JA Solar Beats Q2 Views, Shares Surge

Shares of

jumped over 7 percent in pre-market trading after the company reported better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter. JA Solar posted a quarterly profit of 135.5 million Yuan, versus a year-ago profit of 34.8 million Yuan. On a per-American-depositary-share basis, the company's profit climbed to 36 cents from 10 cents. Excluding certain items, the company's earnings rose to 27 cents per ADS from 14 cents per ADS. Its revenue gained 11.8 percent to 2.7 billion yuan ($436.8 million). However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.12 per ADS on sales of $399 million. The average estimate among 12 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.07 per share and revenue of $388.44 million. Its total shipments climbed 16 percent year-over-year to 790.8 megawatts for the quarter. Shipments of modules and module gained 60.9 percent to 717.4 megawatts, while shipments of cells and cell dipped 68.9 percent to 73.4 megawatts. Gross margin expanded 120 basis points year-over-year to 16.4 percent. Operating profit surged to RMB 156.1 million ($25.2 million), from RMB 89.7 million ($14.5 million). As of June 30, 2015, JA Solar had cash and cash equivalents of RMB 1.7 billion ($282.0 million). Mr. Baofang Jin, chairman and CEO of JA Solar, said, "We were pleased to close out the first half of the year with shipments higher than previous expectations due to strong demand in several key markets. Solid shipment growth was largely driven by demand in China, which represented 45% of our total shipments during the second quarter. Additionally, we continue to make progress on the establishment of our new cell manufacturing plant in Malaysia." For the third quarter, JA Solar projects total cell and module shipments of 900 MW to 950 MW. JA Solar shares gained 7.40 percent to $8.42 in pre-market trading.