SunPower Corp. announced that revenue for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2006 was $74.5 million, up 14% from the prior quarter’s revenue of $65.3 million and up 154% from the fourth quarter 2005 revenue of $29.3 million. GAAP net income for the quarter was $11.3 million, or $0.15 diluted earnings per share, compared to last quarter’s net income of $9.6 million or $0.13 diluted earnings per share and the fourth quarter 2005 net loss of $0.6 million.
Fourth quarter 2006 non-GAAP net income, which excludes amortization of intangible assets, stock-based compensation expense and the related tax effects, was $13.6 million or $0.18 diluted earnings per share, compared to the last quarter’s non-GAAP net income of $12.1 million and the fourth quarter 2005 non-GAAP net income of $1.5 million.
SunPower’s annual revenue for 2006 was $236.5 million, a three-fold increase from 2005 revenue of $78.7 million. GAAP net income for 2006 was $26.5 million, compared to a 2005 GAAP net loss of $15.8 million. Non-GAAP net income for 2006 was $36.1 million, compared to a 2005 non-GAAP net loss of $9.7 million.
"Throughout 2006 SunPower demonstrated consistent execution on all of our major goals," said Tom Werner, SunPower’s CEO. "In the fourth quarter we outperformed our financial forecast and announced our PowerLight acquisition, which closed earlier this month and is expected to be immediately accretive on a non-GAAP basis. We believe the combination of SunPower’s highest-efficiency solar cell technology with PowerLight’s systems expertise, innovative products and strong, diverse channel positions creates a uniquely powerful company that can drive innovation across the entire value chain. Together we will accelerate SunPower’s growth as we work to reduce installed solar system costs by half by 2012.
"During the fourth quarter of 2006, SunPower began ramping our fourth solar cell manufacturing line, the first line to produce our Gen2, or second generation, solar cell technology," said Werner. "We have started producing Gen2 cells with a rated efficiency of 22%, a full 2 percentage point improvement over our A-300 solar cells. We are on-time and on-budget with the construction of our second solar cell manufacturing facility that is scheduled to begin production in the third quarter of 2007"
