The analysts are tripping over themselves to make a call on First Solar (FSLR) ahead of earnings tonight. Add Brigantine Advisors to that list. The firm has upgraded First Solar (FSLR) to Buy and set the price target at $145 per share. Hat tip to Street Insider for the following analyst comment:
“News out of the solar sector has generally been negative over the last few months: a mostly inconclusive climate summit in Copenhagen, delays in the passage of the Climate Bill in the U.S., concerted resistance towards the adoption of Carbon limits, higher than expected reduction in German feed-in-tariffs, and lower than expected economic growth in Europe and Germany. The primary consequence of this is that expectations for growth in the solar sector have moderated to more realistic levels, coupled with a pull back in FSLR’s stock. Additionally, investors now have a better grasp of the company’s EPC business, and the hit to margins due to this. We view this as part of the normal growth of the company. We believe that the longer term prospects for Solar Energy remain bright, especially in the U.S., and with First Solar’s increased focus on utility projects in the U.S. we think the company is well positioned to exploit opportunities in regions with higher solar energy generating potential. We are therefore upgrading the stock to BUY. We expect Q4 results tonight to be generally in-line with our Q4 estimates of $1.52/ $591M, which are modestly above the Street’s $1.50/ $580M. For Q1’10 their firm estimates are $1.42/ $585M, while the Street is at $1.65/ $556M.