Complete Solaria Flags Record Quarter, Ambitious 2028 Target

Complete Solaria Inc ((SPWR)) has held its Q4 earnings call. Read on for the main highlights of the call.

Complete Solaria’s latest earnings call struck a cautiously optimistic tone, with management emphasizing record revenue and profit, accelerating sales capacity, and improving operational efficiency, even as they acknowledged ongoing integration, reporting and margin challenges. While near-term seasonality and policy uncertainty may weigh on Q1, the company presented a narrative of tangible progress: higher productivity, a broadened national footprint and an extended financing runway that, in management’s view, outweigh current growing pains.

Record Q4 Revenue and Full-Year Growth

Complete Solaria delivered record fourth-quarter revenue of $88.5 million, up about 26% from roughly $70 million in the prior quarter, marking the strongest quarter in the company’s history. This momentum helped drive full-year 2025 revenue to $308.8 million, underscoring the scaling of its residential and small-commercial solar platform despite industry headwinds. Management framed this performance as validation that the combined business model—now including recent acquisitions—is capable of generating sustained top-line growth.

Operating Profit Hits New High but Margin Still Lagging Goals

Operating income in Q4 climbed to $3.545 million, approximately a 4.0% operating margin and a roughly 77% sequential increase from the prior quarter’s $2.0 million. This marked the fourth consecutive profitable quarter and a profitable full year, a notable milestone in a volatile solar market. Still, management reiterated that the 4% operating margin remains well below their 10% long-term target, leaving significant room for efficiency gains, pricing optimization and cost control to expand profitability over time.

Strengthened Cash Position and Expanded Financing Capacity

The company exited the quarter with $9.3 million in cash, up from $5.1 million, effectively adding about $4.3 million of cash during the period and easing investors’ immediate liquidity concerns. Management increased its equity line of credit to $55 million, subject to shareholder approval, and reaffirmed a minimum cash target of $10 million. While this bolstered liquidity, executives acknowledged that the business remains sensitive to funding access, with three additional financing deals in progress to support growth and working-capital needs.

Acquisitions Fuel Growth and Broaden Capabilities

Acquisitions were central to the quarter’s performance, with Sunder contributing a full quarter and Ambia a partial quarter to the revenue surge. Management also highlighted a signed letter of intent to acquire Cobalt Power Systems, announced in mid-January, aimed at strengthening commercial and system-design capabilities. These deals are intended not only to drive near-term volume but also to deepen the company’s technical expertise, expand its geographic footprint and build a more diversified revenue base across residential and commercial segments.

Sales Force Nearly Doubles, Extending National Reach

The company has rapidly expanded its independent sales representative base, growing 1099 reps from about 1,126 to roughly 2,000, nearly doubling its outsourced sales capacity. This expansion, driven by the Sunder and Ambia acquisitions and the onboarding of Purolite reps, now gives Complete Solaria coverage in approximately 45 states. Management sees this larger, distributed sales workforce as a key engine for future bookings and revenue growth, particularly as the company refines its processes to convert leads into installations more efficiently.

Product and Technology Differentiation as a Competitive Edge

On the product front, Complete Solaria highlighted its ‘Monolith’ 470W Alpha Pure-RX panel, offered exclusively with partner REC, and its focus on bifacial and glass-back technologies that can deliver effective outputs above 500W in certain installations. The company emphasized its integration of software-controlled systems, including work with Enphase and use of CAN bus and ARM-based controls, as core differentiators. Management believes this blend of higher-output hardware and intelligent system design can support better customer economics and set the company apart in an otherwise commoditized panel market.

Productivity and Operational Efficiency Hit New Highs

The company reported a record revenue-per-employee figure of more than $400,000 per year, surpassing its previous benchmarks and well above its estimated breakeven level of around $285,000 per employee. The rise stems from acquisitions that added a large number of 1099 sales reps without significantly increasing W-2 headcount, which stands at roughly 847 employees (with a target around 820). Management outlined a “line of sight” toward $500,000 in revenue per employee, positioning productivity as a key driver of margin expansion over time.

Faster Project Cycle Times Support Throughput and Bookings

Integration of Ambia’s operations is already translating into faster project execution. The company reported a median project-received-to-permit time of about seven days and project-received-to-install-complete time of roughly 41.6 days—around 15 days faster than prior SunPower benchmarks. Shorter cycle times mean quicker cash conversion, higher throughput and improved customer experience, all of which should help support higher bookings and better capacity utilization across the enlarged sales and installation network.

Margin Gap Highlights Upside and Execution Risk

Despite record operating income, the roughly 4% operating margin underscores how far the company remains from its 10% target. Management framed this margin as an early step on a longer journey, suggesting that scaling revenue, streamlining operations and further integrating acquisitions could unlock substantial upside. For investors, however, this gap is a reminder that while the top line is growing, the path to sustainably higher margins still depends on disciplined execution and cost management.

Liquidity Concerns Linger Despite Cash Improvement

The prior quarter’s $5.1 million cash balance had raised red flags among investors, and the quarter-end level of $9.3 million, while better, still hovers near the company’s $10 million minimum comfort threshold. Management’s reliance on the expanded equity line of credit and ongoing pursuit of three additional funding deals signals that liquidity remains a key sensitivity. The ability to secure capital on reasonable terms will be critical, particularly as depressed valuation multiples could make equity-based funding more expensive and dilutive.

Accounting, Reporting and Integration Issues in Focus

The company faced a late SEC filing for Q3, which management attributed to the complexity of integrating disparate financial systems from acquired entities. They described the resulting adjustments as minor, including a $1.1 million bad-debt reserve, and stressed that the issues were process- and system-related rather than indicative of deeper financial problems. To address this, Complete Solaria has engaged an external consultant to standardize and accelerate financial reporting and continues to search for a CFO to be based in Salt Lake, signaling recognition that financial controls and transparency must improve to support investor confidence.

Seasonality and Policy Uncertainty Cloud Near-Term Outlook

Management guided Q1 2026 revenue conservatively at around $84 million, implying a roughly 4.4% decline from Q4, and emphasized that the first quarter is historically weak for residential solar due to winter seasonality. They also flagged uncertainty around the investment tax credit (ITC) and broader policy environment as potential short-term headwinds to demand and timing of installations. Despite this, the company expects to remain operating-income positive in Q1, leaning on its expanded sales force and improved operational efficiency to cushion seasonal softness.

GAAP OpEx Complexity Challenges Investor Modeling

An analyst on the call pointed to a roughly 41% quarter-over-quarter rise in GAAP operating expenses, raising questions about cost control. Management clarified that non-GAAP operating expenses—excluding commissions, stock-based compensation and intangible amortization—rose only about 8.5% sequentially, arguing that accounting items distort the headline GAAP figures. This complexity adds a layer of difficulty for investors trying to model the business, and underscores the need for clearer disclosures and standardized reporting as the company grows.

Industry Headwinds and Depressed Valuation Shape the Investment Case

Management acknowledged persistent headwinds in the broader solar sector, especially in panel manufacturing where oversupply, tariff issues and commoditization have compressed margins. Against this backdrop, Complete Solaria’s market-cap-to-sales multiple of roughly 0.55 remains depressed relative to peers, constraining its stock valuation and potentially its ability to raise equity capital efficiently. The company is positioning itself as a differentiated, integrated platform with higher-value products and services, but investors will likely want to see sustained profitability and margin expansion before the valuation gap closes.

Forward Guidance and Long-Term Growth Ambitions

Looking ahead, management reaffirmed that Q4 closed with record $88.5 million revenue and $3.545 million in operating income, and that Q1 FY26 revenue is expected to be about $84 million with positive operating income maintained despite seasonality. They highlighted four consecutive profitable quarters, an ending cash balance of $9.3 million, an expanded $55 million equity line, around $8 million in reserves after a $1.1 million bad-debt reserve, and roughly 111 million fully diluted shares outstanding. Operationally, the company has nearly doubled its 1099 sales reps to around 2,000, keeps W-2 headcount near 847 with a target of about 820, and has already surpassed $400,000 revenue per employee, aiming for $500,000. Crucially, management reiterated a long-term goal of reaching $1 billion in revenue by 2028, implying around 50% compound annual growth—an ambitious target that, if achieved, could significantly reshape the company’s financial profile and valuation.

In closing, Complete Solaria’s earnings call painted a picture of a company gaining operational traction and scale, with record revenue and profit, a rapidly expanding sales engine and improving efficiency metrics. Yet the story is not without risk: operating margins are still modest, liquidity remains a watch point, and accounting and integration challenges have not fully faded. For investors, the appeal lies in the potential upside from margin expansion and growth toward the $1 billion revenue goal, balanced against execution risk in a cyclical, policy-sensitive solar market.