Enphase Energy soars 24% after fourth-quarter earnings beat reveals strong consumer demand for solar products

• Enphase Energy soared 24% on Wednesday after the solar company revealed better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.
• Guidance for the first quarter was also ahead of estimates as demand for solar surges.
• The strong earnings from Enphase helped boost other solar stocks like First Solar and SolarEdge.
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Solar stocks soared on Wednesday after Enphase Energy's fourth-quarter earnings report bested analyst expectations and revealed strong consumer demand for solar panels, inverters, and batteries.

Shares of Enphase Energy surged as much as 24%, while peers First Solar, SolarEdge, and SunRun jumped 5%, 10%, and 7%, respectively.

Also helping boost Enphase stock was stronger-than-expected first-quarter revenue guidance. Here were the key numbers.

Revenue: $412.7 million, versus analyst estimates of $399.6 million
Adjusted earnings per share: $0.73, versus analyst estimates of $0.59
Q1 revenue outlook: $420 million to $440 million, versus analyst estimates of $407.6 million

"We were able to meet the surge in customer demand while successfully navigating supply constraints and logistics challenges," Enphase said in its earnings release.

The bread and butter of Enphase's business is battery storage and inverters that allow residential customers to manage the energy generated by solar panels and help reduce utility bills. In certain municipalities, customers are able to sell energy they generate back to the utility grid, switch to solar energy during daily energy peaks, and switch to utility power during low consumption hours.

Enphase said it shipped more than 3 million microinverters, and more than 100 megawatt hours of Enphase IQ batteries. The company saw fourth-quarter revenue grow 56% year-over-year and 17% quarter-over-quarter to reach new records.

Going forward, Enphase is focused on the integration of its recently closed ClipperCreek acquisition, which makes electric vehicle charging stations for residential and commercial customers.

"This acquisition will soon leverage our power conversion and software platform to manage loads and resources within the home," the company said.