Earnings Preview: First Solar Revenue Expected to Rise Over Last Quarter

First Solar FSLR announces its next round of earnings this Tuesday, July 26, 2011. Here's Benzinga's advanced look at the company's second quarter earnings report.

Earnings and Revenue:

Wall Street expects a positive EPS reading of 97 cents per share and revenues of $589.6 million. Whether the reported numbers beat or miss analysts' estimates, they will also be compared against last year's numbers for the same period, which were a profit of $1.84 per share on revenues of $587.9 million. We'll have to wait for Tuesday to see if First Solar reports rising revenue and shrinking EPS from the year-ago quarter, as analysts are expecting.

Here's how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Quarter	Q1	Q4	Q3	Q2
EPS Estimate	$1.16	$1.76	$1.96	$1.60
EPS Actual	$1.33	$1.80	$2.04	$1.84

Stock Performance:

At last check, shares of First Solar were trading at $123.36. Since January 1st, shares of First Solar have declined 5.2%.

Average Stock Rating:

The average rating by analysts for First Solar is a Hold. The strength of this rating has declined slightly over the past three months.

Competitors:

Looking for a sympathy stock to trade or interested in the performance of other companies in the same sector? Take a look at some of First Solar's peers.

• General Electric Company GE: Moderate Buy with a $0.31 recent quarter EPS
• Evergreen Solar (ESLR): Moderate Sell with a -$1.21 recent quarter EPS
• SunPower (SPWRA): Moderate Sell with a $0.01 recent quarter EPS
• Suntech Power Holdings (STP): Hold with a $0.17 recent quarter EPS

First Solar is in the solar industry, which has experienced price/earnings growth of 0.6%.

Finally, a description of the company's main areas of operation: First Solar designs and manufactures solar electric power modules using a proprietary thin film semiconductor technology. .

Take Action:

There is your peek into First Solar's upcoming earnings numbers, including some competitors to watch around the time of the announcement. Check back in with us after the announcement for a full recap of the announcement. In the meantime, here are some links to explore today.

• To see up-to-date news on First Solar, click here
• To see other trading ideas, click here
• To see other company earnings recaps, click here