Wall Street Zen Downgrades Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN) to Sell

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN) from a "hold" to a "sell"; across analysts there are 12 Buys, 10 Holds and 1 Sell with an average price target of $18.63.
• Sunrun reported a strong quarter—$0.38 EPS vs. ($0.08) estimate and $1.16B revenue vs. $610M estimate, with revenue up 123.5% YoY—yet the stock trades around $12.74 with a $3.0B market cap.
• Insiders have been selling recently, including CEO Mary Powell's sale of 193,002 shares (a 17.1% reduction), and roughly 879,894 insider shares totaling about $13.0M sold over the past three months.

Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on RUN. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Sunrun from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Sunrun from a "sell (d-)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Sunrun from $23.00 to $14.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Sunrun from $24.00 to $20.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Sunrun from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, March 27th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $18.63.

Sunrun Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of Sunrun stock opened at $12.74 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.45 and a beta of 2.37. The company's fifty day moving average is $13.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.38, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.66. Sunrun has a 1 year low of $5.38 and a 1 year high of $22.44.

Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The energy company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by $0.46. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $610.29 million. Sunrun had a net margin of 15.22% and a return on equity of 11.72%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 123.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.41 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Sunrun will post 0.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Sunrun

In related news, CEO Mary Powell sold 193,002 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.25, for a total value of $2,557,276.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 934,282 shares in the company, valued at $12,379,236.50. This trade represents a 17.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CAO Maria Barak sold 8,039 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.67, for a total transaction of $109,893.13. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 72,963 shares of the company's stock, valued at $997,404.21. This trade represents a 9.92% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 879,894 shares of company stock valued at $13,017,496. 3.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sunrun

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Sunrun by 156.9% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,449 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 885 shares during the period. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Sunrun in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Sunrun by 59.1% in the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,519 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 564 shares during the period. Sycomore Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Sunrun in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Kestra Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sunrun in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.69% of the company's stock.

About Sunrun

Sunrun, Inc NASDAQ: RUN is a leading provider of residential solar energy systems in the United States. The company designs, installs and maintains rooftop solar panels and battery storage solutions for homeowners under flexible financing arrangements. Customers can choose from leasing, power purchase agreements or solar ownership models, all of which are supported by Sunrun's network of installation partners and service technicians. Sunrun also offers integrated home energy management services, including its Brightbox battery storage product, which enables customers to store solar energy for use during peak hours or power outages.

Founded in 2007 by Lynn Jurich, Ed Fenster and Nat Kreamer, Sunrun is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

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