The Development in Solar Energy Industry and Firms' Financial Performance

• Main Authors: En-tze Kuo, 郭恩慈
• Other Authors: Shun-Chiao Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/z9s89x

碩士 === 世新大學 === 經濟學研究所(含碩專班) === 96 === This study aims to evaluate the top 10 solar energy firms in terms of global market share between the first quarter of 2006 and first quarter of 2008 through the following five variables: (1) Revenue; (2) Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA); (3) Earnings per share (EPS); (4) Operating margins (OEYOY) and (5) Stock price performance, in order to assess the current situation of the overall solar energy industry and the recent evolution forces affecting it and the firms involved. Through the statistical tool Stata software package, this study will perform regression analysis and static model analysis to the variables mentioned above with the main purpose of determining whether the impact of the EPS’ and operating margins’ trends on stock price performance reach statistically significant levels. Solar energy is still a relatively incipient industry that has historically offered limited growth due to its traditional elevated cost structure. In recent years, record fossil fuel prices have revived the momentum of solar power. However, operation margins for this industry are not gaining yet the momentum that revenue growth is experiencing due to the fact that this nascent industry requires costly investments in equipment, raw materials and research & development tasks. This phenomenon can be seen in several emerging industries and its different from common mature industries that display high production volumes and revenues but lower margins.