SunPower shares drop after Morgan Stanley downgrades solar company to 'underweight'

• SunPower Corporation fell nearly 7% on Thursday after the solar company was downgraded to 'underweight' by Morgan Stanley.
• The bank maintained it $27 price target, indicating a nearly 40% downside from current levels.
• SunPower on Wednesday unveiled a mobile app that will allow users to review and manage their energy generation, consumption, and battery storage settings.
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Shares of SunPower Corporation fell nearly 7% on Thursday after the solar company was downgraded to 'underweight' by Morgan Stanley.

Morgan Stanley analyst Stephen Byrd said that while the San Jose, California-based company has outperformed solar installer and equipment stocks by as much as 200% over the last three months, SunPower now trades at a significant premium compared to other solar stocks that offer higher margins and growth.

The bank's $27 price target indicates a 38% downside even with robust revenue growth, Byrd said. In September 2020, Byrd upgraded SunPower, a solar technology and energy services provider, from 'underweight' to 'equal weight.'

However, the analyst is optimistic that clean energy legislation will be introduced later this year by the new administration. President Joe Biden has been outspoken in scaling up best practices from state-level clean energy standards. By 2050, Biden is aiming to put the United States on an "irreversible path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide."

SunPower on Wednesday unveiled a new app that will allow users to review and manage their energy generation, consumption, and battery storage settings from a mobile device. The app will be available to all of SunPower's 285,000 monitoring customers by spring 2021.

The company is expected to release its fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2020 financial results on February 17.

Shares of SunPower trades at $42.17 as of 1:01PM E.T. on Thursday.