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Energy

First Solar Moves Closer To The Double (FSLR, TAN, SPWRA, ESLR)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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solar-panel-pic13Maybe there’s some life left in the solar industry after all. First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) reported EPS for the first quarter of 2009 of $1.99, blowing past estimates of $1.50 and tripling EPS of $0.57 for the first quarter of 2008. Revenue hit $418.2 million, more than double last year’s quarterly revenues of $196.9 million, and higher than estimates of about $404 million.  This is also running up the key solar ETF, the Claymore/MAC Global Solar Energy (NYSE: TAN).

The company’s results differ substantially from the numbers put up by SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWRA), and just as SunPower’s report last week took the solar sector down, First Solar’s numbers are a rising tide that appears to be lifting all solar boats. Evergreen Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESLR) reports first quarter results after markets close today, and its shares are up more than 9% in pre-market trading.

First Solar was a stock that we put in our “Energy Stocks To Double” by the end of the recession.  Technically, it has doubled from the absolute lows.  But we were using a baseline of $100 rather than the $85 handle.  So our target to be a double would yield a $200 price tag.  The stock is up 18% in early trading around $179.00, and the 52-week range is $85.28 to $317.00.

Even the Claymore/MAC Global Solar Energy (NYSE: TAN) is running as First Solar looks to be the largest component of that ETF.  Those shares are up 6% at $8.28, and its 52-week trading range is $4.65 to $30.79.

Paul Ausick
April 30, 2009

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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