December 30, 2016 (Shareholders Foundation) - An investor in shares of SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) filed a lawsuit against certain directors of SunPower Corporation over alleged breaches of fiduciary duties.
The plaintiff claims that the board of directors of SunPower Corporation should be held responsible for the company's accounting debacle. The plaintiff claims that CEO Thomas H. Werner and other company board members misled investors about key facts about SunPower Corporation’s business operations. The plaintiff alleges that SunPower Corporation’s near-term economic returns were declining due to aggressive price-cutting in the industry, but SunPower Corporation allegedly continued through the first half of 2016 to portray its business fundamentals as solid. Additionally, the plaintiff says that SunPower Corporation allegedly failed to disclose that a number of its clients were adopting a longer term timeline for their solar energy projects.

On August 9, 2016, SunPower Corporation announced its second quarter 2016 financial results. While the Company met expectations on certain financial figures, SunPower also forecast poor performance in the coming quarters. SunPower Corporation stated in relevant part, “we see a number of near-term industry challenges, primarily in our power plant segment, that we expect to impact our business and financial performance in the second half of 2016. The extension of the Investment Tax Credit, as well as the bonus depreciation credit, while beneficial to the long-term health of the industry, has reduced the urgency to complete new solar projects by the end of 2016, with many customers adopting a longer-term timeline for project completion. Additionally, near-term economic returns have deteriorated due to aggressive PPA pricing by new market entrants, including a number of large, global independent power companies.”

Shares of SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) declined from $30.77 per share in December 2015 to as low as $10.05 per share on August 11, 2016.