LDK shares fall on 2Q loss, analyst rates “Sell”

NEW YORK — Shares of solar cell wafer maker LDK Solar Co. Ltd. tumbled on Thursday, the morning after the company posted a second-quarter loss as it wrote down the plummeting value of its inventory.

LDK shares tumbled $1.60, or 14.3 percent, to $9.61 in morning trading.

The company reported a loss of $2.03 per American Depositary Share, missing analyst expectations of a loss of 91 cents per ADS. Results included a write-down of $175.8 million on the inventory and $16.7 million for a loss on firm purchase commitments for polysilicon materials “as a result of the continued rapid market price decline for solar wafers.”

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Sanjay Shrestha warned that the company will likely have more write-downs. Shrestha also expressed concern over the company’s stressed leverage position amid increasing short-term bank debt and its weak operating model in a declining polysilicon pricing environment. He rates the company “Sell.”