Vivint Solar, one of America’s leading but perpetually struggling residential solar installers, this week reported a somewhat surprising quarterly profit on its first quarter, though it marginally missed meeting analyst expectations.
Published this week, Vivint Solar revealed that it had managed to reverse its recent misfortune in its first quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2016, Vivint Solar reported a lackluster return, with installations and booking throughout the year declining steadily. Similarly, revenue was all over the place, up on a year prior but down on previous quarters. Fast-forward to the first quarter, however, and the company was able to report a strong showing, with 52 MW booked for the quarter and 46 MW installed, or a total of 6,581 installations. This was at the high end of the company’s guidance for the first quarter, and brings its cumulative install base to 727 MW, or 106,179 system installations.
Cost per Watt of installed capacity for the quarter was $2.98, a decrease from the $3.08 reported in the previous quarter, and well down on the $3.34 reported a year ago.
Financially, Operating Leases and Incentives Revenue reached $30.4 million, up an impressive 83% on the same quarter a year earlier, and up 20% on the $25.3 million taken during the fourth quarter of 2016. Total revenue for the quarter was $53.1 million, up a whopping 209% on the $17.2 million on the first quarter of 2016, and up 27% on 2016’s fourth quarter total revenue.
However, the company nevertheless still reported a net loss per share of $0.50, $0.02 off what market analysts had forecast.
Looking forward, Vivint Solar is predicting to install between 44 MW to 48 MW in the second quarter, with a cost per Watt of between $2.95 and $3.05.
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