The Goldman Sachs Group Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN) Stock

Key Points

• The Goldman Sachs Group raised Sunrun's price target from $15.00 to $19.00, indicating a potential upside of 15.33% from the current stock price.
• Sunrun recently reported a quarterly earnings per share of $1.07, outperforming the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by a significant margin.
• The stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with varying ratings from analysts, including two Strong Buy, twelve Buy, and one Sell.

Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN - Get Free Report) had its price target increased by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $15.00 to $19.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the energy company's stock. The Goldman Sachs Group's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 17.00% from the company's current price.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Sunrun in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Sunrun from $8.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Sunrun from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $5.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Sunrun from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 12th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price objective on Sunrun from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sunrun currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $14.81.

Sunrun Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ RUN traded down $0.21 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $16.24. 6,324,489 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,608,838. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.40 and a beta of 2.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.70. The company's 50 day moving average price is $12.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.48. Sunrun has a 12 month low of $5.38 and a 12 month high of $21.77.

Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The energy company reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by $1.25. The firm had revenue of $569.34 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $555.42 million. Sunrun had a positive return on equity of 14.19% and a negative net margin of 120.59%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.55 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Sunrun will post -0.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Danny Abajian sold 8,909 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.80, for a total value of $96,217.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 446,797 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,825,407.60. This represents a 1.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CRO Paul S. Dickson sold 8,010 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.81, for a total value of $86,588.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive directly owned 679,044 shares in the company, valued at $7,340,465.64. This represents a 1.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 80,136 shares of company stock valued at $1,076,538. Insiders own 3.37% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Sunrun

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sylebra Capital LLC grew its holdings in Sunrun by 23.8% during the first quarter. Sylebra Capital LLC now owns 8,273,331 shares of the energy company's stock worth $48,482,000 after acquiring an additional 1,590,169 shares during the period. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. boosted its position in Sunrun by 95.6% during the second quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 8,132,648 shares of the energy company's stock worth $66,525,000 after purchasing an additional 3,974,464 shares in the last quarter. PGGM Investments boosted its position in Sunrun by 316.6% during the second quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 7,007,258 shares of the energy company's stock worth $57,319,000 after purchasing an additional 5,325,332 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH boosted its position in Sunrun by 5.5% during the first quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 5,053,237 shares of the energy company's stock worth $30,044,000 after purchasing an additional 264,024 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in Sunrun by 12.1% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 3,479,021 shares of the energy company's stock worth $20,686,000 after purchasing an additional 374,594 shares in the last quarter. 91.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Sunrun

Sunrun Inc designs, develops, installs, sells, owns, and maintains residential solar energy systems in the United States. It also sells solar energy systems and products, such as panels and racking; and solar leads generated to customers. In addition, the company offers battery storage along with solar energy systems; and sells services to commercial developers through multi-family and new homes.