First Solar Earnings: What To Look For From FSLR

Solar panel manufacturer First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) will be announcing earnings results tomorrow after market close. Here’s what to expect.

First Solar beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 8.2% last quarter, reporting revenues of $1.01 billion, up 24.6% year on year. It was a mixed quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts’ earnings estimates. On the other hand, full year revenue guidance fell short of Wall Street's expectations.

Is First Solar a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free.

This quarter, analysts are expecting First Solar’s revenue to grow 34.6% year on year to $1.08 billion, improving from the 27.4% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $3.15 per share.

Heading into earnings, analysts covering the company have grown increasingly bearish with revenue estimates seeing 8 downward revisions over the last 30 days (we track 23 analysts). First Solar has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates five times over the last two years.

Looking at First Solar’s peers in the electrical equipment segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Enphase’s revenues decreased 30.9% year on year, missing analysts’ expectations by 3.3%, and Vicor reported a revenue decline of 13.6%, topping estimates by 9.3%. Enphase traded down 15% following the results while Vicor was up 13.9%.

Read our full analysis of Enphase’s results here and Vicor’s results here.

Investors in the electrical equipment segment have had fairly steady hands going into earnings, with share prices down 1.1% on average over the last month. First Solar is down 20.2% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $287.69 (compared to the current share price of $199.11).

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