First Solar (FSLR) ended the recent trading session at $224.01, demonstrating a -10.18% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a loss of 0.13% for the day. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.11%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq depreciated by 0.72%.
Heading into today, shares of the largest U.S. solar company had lost 4.52% over the past month, lagging the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 10.59% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.78%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of First Solar in its forthcoming earnings report. On that day, First Solar is projected to report earnings of $5.22 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 43.01%. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $1.57 billion, indicating a 4.01% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $14.63 per share and revenue of $5.11 billion. These totals would mark changes of +21.71% and 0%, respectively, from last year.
It's also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for First Solar. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the business and profitability.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.12% lower. First Solar currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
From a valuation perspective, First Solar is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 10.74. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 23.95, so one might conclude that First Solar is trading at a discount comparatively.
We can additionally observe that FSLR currently boasts a PEG ratio of 0.32. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The average PEG ratio for the Solar industry stood at 0.71 at the close of the market yesterday.
The Solar industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 87, putting it in the top 36% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.
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First Solar, Inc. (FSLR): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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