Solarfun Shares Rise on Forecasts

SHANGHAI, China (TheStreet) -- The wonderfully-named Solarfun(SOLF Quote) (which sounds more like a Club Med-like vacation package than a China-based solar cell manufacturer) watched its American depositary shares rise in the afternoon following news that the company expects a sequential sales bump.

In saying module shipments should top 100 megawatts during the third quarter on Thursday, the solar operation said revenue should come between 918 million and 984 million yuan, or between $134.5 million and $144.1 million. During the second quarter, Solarfun's top-line came to 854.6 million yuan, or $125.1 million.

According to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, however, the company was expected to produce $163.1 million.

ADS's were climbing in the afternoon, adding 25 cents, or 4%, at $6.45. Though that's off session highs that saw the price hit $7.

In the same press release, Solarfun also said it expected 17% gross margins in the quarter.

In describing the progress, Solarfun president Peter Xie said in the press release that the company was seeing "improvement in end market demand."

"Our efforts to realign supply costs to reflect current market pricing combined with our increase in production capacity at our in-house ingot and wafer manufacturing facilities should allow us to achieve healthy margins in the third quarter," Xie added. "We continue to face a highly competitive pricing environment, but we remain fully confident in our ability to win business as market demand recovers."

Elsewhere, other solar concerns were moving lower. Suntech Power(STP Quote), Trina Solar(TSL Quote) and Yingli Green Energy(YGE Quote) were losing 4.7%, 3.8% and 1% each.