Canadian Solar Inc. Braces For Rise In Global Demand For Solar Energy Panels

Guelph, Ontario-based solar manufacturer predicts a possible shortage of solar panels in later this year.

Canadian Solar Inc. (NYSE:CSIQ) is not surprised from Thomas Timmins, a lawyer at Gowlings in Toronto, stating that the global solar panels shortage may possibly happen later this year. It has reached a threshold and the shortage will likely become mainstream throughout the world.

There is some ‘meat’ in that statement. Solar prices have fallen by more than half for the last several years and correspondingly, this has driven up demand, as the public and governments around the world become more highly conscious about the prospect of global warming, conventional oil and gas field see a decline in production, coupled with unconventional fields being difficult to extract and costly to produce.

Shawn Qu, CEO of Canadian Solar Inc., gave an example of Rainy River First Nation Solar Power System Project, 250 km southwest of Winnipeg, where there is an extraordinary growth of the solar industry in Canada, pointing out that it took 800 transport trucks to carry those panels for the $100 million project.

Initiatives by the Canadian government, such as the Large Renewable Procurement, run by the Independent Electricity System Operator, which is operated by the Ontario government, a strong advocate of clean energy, has provided a level playing field for companies, such as Canadian Solar, bid for renewable energy projects.

Likewise, U.S.-based Rocky Mountain Institute has warned U.S Northeast utilities to brace themselves with the prospect of consumers planning to install solar and battery storage systems to generate more power themselves, as they stand to lose just as much market share through residential sales.

To this end, Canadian Solar Inc. is planning to double its own panel capacity from its 2013 levels. Before that, the company faces overcapacity in 2012, but now that gap is just about to be closed. Half of the company’s sales were in Canada alone. With the US, China, and Japan being its other core markets.

The company earned a record less than $240 million on the back of less than $3 billion worth of sales and shipments. The outlook for this year suggests a less than 40% increase in sales worth 4.3 gigawatts panels. Canaccord Genuity also holds similar bullish forecast for the organization, pointing to the positive sentiment that has returned to the solar group.

To help keep up with its expansion, the company has recently secured a $265 million purchase of the San Francisco-based developer, Recurrent Energy, from Sharp Corp. in March, a deal that will help it to expand the power project pipeline to less than 9 gigawatts.

Canadian Solar stock price ended the day at $37, a decline of more than 1.50%.

ConocoPhillips First Quarter Earnings Release Preview

Investors to turn their focus on progress of assets sales and oil price outlook, as industry continues to suffer from low energy prices hitting bottom lines.

It’s no secret that oil exploration companies and oil service companies around the world are still feeling the heat of low prices knocking down their revenues as well as their bottom lines. And in the case of ConocoPhillips’s (NYSE:COP), which is due to submit its earnings today, is no different either.

Consensus for the oil major calls for first quarter 2015 production to be at the range of 1,570−1,610 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (MBOED), higher than 1,540 MBOED in full-year 2014.Talking about the expected revenue or earnings per share is relatively useless, since it’s clear that earnings will be disappointing, though it’s still important to emphasize the scale of the losses.

Instead, many investors will focus on the ongoing asset sales program that the oil and gas company has initiated for the past half a year, as it seeks to sell off its unproductive assets, mostly in North America, and has hired financial advisers in the expedite the process. The proceeds, likely to total around less than $5 billion, if all goes well, will be used to help maintain the CAPEX on current projects, and also to help maintain the dividend yield to its investors. All this so that the company secures lesser debt. The asset sales plan will not affect the company’s trimmed down CAPEX spending program till 2017.

Another area that investors will focus on is the future oil prices outlook. Energy prices have been on a relatively upward trend due to Saudi’s hold policy on its oil production finally bringing down shale producers to its knees, with Baker Hugs reporting less than 735 oil wells under operation, down from the significant 1357 rigs that were in operation for past several months. Currently oil prices are hovering between the range of $55- $65.It May likely increase further as many Americans will likely hit the road ahead of July 4^th celebrations, taking advantage of low oil prices, and summer starting to show its face in the Middle East, driving demand on the upside. Don’t be surprised with more oil price rise on the horizon.

ConocoPhillips stock price ended the day flat at $67.74

Visa Inc. Earnings Preview For 2QFY15

Visa Inc. will be releasing its second quarter fiscal year 2015 earnings report on April 30. Analysts expect the company to post EPS of 62 cents on $3.34 billion of revenue.

Visa Inc. is scheduled to report its second quarter FY15 earnings result on Thursday April 30. The complete results together with all the financial information will be published after the bell rings on the company’s website under investor relation column.

The company is expected to beat the analyst’s expectation for the quarter, mainly because most of the banks have posted better than expected earnings. Another reason can be that they have provided lesser than prior year quarters losses provision. This indicates that the credit quality has gone better.

However, the company will not be concerned regarding credit quality. Visa Inc. issue cards through another bank rather than itself, which is responsible for credit quality and problems related to repayments.

During the quarter, JP Morgan said that it has observed almost 8% increases in issuance of credit card. This only specifies the credit quality and bank’s confidence to deal with the recovery process. Banks issued Visa Inc. cards and also Master cards. Hence, Visa might have also observed a transactional volume and charges growth in the first quarter of FY15.

During the previous conference call, Visa stated it was expecting the foreign exchange volatility and weakening gas prices to affect its financial results. So, it estimated its revenue to increase in single digit during the second quarter. Consumers usually pay their gas bills via credit card. So, falling price indicated lower bills, causing lower charges of transactions for the company, however it provides advantage to consumers.

 The company said that it is likely to grow its revenue in the next quarter and planning to reach double figure in the fourth quarter of FY15. Visa said that it paid 17.4% in incentives during the last quarter.

Analysts at Wall Street forecasted the company to report earnings of $0.62 per share and almost $3.34 billion of revenue for the quarter covering from January to March 2015. In the prior year quarter, the company made $0.63 in earnings per share and revenue of $3.16 billion. This suggests that analysts are projecting earnings per share to go down by 1.6%, in spite of forecasting a 5.6% revenue growth.

Visa stock is down by 0.56% and stood at $67.10 at market close on Monday April 27.

Boeing CEO Urges Renewal Of US Ex-Im Bank As He Warns Of Jobs Relocations

Aerospace manufacturer also announces layoffs of around 150 Puget Sound employees, but not all will be terminated.

Boeing Inc.’s (NYSE:BA) CEO, Jim McNerney, has appealed to lawmakers in Congress to keep the funding to US Ex-Im Bank ongoing, or face the risk of many manufacturing and engineering jobs relocate elsewhere. The bank’s current funding is scheduled to end by the start of July.

Mr. McNerney has stated his intentions to keep the US-based manufacturing and engineering stay, but points to the difficulties that it would face in financing its customers for their aircraft purchases. It would result in a significant “competitive dislocation”.

If the funding discontinues, the impact will be very large. About 165,000 engineering and manufacturing jobs in the United States, along with some 1.5 million jobs in the company's supply chain, could also be at risk if U.S. credit support ceased.

The debate surrounding Ex-Im Bank is Republicans accusing the bank of usurping the role of the private sector and favors a selective to cater to the wellbeing of the big businesses. Ex Im Bank has also come under fire from leading American carriers, such as Delta, American Airlines, etc., accusing them of financing Boeing aircraft purchases of its competitors, especially Emirates and Qatar Airways, which the trio are currently engaged in a feud regarding the yet unproven claims of subsidies being provided by the Gulf governments. Therefore, some conservative Republicans and US carriers are in favor for the export credit agency to “die”.

Mr. McNerney says that this debate is already starting to have an effect with Boeing’s competitors pitching in customers by telling them that U.S. export credit support is not dependable and they are better off seeking credit financing from their export credit agency.

Amidst all this debate, Boeing has announced that it will lay off more than 150 employees from its Commercial Aircraft Division in the Puget Sound region. The layoffs will be spread from Renton to Seattle. Not all laid off employees will be terminated.

Employees switch between positions or locations within the company, while others retire, and the rest stop working for the company entirely. It is not linked to the prospect of US Ex-Im Bank being possibly near its expiration, as these layoffs had been in the planning for quite some time, and has been on a continuous trend for a few years.

The company has been pressing its suppliers to lower down its costs in the face of tough competition for Boeing, despite the ever-expanding travelling market.

Boeing stock price ended the day at $149.87, less than 0.90% drop.

Pfizer Inc. dismissed its partnership with Catalyst Bio caused Targacept to drop by 11%

Pfizer’s decision to dismiss its deal with Catalyst Bio stunned Targacept, who lately entered into a merger contract with Catalyst, betting high on the success of Catalyst-Pfizer partnership.

On Monday, Pfizer Inc. declared that it is planning to dismiss the 2009 agreement between Catalyst Biosciences –a privately held company and Wyeth LLC a fully owned subsidiary of Pfizer Inc. The announcement stuns the Targacept Inc. who lately joined hands with Catalyst in a merger agreement, staking high on the achievement of Pfizer and Catalysts partnership.

The partnership between Catalyst and Wyeth LC was primarily signed in 2009 June, for working along with one another on accelerating the establishment of Catalysts’ foremost Factor Vlla product namely CB813b, to treat hemophilia and patients suffering from surgical bleeding signs. The agreement will expire in June 2015, which will return the research rights and license to Catalyst for its top most candidate product. The pharmaceutical company informed Catalyst to dismiss the license and research contract in an official letter earlier last week.  It has also informed Targacept, on 1^st April, regarding dismissal that will allow them to endure the clinical development of the candidate product by itself.

Targacept at the moment is now evaluating the effect that the company’s extraction from its license contract will have on its most likely merger with the Catalyst. This announcement was made on 5^th March 2015 between the Targacept completely owned affiliate Catalyst and Merger Sub, which will make Catalyst a fully owned affiliate of Targacept. The new joined company will be named as Catalyst Biosciences and will contain a ticker “CBIO”, the coalition will have shareholders of catalyst possessing nearly 65% of ownership in the joined company, while the left 35% of the new company will belongs to Targacept   stockholders, which will also receive in addition to the shares approximately $20 million in cash and around$37 million of dividends through “non-interest-bearing, redeemable, convertible notes.”

Although, the ending decision of the merger agreement is still looking for final consent from the shareholders of the company’s involved and also an approval from the regulatory bodies, the deal is most likely to be close in the 2^nd quarter of the current fiscal year.

On Monday, Targacept Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Stephen Hill while speaking about the outcome if the dismissal of the Pfizer Inc. deal stated that the firm “is currently reviewing the implications of this event on the proposed merger. However, it is too early to know the implications of ending the Pfizer-Catalyst agreement.”

Pfizer stock stood at $34.74 after 0.29% increase on Wednesday market close. The New York City based company had 213.32 billion of market capitalization.