First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) finished Wednesday with an addition of $4.08 to close at $180.58, an upside of 2.31 percent. An average of 2,421,940 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a fall of -$11.31 in the past week, and it reached a new high 36 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 2,561,225 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 1,982,706.
FSLR stock has decreased by -9.71% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $174.23 on 08/22/23. With the stock rallying to its 52-week high on 05/12/23, shares of the company touched a low of $113.58 and a high of $232.00 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 17 times so far this year and achieved 20.56% or $30.79 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -22.16% from the 52-week high.
Insider Transactions
FSLR stock investors should be aware that First Solar Inc. (FSLR) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 3 days ago on Aug 21. In this transaction, the insider spent $84,448. Chief Commercial Officer, ANTOUN GEORGES, disposed of 12,346 shares at a price of $202.89 on Aug 14. The insider now owns more than $2,504,836 worth of shares. Prior to that, Director KENNEDY R CRAIG went on to Sale 1,500 shares at $192.92 each on Aug 07. An amount of $289,380 was transacted.
Valuation Metrics
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 124.11. The stock’s beta is 1.41. Other valuation ratios to consider include the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio at 6.51, the price-to-book (PB) ratio at 3.19.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of First Solar Inc. for the three months ended June 29 was 2.70, and the current ratio was 3.40, indicating that the company is able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 0.07 and a total debt to equity ratio of 0.07 for the quarter ending June 29. First Solar Inc.’s EBITDA margin for the year ending June 29 is 4.53%, while its operating margin for the same period stands at 2.40%. Its gross profit as reported stood at $69.86 million compared to revenue of $2.62 billion.
For investors, determining the potential profitability of the investment also depends on the performance of the company’s management. In the past 12 months, First Solar Inc.’s return on assets was 1.90%.
Earnings Surprise
For the three-month period that ended June 29, First Solar Inc. had $437.41 million in total debt. In the quarter under review, the net income was up than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of $170.58 million in the quarter, while revenues of $42.56 million were grew 67.28%. The analyst consensus anticipated First Solar Inc.’s latest quarter earnings to come in at $0.96 per share, but it turned out to be $1.59, a 65.60% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to $240.22 million. Shareholders own equity worth $106.83 million.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at First Solar Inc. (FSLR) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 23 August was 34.47%, suggesting the stock is Neutral, with historical volatility in this time frame at 44.34%.
As of today, FSLR’s price is $180.83 -5.89% or -$11.31 from its 5-day moving average. FSLR is currently trading -8.53% lower than its 20-day SMA and -15.35% lower than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is -7.98% below the SMA50 and +14.49% above the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 11.95% and 9.69%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 8.38. With the 14-day stochastic at 16.20% and the average true range at 8.46, the RSI (14) stands at 38.31%. The stock has reached -10.65 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at -13.75.
Analyst Ratings
BofA Securities upgraded First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) to a a Buy rating in its most recent analyst report. Previously, the stock was rated as a Neutral.
