Solar Stock Winners: Power-One

(Solar winners Power One story updated for Friday morning trading, analyst commentary)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- There were bigger solar sector companies reporting on Thursday after the market close, but the only one to receive a boost from its second quarter earnings was Power-One(PWER).

The solar inverter company kept the streak alive of solar inverter outperformance in the second quarter, beating the Street on earnings and revenue expectations. Power-One shares rose in the double-digit percentage level in after-hours trading on Thursday, and were among the market's top gainers early on Friday morning. Power-One shares were rising by as much as 25% on Friday morning, on double the average daily volume of shares traded, or close to 6 million shares traded in the first hour after the market open.

Power-One's gains of close to $2.50 on Friday morning were most striking for doubling the stock's 52-week low of $1.19.

The earnings reports from First Solar(FSLR)and MEMC Electronic Materials(WFR) were the highly anticipated solar sector reports kicking off the earnings season for solar stocks on Thursday afternoon.

Advanced Energy Industries (AEIS) reported a big earnings beat last week. Power-One, similarly, has seen its solar inverter business grow amid the high solar sector demand, even though it was not historically a core business for the company.

>>Solar Winners: Advanced Energy

Power-One posted earnings of 17 cents per share on revenue of $215 million, well ahead of the Street consensus of 10 cents earnings on revenue of $185 million. It was a record revenue for Power-One, and for the first time, the company offered revenue guidance for the third quarter. At $250 million to $270 million, the Power-One guidance was well ahead of the Street expectation of third quarter revenue at $200 million.

Inverter and related product sales posted a record $142 million in revenue for the second quarter 2010, or a year-over-year increase of 745% from $17 million in the second quarter 2009. The Power-One Renewable Energy Solutions unit contributed the majority of the company's revenue, at 66% of total sales in the quarter, versus 18% in the second quarter of 2009. Power-One shipped 529 MW of inverters in the quarter.