Since announcing Monday that it would offer an additional 8.5 million shares in a secondary stock sale, shares of First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) have dropped from about $56 to around $46, the price the company announced on Wednesday for the sale. Shares bounced around that figure all day yesterday, and closed last night at $45.85. Shares are still bouncing today.

First Solar said it would use the proceeds from the sale:

[F]or general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions of under development photovoltaic solar power system projects, investments in photovoltaic solar power system projects that will be jointly developed with strategic partners and capital expenditures or strategic investments to develop certain business units and expand in new geographies.

At the time of the announcement, First Solar’s shares were trading near the 52-week high of $59, so the timing could not have been much better from the company’s point of view. From a shareholder’s perspective, perhaps not so much.

Solar power installations in the first quarter of this year reached an all-time high in the United States. Prices for solar panels have stopped sinking like a stone, and First Solar’s technology always has been competitive on price and is gaining in terms of efficiency. The company’s acquisition of a solar installation company in 2010 has helped bring First Solar’s revenues and profits back from the deal.

Shares traded flat at $45.85 about 45 minutes after today’s open, in a 52-week range of $13.25 to $59.00. Here is a 12-month chart of First Solar’s share price, showing that it continues to trade very near its 50-day moving average and well above the 200-day average.

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