GT Solar Drops on Volume Spike

MERRIMACK, N.H. (TheStreet) -- GT Solar International (SOLR Quote) shares tumbled Tuesday on above-average volume after the solar company late Monday posted disappointing earnings for its fiscal second quarter.

GT Solar said it had net income of $9.4 million, or 6 cents a share, for the quarter ended Sept. 26, dropping from year-ago earnings of $27.9 million, or 19 cents a share. Revenue fell 25.7% from a year ago to $104.2 million, the company said.

Analysts were looking for a profit of 7 cents a share in the quarter on revenue of $101.8 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Looking ahead, GT Solar reaffirmed its outlook for the 2010 fiscal year, saying it expects revenue of $450 million to $550 million and earnings 45 cents to 60 cents a share. Consensus targets for the full year call for earnings of 51 cents a share on $502.7 million in sales. GT Solar also said overall gross margin for 2010 is expected to be comparable to its year-to-date gross margin of approximately 39%.

Following the report's release, Piper Jaffray analysts downgraded the stock to underweight from neutral.

Shares of GT Solar were falling by 87 cents, or 15.7%, to $4.67. Earlier in the session, the stock touched an intraday low of $4.63. More than 1.7 million shares changed hands by 1:30 p.m. EST Monday, compared to the stock's 50-day average daily volume of 670,000, according to the Nasdaq.

GT Solar has a 29.7 million-share float with a short interest float of 6.3% as of Oct. 12, according to Yahoo! Finance. Insiders hold only 0.42% of the company's shares with another 28.5% owned by institutions.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in New York.

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