I thought I’d go back and issue a winners and losers report for the analyst calls heading into earnings on First Solar.  Soleil stands alone in its own “Lacking Balls” category.

Winners

Kudos to Kaufman Bros for the good call back in March when they called First Solar “the preeminent stock in the solar space” which should represent a “core holding for investors.”  They reinstated the Buy rating and slapped a $140 price target on it.

Barclays was bullish on First Solar, but they were uh .. also quite bullish on CSIQ which has been a disaster.

Piper Jaffray responded to a negative article on solar in Barron’s and reiterated its Overweight ratings which included First Solar.

Lacking Balls

In the lacking balls category, Soleil Securities reiterated its Sell rating on First Solar (FSLR) but back pedaled a bit saying they are raising their estimates and wouldn’t be short heading into earnings.  They still have a sub $100 price target.  How’s that for conviction.

Oppenheimer was Neutral so I suppose you could put them in the lacking one ball category.

Losers

Bronte Capital issued a full report stating its case as to why it’s bearish on First Solar just a few weeks ago.

Auriga commented a few weeks ago: While we currently see strong demand for FSLR’s product, we believe actual results will fall short of the Street estimates and will likely cause the stock to move lower from current levels.”

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I should say that despite First Solar’s beat and raise report after the bell today, solars overall are a bit shaky and span the spectrum of bullish and extremely bearish.  Good old fashioned industry maturation.  The winners and losers continue to be separated and a healthy market correction should continue to shake out the laggards from the leaders.  Sunpower (SPWRA) is in a death spiral, Canadian Solar (CSIQ) is trying to put a stop to another mega plunge and Suntech (STP) looks like it wants to test the Nov 09 lows.  Daystar (DSTI), Ascent (ASTI) and Evergreen (ESLR) may not survive at all.  There are some positives though starting with the emergence of First Solar.  Trina Solar (TSL) trades up around 52 week highs.  JA Solar (JASO), Solarfun (SOLF) and ReneSola (SOL) all look quite bullish on their daily charts and a still relatively “off the radar” recent IPO STR Holdings (STRI) continues to surge higher after testing support.

If there were any great calls or bad calls from analysts on First Solar I may have missed, feel free to post them in the comments. Thank!