Shares in SolarCity (NASDAQ:SCTY) nosedived by more than a quarter to their lowest in nearly three years on Wednesday after earnings from the largest residential solar panel installer in the US disappointed and deployments were fewer than expected.
Already suffering from the impact of tumbling oil prices eroding demand for renewable energy sources, the California-based company backed by Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) founder Elon Musk reported solar panel installations in the fourth quarter of 2015 ran at 272 megawatts (MW) compared with a forecast of between 280 to 300 MW.
SolarCity said part of the slower installations in the latest quarter were due to the company aborting business in Nevada after the state regulator decided to change an important policy that had incentivised customers to produce energy for cash.
For 2015 as a whole, deployment of panels were worth 870 MW, enough to power 150,000 homes. But while 73% up on 2014 figures, it fell crucially short of the 878 MW to 898 MW the company predicted it would install.
The outlook was not spectacular either.
SolarCity said it expected a loss of US$2.55-US$2.65 per share for the current quarter. Analysts on average were expecting a loss of US$2.36 per share, according to a Thomson Reuters poll.
On the brighter side, revenue rose 61% to US$115.5mln - higher than an analysts' estimate of US$105.6mln.
Shares were last seen down 21.8% at US$20.61. Earlier in the session the stock hit an intraday low of US$18.26, its lowest since April 2013. The oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate was down 1.22% at US$27.60 a barrel.