Citi Previews Earnings Of MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR)

Citi Investment Research has a research note on MEMC Electronic Materials Inc WFR, and is previewing the company's earnings. It has a Buy rating and a $18 price target on shares. In a note to clients, Citi writes, "With a number of difficult-to-predict moving parts (SunEdison, GAAP to non-GAAP reporting change, new CFO), the stock has continued to generally languish. However, even given the multitude of moving parts, we expect a strong report with EPS above Street. While guidance depends on many factors (conservatism of the new CFO, SunEd volumes/trajectory for 2011 (we are modeling ~475MW, up from ~150MW in 2010)), we estimate base EPS (ex Suned) of ~$0.10 for CQ1 and ~$0.85 for C2011 making the Street's $0.16 and $1.00 look conservative. We are updating our model ahead of the call to reflect what we think is now more accurate SunEd modeling. F2011 EPS tweaked slightly lower $1.59 to $1.57 on ~$3.8B revs and F2012 EPS tweaked slightly higher from $1.74 to $1.80. Maintain Buy (1S), $18 target w/replacement cost of mfg assets ~$10/share." Shares of WFR gained 9 cents yesterday to close at $11.09, a gain of 0.8%.