Canadian Solar Hikes Guidance; More Solar Numbers Coming This Week

• Canadian Solar Inc. CSIQ shares are spiking after the company upped its Q3 guidance.
• According to management, the increased guidance is the result of unexpected demand in its solar module business.
• If the strong demand is widespread within the solar industry, it could have a large impact on other solar companies reporting this week.

Shares of Canadian Solar are soaring more than 8.3 percent in early trading on Monday following an announcement by the company that is has experienced higher-than-expected solar demand in Q3. The news comes during a big week for two other solar companies, First Solar, Inc. FSLR and SolarCity Corp SCTY, both of which report earnings on Thursday.

New demand projections
Canadian Solar now projects Q3 solar module shipments to come in between 1.18 GW and 1.23 GW compared to a previous projected range of between 970 MW and 1.02 GW. In addition, the company raised its Q3 revenue guidance range from $570-$620 million to $805-$815 million, excluding about 99 MW of utility-scale shipments that will not be recorded as Q3 revenue.

Canadian Solar also announced that it has sold 51 percent of its interest in the 200 MW Tranquility project to Southern Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co SO.

Positive outlook
In its press release, Canadian Solar's CEO Shawn Qu explained that the unexpected Q3 strength came mostly from the U.S., U.K., Canada and Japan. “We expect to see continued robust demand levels in our solar module business and we continue to execute on our already robust and steadily expanding utility-scale solar project development pipeline,” he added.

Larger impact
Despite the big jump in Canadian Solar’s share price, Solar City and First Solar are both trading slightly down on Monday following the news. If the trends that Canadian solar reported are indicative of general strength in solar demand, shareholders could be in for a pleasant surprise when the two companies report Q3 earnings later this week.

Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.