40.00 to $43.00
2014-07-10 Reiterated Rating Deutsche Bank Buy $38.00 to $48.00
2014-07-09 Boost Price Target Cowen and Company $50.00
2014-07-02 Initiated Coverage Canaccord Genuity Hold $41.00
2014-06-25 Boost Price Target Robert W. Baird $42.00 to $48.00
2014-06-23 Downgrade Brean Capital Buy to Hold $34.00 to $34.00
2014-06-18 Downgrade JPMorgan Chase & Co. Overweight to Neutral $40.00
2014-05-15 Reiterated Rating Brean Capital Buy $32.00
2014-05-07 Reiterated Rating Brean Capital Buy $32.00
2014-04-29 Reiterated Rating Brean Capital Buy $32.00
2014-04-28 Boost Price Target Credit Suisse Neutral $29.00 to $35.00
2014-04-25 Upgrade Ardour Capital Accumulate to Buy
2014-04-25 Reiterated Rating Cowen and Company Outperform
2014-04-25 Boost Price Target JPMorgan Chase & Co. $38.50 to $40.00
2014-04-25 Boost Price Target Northland Securities Outperform $38.00 to $47.00
2014-04-23 Upgrade Deutsche Bank Hold to Buy $33.00 to $38.00
2014-04-23 Upgrade Bank of America Underperform to Buy $21.00 to $37.00
2014-04-21 Initiated Coverage Brean Capital Buy $32.00
2014-04-14 Reiterated Rating Cowen and Company Buy
2014-03-26 Reiterated Rating Cowen and Company Positive
2014-03-24 Boost Price Target Robert W. Baird $38.00 to $42.00
2014-02-19 Initiated Coverage FBR & Co. Market Perform $36.00
2014-01-16 Initiated Coverage JPMorgan Chase & Co. Overweight $38.50
2013-10-31 Reiterated Rating Goldman Sachs Neutral
2013-10-29 Boost Price Target Deutsche Bank Hold $25.00 to $33.00
2016-07-07 Reiterated Rating Robert W. Baird Outperform $37.00
2016-06-01 Initiated Coverage Wells Fargo Market Perform
2016-06-01 Initiated Coverage Wells Fargo & Co. Market Perform
2016-05-14 Reiterated Rating Robert W. Baird Outperform $37.00
2016-05-10 Reiterated Rating Barclays Overweight $32.00 to $23.00

There is presents forecasts of rating agencies and recommendations for investors about this ticker

Major Shareholders

Name Relationship Total Shares Holding stocks