MEMC shares plunge after CFO's departure
Long-slumping shares of solar-power equipment maker MEMC plunge again after CFO departs
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. lost about a fifth of their value Thursday, a day after the maker of solar-power equipment announced that it had replaced its chief financial officer.
THE SPARK: The company, based in St. Peters, Mo., announced Wednesday that CFO Mark Murphy had left to return to Praxair Inc. and had been replaced by Brian Wuebbels, a vice president and general manager of MEMC's balance of system products business.
THE ANALYIS: Citi analysts said Murphy will run a small division at Praxair, and that his move was at best a lateral one. Analyst Timothy Arcuri said Wuebbels had been VP of MEMC's solar wafer-manufacturing business during "the ill-fated decision" to build out the Kuching wafering facility.
Citi rates the stock a "Buy" but with high risk. Arcuri said MEMC's solar wafers are a commodity subject to aggressive price-cutting, solar revenue is hard to predict and can be volatile, the company is too heavily dependent on the cyclical semiconductor industry, and it has a high ratio of debt to stock value.
THE SHARES: MEMC lost 43 cents, or 20.3 percent, to $1.70 in afternoon trading. It was as low as $1.67 earlier in the session.
The stock traded above $90 in late 2007, but it collapsed in 2008 and has only rarely poked above $20 since then. It has been in a steady slide since February 2011, when it was over $14.
