What Happened?
Shares of solar tracker company Nextracker (NASDAQ: NXT) jumped 8% in the afternoon session after it reported strong third-quarter results that beat analyst expectations and raised its full-year revenue forecast.
Revenue for the period increased 42.4% year-over-year to $905.3 million, surpassing estimates, while adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.19, beating the consensus by 17.4%. The strong performance was supported by a growing backlog of orders, which reached $5 billion. However, the company's outlook was mixed. While Nextracker lifted its full-year revenue guidance to $3.38 billion at the midpoint, this figure was slightly below analysts' projections. Additionally, its full-year EBITDA guidance also fell short of Wall Street's expectations.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Nextracker’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 36 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 2 days ago when the stock dropped 3.3% on the news that Guggenheim downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy, noting the shares appeared to be "fairly valued."
The firm explained that the stock had moved above its prior price target and that it saw no major changes to the company's outlook. This downgrade came despite some positive sentiment from other analysts. For instance, Needham started its coverage with a Buy rating and a $102 price target. In a similar move, Roth Capital also kept a Buy rating on the shares and increased its price target to $100 from $80. These mixed analyst signals occurred as the company prepared to release its quarterly earnings results.
Nextracker is up 147% since the beginning of the year, and at $97.48 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Nextracker’s shares at the IPO in February 2023 would now be looking at an investment worth $3,200.
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