SunPower Restatement, Sunrun Short Report Sink Solar Stocks

(Bloomberg) -- An earnings restatement from SunPower Corp. and a short seller’s notice on Sunrun Inc. helped drag solar stocks lower, as investors brace for what could be a round of disappointing quarterly reports across the industry. 

SunPower’s stock suffered its biggest selloff since 2016, dropping as much as 23% after the company warned it would need to restate its financial results for 2022 and the first two quarters of 2023. Sunrun slid as much as 13% after Muddy Waters Research said it was shorting the stock, accusing the company of inflating its reported subscriber numbers. 

Sunrun called Muddy Waters’ report “deceptive” and said it “fully stands by its reporting of metrics, including subscribers,” according to a statement issued Wednesday. The solar installer said the customer data provided to the US Energy Information Administration and its own reported subscriber count are not comparable as the short-seller alleges in its report. 

The declines come as investors fear a slowdown throughout the solar sector, as high interest rates hit residential and commercial customers alike. SolarEdge Technologies Inc. last week warned that its third-quarter revenue would be well below previous guidance, crystallizing those concerns and triggering a broad selloff of solar stocks. 

Sunnova Energy International Inc. is expected to post earnings after the close of trading Wednesday, while another industry bellwether, Enphase Energy Inc., will report Thursday. Sunnova dropped almost 11% intraday before recovering some of those losses, while Enphase fell more than 4%. Sunnova was among the most shorted companies in the Russell 3000 Index reporting earnings, based on recent data from the New York and Nasdaq exchanges. 

(Updates with Sunrun’s statement in third paragraph)

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