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Daqo New Energy

DQ
4
Solar · Energy
Price
$12.14
+0.22 (+1.85%)
Market Cap
$821.5M
Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
Winston Score
4
Winston is worried
Weak fundamentals across most pillars.

Share count falling — buybacks

12.0% over 4y

The company has reduced its share count over this period, returning value to shareholders through buybacks.

Diluted shares outstanding: 76.8M (2021) → 67.5M (2025)

Daqo New Energy is a Chinese company that makes polysilicon, which is the key raw material used to build solar panels. Its customers are mostly solar wafer and panel manufacturers in China, who buy polysilicon in bulk to produce the cells that go inside solar modules. Daqo is one of the largest polysilicon producers in the world, operating large manufacturing facilities in Xinjiang, China.

The company makes money by selling polysilicon directly to manufacturers, so its revenue rises and falls with polysilicon prices on the open market. Those prices have collapsed in recent years due to a massive oversupply in China, which explains the deeply negative margins the company is currently reporting. Daqo operates almost entirely within China and faces intense competition from other large Chinese producers. The main risk going forward is that polysilicon prices remain depressed for an extended period, which could continue to pressure profitability and strain the company's financial position.

Winston Score History

Growth Profile

When traditional metrics don't capture the full picture, these are the signals growth stock investors use instead.

Revenue Growth

-78.4% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Revenue declining

EPS Growth

-19.3% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Earnings declining

R&D Spend

$3M/ year

Declining (-43% vs prior year)

0.4% of revenue

Below sector average (1%)

R&D spend declining — could signal cost-cutting or efficiency

Insider Activity

0.6%ownership

Relatively low insider ownership

Cash Runway

~3 years

$2.0B cash & investments

Quarterly Free Cash Flow

↓ Burn rate worsening

$2.0B cash & investments at current burn rate

Revenue declining

Daqo New Energy's revenue is actually shrinking. In a growth stock, that removes the core investment thesis. The low Winston Score here may be warranted — unless there's a turnaround story.

The Winston Score above measures business quality today. Growth stocks often score lower because they invest in the future rather than maximising current profits. These metrics show what matters most for evaluating that future.

Score breakdown

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Quality

Gross Margin
-521.5%
Thin — -521.5% gross margin
Operating Margin
-564.4%
Losing money on operations — -564.4%
ROCE
-3.4%
Weak — -3.4% return on capital

Negative ROIC means the business is losing money on every dollar invested in it.

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Growth

Sales YoY
-22.9%
Shrinking sales (-22.9% YoY)
EPS YoY
N/A
Data not available
EPS Consistency
0/8 quarters
Earnings rarely grow — volatile business

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Cash Flow

Cash Conversion
N/A
Data not available
FCF Margin
-35.8%
Burning cash (-35.8%)

Free cash flow is negative. They are burning cash, not generating it.

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Stability

Debt / Equity
N/A
Data not available
Interest Cover
N/A
Data not available

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Valuation

P/E Ratio (TTM)
N/M
Negative earnings — P/E not meaningful
P/E vs Forward
N/A
not available
Data not available

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Dividends

Not applicable for this business.
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