Hapoalim Maintains Sell on First Solar (FSLR)

Hapoalim is out with its report today on First Solar

, maintaining Sell. In a note to clients, Hapaolim writes, "Heading into FSLR's 1Q11 earnings report next Tuesday, May 3, 2011, we are lowering our FY11 estimates to levels we believe properly account for the impact policy paralysis in Italy and France will have on industry inventory levels and mounting oversupply in 2H11. While we lower our 1Q11 estimates considerably to reflect an industry slowdown in March and our revised outlook for the timing of FSLR's systems shipments, we believe the primary risk to FSLR's earnings outlook lies in 2H11 when we expect the rebate that FSLR offers its European customers to drive its 'external' ASPs to $1.15 by 4Q11 (a 12% discount to our estimate of silicon module pricing of ~$1.30) and to offset the more buoyant 'internal' module pricing of its North American projects. With our FY11 EPS estimate dropping to $8.03, we remain considerably below the Street at $9.52. As we expect the stock to fall along with estimates in 2H11, we maintain our Sell rating." Hapoalim has a $120 PT on FSLR. At the time of posting, shares of FSLR were trading pre-market at $138.75, up 1.66% from Tuesday's close.