Jefferies Reiterates Buy Rating on Yingli Green (YGE)

Jefferies & Company is out with a research report this morning, where it reiterates its Buy rating on Yingli Green Energy

; it has a $20.00 price target on the stock, up from $17.00. The Jefferies analysts cited recent meetings with YGE's customers and competitors, which are pointing to stronger ASPs and shipments. The analysts noted that YGE has become the most favored module supplier in China in their opinion. Several of the largest distributors, developers, and installers they spoke to pointed to YGE's strong emphasis on quality control, its conservative watt ratings on modules, and its ability to resist price increases in a tight market as reasons to favor YGE as a top supplier. Given strong demand for YGE modules, YGE's nameplate capacity of 1 GW (effective capacity of 1.3GW) is likely to increase by 300-500MW in 2011 thus making the analysts' 2011 shipments estimate of 1.4GW and EPS estimates conservative.