Canadian Solar Issues Q1, 2016 Outlook - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - While reporting its fourth-quarter financial results today, Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ) provided revenue and module shipment outlook for the first quarter and fiscal 2016. The revenue outlook for the first quarter is below analysts' estimates.

For the first quarter of 2016, Canadian Solar expects total module shipments in a range of about 1,085 MW to 1,135 MW, including approximately 15 MW of shipments to the company's utility-scale solar projects that may not be recognized in the quarter's revenue.

The company forecast total revenue for the first quarter in a range of $645 million to $695 million, with gross margin expected to be between 12 percent and 14 percent.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report revenues of $803.08 million for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

For fiscal 2016, Canadian Solar expects total module shipments of about 5.4 GW to 5.5 GW, with about 5.0 GW recognized in revenue. Total revenue for the full year 2016 is expected to be in the range of $2.9 billion to $3.1 billion.

Canadian Solar said it remains flexible in ways to monetize its solar power plant assets in order to maximize shareholder's return, and may consider selling some of its OECD solar plants.

In that case, revenue for the full year is expected to be in the range of $3.2 billion to $3.6 billion, an increase of $300 million to $500 million over the company's base forecast. The Street expects revenue for the year of $3.47 billion.

Canadian Solar expects its cost of production to decrease throughout the year as new internal wafer, cell module capacities come online both inside and outside China, and the percentage of external purchase and OEM is reduced. Further, the increase in vertical integration along the manufacturing steps is expected to help the company maintain or improve its gross margin.