By Elsa Ohlen

It is hardly a surprise that solar stocks took a dive after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, given the president-elect's mantra of "drill, baby, drill."

However, Sunrun's latest earnings report showed that there is a glimmer of hope for the sector after all.

The California-based solar installer reported a wider-than-expected loss late Thursday. Third-quarter loss was 37 cents a share versus the estimated loss of 9 cents a share, according to FactSet.

But there were two silver linings to these seemingly gloomy results.

Firstly, Sunrun delivered a second consecutive quarter of positive cash generation and provided a strong cash generation outlook for the current quarter. This should come as a relief to investors, especially since rival solar installer SunPower filed for bankruptcy only in August.

Secondly, while Trump's policies are widely expected to be less favorable toward renewable sources of energy than those under Biden or Harris, Sunrun's CEO Mary Powell said in the earnings call that investment tax credits have historically received bipartisan support, even under Trump's first term. She also noted that the Inflation Reduction Act, which aims to boost domestic clean energy production, targets a lot of investments in Republican states, meaning it's less likely to be repealed by a Republican administration.

Sunrun stock was up 2.2% to $11.89 in premarket trading Friday.

Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com

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November 08, 2024 09:20 ET (14:20 GMT)

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