US solar tracker company FTC Solar managed to meet its revised Q1/2024 revenue guidance of within $10 million to $15 million while growing its total backlog by $70 million. Its GAAP revenues of $12.6 million declined 45.7% sequentially and 69.2% annually due to lower product and logistics volume.
FTC registered a GAAP gross loss of -$2.1 million during the quarter, representing 16.7% of the revenue, compared to a gross profit of $0.7 million in Q4/2023.
GAAP net loss for the company was reported as -$8.8 million, which it managed to narrow down from -$11.8 million in Q1/2023 and -$11.2 million in Q4/2023 (see FTC Solar Narrowed GAAP Net Loss In Q4/2023 to -$11.2 Million).
"During the quarter, the company remained focused on advancing key initiatives that will support future growth and profitability including improving gross margin potential, lowering the breakeven revenue level, improving business processes and driving customer engagement and purchase orders," said Chairman of the Board of FTC Solar, Shaker Sadasivam.
Its backlog at the end of Q1/2024 increased to approximately $1.8 billion, up from $1.7 billion at the end of 2023. The contracted portion of the backlog was $485 million.
The management guides for its Q2/2024 revenues at the mid-point to be slightly up from the 1st quarter within the range of $10.5 million to $15.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of -$12.6 million to -$9.8 million.
It continues to expect revenues to be weighted toward H2/2024. The guidance still includes approaching a breakeven on an adjusted EBITDA basis in Q3 this year and, on that basis, expects profitability in Q4/2024.
TD Cowen's Jeff Osborne opines that the company's exposure to smaller developers that have erratic schedules than tier I companies is a challenge. He believes, "As projects move into the seasonally strong period of demand, we see Ahmad Chatila squeezing efficiencies out of the company."
One of the co-founders of FTC, Chatila was once the CEO of SunEdison that filed for bankruptcy. FTC calls him the transformation architect of Enphase Energy where he worked from 2017 to 2020.