Axiom's Gordon Johnson Less Bearish On SolarCity, Upgrades From Sell To Hold

Axiom’s Gordon Johnson expressed increased optimism on the solar sector, with expectations of “catalysts of both the fundamental & sentiment variety on the horizon.”

Johnson upgraded the rating on SolarCity Corp SCTY from Sell to Hold.

Reasons For Optimism

The analyst explained that there were four key reasons for the optimism on the solar sector, including the prosed FiT cut by China on July 1, 2017.

Johnson estimates that this cut would “usher in ~25GW of 1H17 Chinese “pull-in” demand”, suggesting that the solar market would by undersupplied at least temporarily, in H1 2017.

Related Link: Finding Some Sun At A Cloudy Time For Solar Stocks, ETFs

Following 32 consecutive weeks of week-over-week multi-wafer declines and 18 straight weeks of week-over-week multi-cell price declines, the prices for both substrates have moved up in the current week, on the back of news of a sharper than anticipated FiT cut by China in 2017.

In addition, Johnson believes that if Hilary Clinton were to win the U.S. Presidential election, it would give a push to solar stocks, given her “robust 140GW solar installation goal.”

The analyst also believes that following the year-to-date underperformance of the Solar TAN Index, there are “catalysts of both the fundamental & sentiment variety on the horizon.”

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