I posted earlier about FBR Research and Piper Jaffray maintaining their ratings on First Solar (FSLR) ahead of earnings and Broadpoint is chiming in with a maintain as well. They have a Buy rating and $165 price target on FSLR and are holding to it through earnings on Thursday. Hat tip to Street Insider for the following analyst comment:
“FSLR is scheduled to report 4Q09 results on Thursday, after the market close. We anticipate healthy results and maintenance of 2010 guidance. We forecast $594M in revenue (consensus $579M), pro forma EPS of $1.63 (consensus $1.50), shipments of 290MW, a module ASP $1.70/w, and $100M of systems revenue. Pro-forma EPS excludes $26.5M in one-time charges associated with severance/executive compensation and the Opti transaction….2Q10 Metrics: We forecast $533M in revenue (consensus $556M), pro forma EPS of $1.70 (consensus $1.65), shipments of 310MW, a module ASP $1.64/w, and $23.5M of systems revenue. We anticipate that FSLR will report better than expected results for 4Q09, and that 1Q10 consensus estimates may be conservative. While we have plenty of concerns regarding 2010 (oversupply, FX, utility timing), we believe FSLR will outperform through uncertainty given its industry leading cost structure and earnings growth potential for 2011 associated with capacity ramp.”
Shares of FSLR are up about 1% today and the area around 110 is looking like a strong level of support.