Canadian Solar’s 1st Quarter Exceeds Expectations But Provides Lackluster 2nd Quarter Guidance

Canadian Solar, one of the world’s leading solar power companies, announced its first-quarter earnings last week, beating its own guidance for shipments and revenue, but provided significantly weaker guidance for its second-quarter revenue. Only two months after the company announced guidance-beating fourth quarter and full-year 2017 efforts, Canadian Solar has again beat its own guidance, though only slightly. In the fourth quarter of 2017 Canadian Solar recorded total solar module shipments of 1,831 megawatts (MW), well in line with the 1,870 MW shipped during the third quarter and exceeding the company’s own guidance in the range of 1,720 MW to 1,820 MW. At the time, the company provided guidance for its first quarter of shipments in the range of 1,300 MW to 1,350 MW which, as announced last week, the company exceeded with total solar module shipments for the first quarter of 1,374 MW.