SunPower shares crash 70% – SPE

By pv magazine USA

Residential solar company SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR) suffered a 70% drop in its stock prices this week and was down nearly 50% on Friday, July 19.

Reuters reported that SunPower has communicated to its employees that it will pause several core operations. The company announced that it will deactivate its leasing and power purchase agreement offerings and stop supplying new products.

SunPower said it will stop co-signing new agreements and cannot support installation services for shipments that are currently in transit or have already been delivered.

Residential solar in the United States has struggled over the past two years as rising interest rates and regulatory changes have squeezed the value provided to customers. As demand fell, rising excess inventory created further challenges for installers. installations are nationally by 20% by 2024.

SunPower’s problems have continued due to persistently high interest rates. In December 2023, the company defaulted on its debts and warned that it had “ongoing concerns” about the survival of the business.

In April, the company announced it would close numerous installation service centers across the country and cut about 26% of its workforce.

The company’s price target was lowered to $0 by Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research. Roth Capital Partners said competitors Sunrun and Sunnova are likely to benefit from the lost market share left by SunPower.

“We believe this effectively marks the end for SPWR as an operating company,” said a Guggenheim analyst note. “Given the debt the company has accumulated, we believe that SPWR’s equity no longer has any value.”