8point3 Energy Partners (CAFD) Q2 Earnings: What To Expect?

8point3 Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:CAFD) is slated to report second-quarter fiscal 2017 results on Jun 29. In the last quarter, it had pulled off a positive earnings surprise of 116.67%. Also, the partnership outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two out of the trailing four quarters with an average positive surprise of 902.38%.

We note that 8point3 Energy is a limited partnership formed by First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) and SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ:SPWR) to own and operate a portfolio of selected solar energy generation assets. Based in San Jose, CA, the partnership serves residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Factors Affecting this Quarter

The partnership’s revenues grew 39.4% year over year in the fiscal first quarter. Moving ahead, 8point3 Energy expects to witness similar solid sales improvement in the fiscal second quarter as well, along with strong cash flows.

To be specific, the partnership as per its fiscal first quarter earnings call revelation, expects revenues in the range of $14–$16 million, net income in $3–$5 million band, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $24–$26.5 million, and $15–$17.5 million in cash available for distribution in the to-be-reported quarter.

Recently, the partnership has declared a hike in the distribution of Class A shares for the fiscal second quarter, bringing the annualized payout to 99.60 cents per share from 96.24 cents paid earlier. Moreover, the annual yield on distribution is 7.7%. The new quarterly distribution amounts to 26.42 cents per share, reflecting a 3% sequential increase from 25.65 cents. The dividend hike reflects the strong cash balance position that this partnership boasts.

However, the partnership had admitted earlier that due to limited liquidity it is unable to acquire any large-scale projects in the near term. As a result, a handful of projects that First Solar is ready to sell out in the future will not go to this partnership but the third party, thereby resulting into loss of assets. This, in turn, might hamper the partnership’s performance and restrict it from achieving its desired financial targets in the fiscal second quarter.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that 8point3 Energy will beat on earnings this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here as you will see below.

Zacks ESP: 8point3 Energy has an Earnings ESP of -12.50%. That is because the Most Accurate estimate is 14 cents, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at 16 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter

Zacks Rank: 8point3 Energy has a Zacks Rank #3, which when combined with a negative ESP makes surprise prediction difficult. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Note that we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Upcoming Peer Release

ReneSola Ltd. (NYSE:SOL) is expected to report its second quarter 2017 earnings results on Aug 23.

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