What's Going On With First Solar Shares Today?

First Solar, Inc. FSLR shares are trading higher by over 6% in the premarket session on Wednesday.

The share rebound follows a 3% dip in the compay’s share prices over the last one month.

After the closing bell yesterday, the company released fourth-quarter results, quarterly earnings of $3.25 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $3.18 by 2.2%. Earnings gained from a whopping 728.3% rise in gross profits totaling $502.03 million.

The company registered a net income of $349.23 million in the quarter under review, compared with a $(7.55) million loss a year ago. 

Quarterly sales clocked in at $1.16 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $1.32 billion by 12%.

First Solar exited the quarter with cash and equivalents worth $2.1 billion, while the company’s long-term debt was $464.07 million.

“Over the past year, we scaled manufacturing capacity, mobilized at our latest announced facility in Louisiana, produced and shipped a record volume of modules, expanded our contracted backlog to historic levels, increased R&D investment, and continued to evolve our technology and product roadmap,” said Mark Widmar, CEO of First Solar. 

Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch maintains First Solar with an Outperform and raises the price target from $268 to $269.

First Solar sees 2024 earnings per share between $13.00 and $14.00, versus the $13.33 estimate. 

The company expects net sales for 2024 in a range of $4.4 billion to $4.6 billion (consensus $4.56 billion) and operating income of between $1.5 billion and $1.6 billion.

Price Action: FSLR shares are trading higher by 6.7% to $154.75 in the premarket session on Wednesday. 

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