JinkoSolar's $100M Share Repurchase Program Gets Approval

JinkoSolar Holding Company Limited (NYSE:JKS) recently announced that its board of directors approved a share repurchase program. This authorizes the solar module manufacturer to repurchase up to $100 million of its ordinary shares, represented by American depositary shares, within a period of twelve months.

The company intends to use its existing funds for the repurchase of shares under the program.

Robust Performance Supporting Share Buybacks

Over the last few quarters, JinkoSolar has been witnessing significant expansion in its solar module shipments, led by a rapidly increasing demand for solar products. Notably, during the fourth quarter, JinkoSolar delivered 950 MW of its ultra-high efficiency Cheetah 72 cells solar modules to Spain-based X-ELIO. It also supplied 300MW of its high-energy density Tiger panels during the fourth quarter to China.

Such solid shipments are boosting JinkoSolar’s top and bottom-line performance, thereby enabling it to reward its shareholders with solid share buybacks. The latest approval for the $100-million share buyback program is an instance of that.

Another Solar Player to Consider

In December 2019, solar photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturer Canadian Solar’s (NASDAQ:CSIQ) board of directors authorized the repurchase of its common stock worth $150 million for a six-month period, beginning Dec 9, 2019, and ending Jun 8, 2020. As future growth prospects look promising for the solar industry, we may expect more companies to come up with new share repurchase programs.

Looking Ahead

The global solar market has been rallying since the beginning of 2019 and 2020 promises to reflect better prospects. Per IHS Markit, the global solar energy industry anticipates installations to reach 142 gigawatts (GW) in 2020, 14% higher compared to the total solar capacity installed in 2019. In 2019, improvement in technological innovation, policy developments and new business models led to the overall market growth. We expect similar trends to follow in 2020, which in turn will boost growth for solar energy manufacturers.

Such projections indicate favorable prospects for global solar energy development on a whole. Hence, prominent solar players like JinkoSolar, Canadian Solar, ReneSola (NYSE:SOL) and SolarEdge Technologies (NASDAQ:SEDG) , among others, are expected to benefit significantly, going forward.

Price Movement

This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has declined 7.7% in the past year against the industry’s growth of 28.7%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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