Citi Maintains Buy On MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR)

Citi maintained its Buy rating on MEMC Electronic Materials WFR in a research paper published today. MEMC is expected to publish its Q1 report later today and Citi also used its research paper to comment on its expectations of MEMC's Q1 performance. In the report, Citi states, "While we are not pounding the table into this report like we did last Q given the myriad of moving parts, the stock has also now given up virtually all of its gains since what we thought was the first major step last Q in transforming the communication on the true earnings power of this model. The results themselves are likely to be mixed given all of the moving parts, but even stressing the model for CQ2 it is hard to see a ton of EPS risk to Street numbers. With the stock now back very close to replacement value of the assets, it implies SunEdison has little to no value which is particularly interesting given the recent Total/SPWR investment and filing disclosure that several parties were interested in partnering and/or buying SPWR's development business. More than these results themselves, we are looking to the upcoming analyst day in New York next week as a more poignant catalyst. Maintain Buy (1H)." In today's trading, MEMC gained 0.54% to stand at $11.25.