Trina Solar racks up 7% profit jump to USD11.5m

Thanks to China, Japan, and emerging markets.

Trina Solar has reported 3Q14 revenues of USD617mn, up 19% q-q but 15% below Nomura's estimate.

According to a research note from Nomura, this was driven by shipments at 937MW (up 18% q-q; in-line with Nomura's estimates) on increased demand from China, Japan and emerging markets.

Meanwhile, net profit was USD11.5mn (+7% q-q) mainly due to higher shipments enabling operational leverage; sale of a 10.6MW project in UK with better than corporate average gross margin; and improved revenue mix with higher shipments to Japan with higher ASPs with incremental cost reductions.

Here's more from Nomura:

Net profit includes impact of forex loss (net of derivative gains) of US$15.1mn.

Trina has guided to ship 1045-1095MW of total shipments in 4Q14F of which 40-60MW will be shipped to its downstream PV projects, i.e. shipments to external customers up 5~10% q-q.

Trina cut its full year shipment guidance to 3.61~3.66GW with 340~360MW for internal projects (earlier: 3.6~3.8GW with 400~500MW for internal projects).

The company expects its blended gross margin for 4Q14F to be between 14.5% and 15.5% vs 16.7% in 3Q14. We are reviewing our estimates.