Canadian Solar and SunRun gain on BlackRock investments, while Enphase and Sunnova move up on analyst upgrade

By Steve Gelsi

BlackRock invests $500M in Recurrent Energy, a unit of Canadian Solar, and ups its stake in SunRun, while Truist boosts Enphase and Sunnova to buy

Canadian Solar Inc.'s stock led gains among four solar power companies in the spotlight on Tuesday as it disclosed a $500 million investment from BlackRock Inc. into its Recurrent Energy unit.

Canadian Solar's stock (CSIQ) jumped 14.4% after it said its energy-storage business, Recurrent Energy, secured the $500 million preferred equity investment commitment from BlackRock's (BLK) Climate Infrastructure fund.

The BlackRock investment is convertible into common equity, and would represent 20% of Recurrent Energy.

BlackRock was already the largest institutional investor in Canadian Solar.

David Giordano, who is global head of climate infrastructure for BlackRock said, "Recurrent Energy is emblematic of our strategy of investing in leading renewable power generation assets and transition-enabling infrastructure."

Truist upgraded Enphase Energy Inc. (ENPH) and Sunnova Energy International Inc. (NOVA) to buy from hold and cut its rating on Bloom Energy Corp. (BE) to sell.

Analyst Jordan Levy increased Enphase's price target to $145 from $85 and upped Sunnova's price target to $18 from $10. He cut Bloom Energy's price target to $9 from $12.

"While we've surely not seen the end of volatility in the group, we see meaningful upside opportunity moving into the Fed rate cut cycle particularly for the residential solar group, while we see incremental downside risk to more nascent industries like hydrogen/fuel cells," Jordan said.

Enphase Energy's stock rose by 3%, while Sunnova advanced by 3.4%. Bloom Energy's stock dropped by 1%.

Meanwhile, SunRun Inc. (RUN) rose by 1.4% to $13.97 after BlackRock disclosed an ownership stake of 32.6 million shares or 15% in the company.

BlackRock added about 1.56 million shares to its ownership of 31.04 million shares from January 2023, according to filings. The additional shares were valued at about $21.5 million based on recent trades.

A BlackRock spokesperson did not comment on the SunRun stake. An email to SunRun did not draw a response.

Also read: Enphase's stock keeps falling after longtime bull abandons buy call

-Steve Gelsi

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01-23-24 1428ET

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