SolarEdge Stock Plunges As CFO Steps Down, Retail Sentiment Edges Lower

Finance chief Ariel Porat has stepped down from his role due to personal reasons, effective immediately. Asaf Alperovitz , who previously served as the CFO of a high-tech apparel firm, will replace him.

Shares of SolarEdge Technologies Inc. (SEDG) plummeted more than 14% in Monday’s regular trade after the company announced the sudden departure of its chief financial officer.

SolarEdge CFO Ariel Porat has stepped down from his role due to personal reasons, effective immediately, the company said. He will stay with the firm to allow for a smooth transition.

Asaf Alperovitz will be SolarEdge's new CFO. He previously served as the CFO of a high-tech apparel firm and has experience in other senior management roles at Ernst & Young and other public companies.

“I’m confident Asaf’s extensive experience in transforming organizations and driving financial strategy will benefit us greatly as we take the next steps in the SolarEdge journey,” said SolarEdge CEO Shuki Nir.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits edged lower but remained in the ‘neutral’ (45/100) territory, showing indecisiveness among investors regarding Porat’s exit.

The stock’s sudden fall did leave some users baffled, though.

However, not everyone is pessimistic about the stock’s prospects, with one user saying they’re buying the dip.

Porat’s resignation comes days after the company posted a loss of $3.52 per share during the fourth quarter, missing Wall Street expectations. The company’s revenue of $196.2 million exceeded estimates of $189.3 million.

Despite missing Q4 expectations, SolarEdge received a slew of price target hikes due to its improving cash flow position. Analysts at JPMorgan are ‘Overweight’ on the stock, saying that stronger cash flows should improve investor sentiment despite a mixed quarter.

Analysts at Bank of America (BofA) Securities urged caution despite hiking their price target for the SEDG stock.

The brokerage underscored that critical challenges like European demand weakness and elevated electricity prices for U.S. residential customers continue to persist. However, it added that liquidity concerns have eased as SolarEdge generated positive free cash flows during the quarter.

SolarEdge’s stock is down nearly 36% in the past six months and almost 79% over the past year.

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