FTC Solar (FTCI) Reports First Quarter Loss and Top Revenue Estimates

FTC Solar (FTCI) came out with a quarterly loss of $0.07 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of $0.10. For comparison, a year ago the loss was $0.20 per share. These numbers have been adjusted for one-off items.

This quarterly report presented an earnings surprise of 30%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this maker of solar tracking systems would post a loss of $0.12 per share when it actually produced a loss of $0.11, delivering a surprise of 8.33%.

The company has topped consensus EPS estimates three times over the last four quarters.

FTC Solar, which belongs to the Zacks Solar industry, posted revenues of $40.89 million for the quarter ended March 2023, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 6.16%. For comparison, revenues from the previous year amounted to $49.55 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates twice over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock’s current price movement based on recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will primarily depend on management’s commentary following the earnings conference call.

FTC Solar shares have lost about 1.1% year-to-date compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 7.3%.

What’s next for FTC Solar?

While FTC Solar has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors’ minds is: what’s next for the stock?

There are no simple answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this issue is the company’s earnings prospects. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Ahead of the earnings release, FTC Solar is seeing a mixed estimate revision trend. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company’s upcoming earnings report, the current status is consistent with a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) for the stock. As such, the stock is expected to perform in line with the market in the near term. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the next quarters and the current fiscal year change in the coming days. The current consensus EPS estimate is -$0.05 on revenue of $54.49M for the coming quarter and -$0.15 on revenue of $270.54M for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be aware that the outlook for the industry may also have a significant impact on share prices. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Solar is currently in the top 19% of over 250 Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

Another company in the same industry, iSun, Inc. (ISUN), has not yet released results for the quarter ending March 2023. Results are expected to be released on May 15.

The company is expected to report quarterly loss of $0.11 per share in the upcoming report, representing a year-over-year change of +52.2%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has not changed over the last 30 days.

iSun, Inc. revenues are expected to be will amount to USD 21.3 million, which means an increase of 41.2% compared to the same quarter last year.

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