PV inverter manufacturer SolarEdge Technologies reported fourth quarter and full-year 2016 results that were impacted by a slowdown in the US residential market in the second-half of the year. European and Asia markets helped revenue grow 15% in 2016.
SolarEdge reported total revenue of US$490 million in 2016, a 15% increase compared to calendar 2015. Gross margins were 32.8% compared to 29.2% in calendar 2015.
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Despite an ASP decline of around 10% in 2016, SolarEdge margins improved due to cost reduction strategies and the rollout of its HD-Wave inverter technology in Europe that has lower production costs to conventional string inverters. The company is now rolling out the technology in the US and other key markets.
SolarEdge shipped around 413MW of inverters in the fourth quarter of 2016 and over 1.5GW in 2016. PV module optimizer unit shipments were over 1.25 million and string inverter unit shipments were over 57,000 in the quarter.
“We focused this quarter on the ramp up of manufacturing new products, including the HD Wave inverter which is now available worldwide. We continued our cost reduction measures yielding solid operating income and record gross margin despite lower revenues than in previous quarters,” said Guy Sella, Founder, Chairman and CEO of SolarEdge. “We remain confident in our ability to grow revenues and profitability in 2017.”
SolarEdge shipped around 1.6 million PV module optimizers and around 63,000 string inverters in the quarter. Total inverter shipments reached 466MW, up from 427MW in the previous quarter.
Guidance
SolarEdge said it expected first quarter revenues to be within the range of US$110 million to US$120 million and gross margin to be within the range of 31% to 33%.