Earnings Preview for LDK Solar

LDK Solar

is set to report first-quarter fiscal 2011 results late Tuesday, June 7. The question for investors is whether the company can deliver a fourth consecutive quarter of record revenue. They will also be looking for news on the impending investment in LDK by the China Development Bank. Analysts are looking for the Chinese manufacturer of photovoltaic components to report that earnings grew 93.0% from a year ago to $0.86 per share. Sixty days ago, that consensus earnings estimate was $0.83. The revenue forecast for the quarter calls for $765.9 million, an increase of 121.4% from the same period of last year.

Analysts so far expect to see strong year-over-year growth of both per-share earnings and revenues in the second quarter, as well as full-year earnings up 9.3% and revenues up 24.8%. Note that LDK Solar earnings have increased in each of the past four quarters, topping consensus per-share estimates each time.

LDK Solar designs, develops, manufactures and markets photovoltaic products and develops power plant projects. The company was founded in 2005 and operates in Europe, the Asia Pacific region and North America. But about 75% of its sales come from Asia. In the three months that ended in March, LDK agreed to take a stake in a solar facilities developer, closed a public offering and expanded its management team.

The long-term earnings per share growth forecast is 25.0% and the price-to-earnings ratio is 3.2. Analysts have a mean price target of $12.80 per share, which gives the stock plenty of room to run from $6.90 per share at today's opening bell. But year to date, the share price is down about 30%. The stock has outperformed competitors MEMC Electronic Materials

and Yingli Green Energy

over the past year, though.