Tuesday, October 7, 2008

First Solar, SunPower downgraded by Goldman on solar fears (FSLR; SPWRB)

Goldman was a major holder of FSLR and acted as bookrunner on the last stock offering. I'm guessing they sold somewhere closer to last spring's all time high of $317.00 than to the current $140.00, down $19.71. The Billion dollars of insider selling up around $300.00 is looking pretty smart too.
From MarketWatch:
Goldman Sachs took a "cautious" stance on solar, lowering First Solar to conviction sell from buy and SunPower to sell from buy. "The risk of oversupply in the solar market will soon become a reality as considerably less generous demand subsidies take hold just as a wave of supply and tight financing hit the market. We believe that liberal subsidies of the past in markets like Germany and Spain are unlikely to be replicated in the future given fears of their ultimate cost in a bad world economy," the brokerage said.