SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

SunPower Co. (NASDAQ:SPWR) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $3.00 to $2.50. The stock had previously closed at $2.87, but opened at $2.81. Citigroup currently has a sell rating on the stock. SunPower shares last traded at $3.01, with a volume of 895,525 shares traded.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on SPWR. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on SunPower from $4.00 to $2.50 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Raymond James lowered SunPower from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Mizuho decreased their target price on SunPower from $6.00 to $5.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Guggenheim downgraded shares of SunPower from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price objective on SunPower from $5.00 to $3.50 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, SunPower has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.33.

Institutional Trading of SunPower

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its position in SunPower by 18.8% during the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 8,082,152 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $49,867,000 after acquiring an additional 1,279,226 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in SunPower by 398.4% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 262,470 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,619,000 after acquiring an additional 209,811 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in SunPower by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 52,243 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $322,000 after purchasing an additional 4,671 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of SunPower by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,726,404 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $29,162,000 after buying an additional 531,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in SunPower by 2,371.3% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 582,902 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $3,597,000 after acquiring an additional 559,315 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 47.36% of the company’s stock.

SunPower Price Performance

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $3.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4.33. The company has a market cap of $527.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.16 and a beta of 1.74.

SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The semiconductor company reported ($0.54) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.30) by ($0.24). SunPower had a negative return on equity of 40.95% and a negative net margin of 14.15%. The firm had revenue of $356.91 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $364.58 million. Research analysts anticipate that SunPower Co. will post -0.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SunPower Company Profile

SunPower Corporation, a solar technology and energy services provider, offers solar, storage, and home energy solutions primarily in the United States and Canada. Its solutions include the Equinox and SunVault systems which are pre-engineered modular solutions for residential applications that combine solar module technology with integrated plug-and-play power stations, cable management systems, and mounting hardware that enable dealers and installers to complete system installations, as well as for end customers to manage their energy production.