Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Applied Materials and First Solar: Jim Cramer Likes Both (AMAT; FSLR)

If I were FSLR I'd be looking over my shoulder. One of the world's finest technology companies ready to set up competitors in three months. "Here at InstaSolar we believe..."
From Barron's Tech Trader Daily:

Is serious competition coming to solar panel darlings First Solar (FSLR) and SunPower (SPWR)? The two’s shares traded down today after a note from Friedman, Billings, Ramsey analyst Mehdi Hosseini stated that a customer of equipment maker Applied Materials (AMAT) was able to build a panel factory in three months’ time using Applied’s tools, according to the Associated Press, signalling that Applied could boost supply in the market, which could conceivably spell sharper competition for First Solar and SunPower. (As an astute reader pointed out, Hosseini last week downgraded First Solar on margin concerns.)...

...“Applied’s customers are attempting to make a similar thin film solution to First Solar’s that is applicable to the same end market,” he noted, “But First Solar is producing higher efficiencies than Applied on an R&D basis.” By which he means First Solar’s conversion rate is 10.5%, versus the “mid to high single digits” for the technology that Applied enables, he says. It’s hard to know how to gauge the success of Applied’s customers, furthermore, before they start producing finished product, said Hardy....MORE

From TheStreet.com:

...LDK Solar (LDK - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr): "It's done well without me. I like First Solar (FSLR - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Applied Materials (AMAT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and I'm sticking with those."...