Analysts Like Solar City Q2's Expected 66% Sales Growth

SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY), slated to post results Thursday after the bell, is among top picks of Goldman Sachs in the solar power sector.

The company, which dominates the U.S. residential market for solar energy products and installation, is expected to post a loss of $0.99 per share on revenue growth of 66 percent to $63.2 million. The year-earlier loss was $0.52 per share.

The company raised $200 million last month through the sale of notes backed by solar assets.

Goldman Sachs' Brian Lee called the sale of asset-backed securities by SolarCity "another stepdown" in the cost of capital and thus adding to its stock valuation. Lee rates the shares a Buy with a $92 target.

Rather than selling solar panels, Solar City generally provides leases on the equipment and offers power purchase agreements to home owners, who pay for the electricity from rooftop panels without owning the equipment.

The company began securitizing those purchase agreements last November, when it first raised $54.23 million in notes backed by the agreements. That was followed by a $70.2 million round earlier this year.

"It illustrates the company's ability to make solar assets mainstream," Deutsche Bank's Vishal Shah said in research note maintaining a Buy rating and $90 target.

On Monday, the company named Brad Buss chief financial officer, replacing the retiring Robert Kelly.

Canaccord's Josh Baribeau said the new executive "doesn't signal a change in strategy."

Baribeau said in a note that the company is investing heavily in sales and should boost deployments of solar projects by about 100 percent annually going forward. Barbibeau maintained a Buy rating and $94 target.

SolarCity traded recently at $75.50, up 3.6 percent.