The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 20.51% to 11.24 million shares with purchase of 1.91 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 10.55% valued currently at $2.05 billion. In addition, Fidelity Management & Research Co raised its holdings by 1.77 million to 4.45 million shares. And SSgA Funds Management, Inc. has lifted its position by 31.66% or 0.98 million shares – to 4.09 million shares.
With over 2.21 million First Solar Inc. (FSLR) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $200.89 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $444.86 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 20.58% and its price on 05/23/23 lost nearly -0.40%. Currently, there are 106.67M common shares owned by the public and among those 101.07M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 29 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for FSLR have a consensus price objective of $224.37. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $277.00 and a low of $170.00. The average price target is 7.65% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -18.17% over that period. But an upside of 27.48% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $224.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 186 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 100 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 303,835 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 86 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 214,533 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in First Solar Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and iShares II Plc – Global Clean Ene. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 3.13 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $572.01 million. The company bought an additional 16598.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.94% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 12720.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 2.31 million shares valued at over $422.59 million and representing 2.17% of the shares outstanding. iShares II Plc – Global Clean Ene now owns shares totaling to 2.02% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) opened at $199.24, down -$2.45 from a prior closing price of $201.69. However, the script later moved the day high at 202.87, down -0.40%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -5.60% and 22.79% over the past three months. FSLR shares are trading 34.11% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 205.44% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $60.77 and touched a high of $232.00 over the same period. FSLR has an average intraday trading volume of 3.03 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 3.50%, -1.33%, and 22.82% respectively.
Institutional ownership of First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) shares accounts for 83.10% of the company’s 106.67M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 39.08%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 53.93% and 27.73% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $21.75B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.41. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 520.44, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.39. The company has a PEG of 92.28 and a Quick Ratio of 2.40 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.00. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 3.24% over the week and 4.06% over the month.
Analysts forecast that First Solar Inc. (FSLR) will achieve an EPS of $1.13 for the current quarter, $2.56 for the next quarter and $12.99 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.6 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.88. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.52 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -109.50%, and 79.16% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 5.64% over the next five years, compared to -16.80% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 29 brokerage firm advisors rate First Solar Inc. (FSLR) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.50. Specifically, 11 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 12 of the 29 advise that investors “hold,” and 2 rated it as a “Sell.”
