Wednesday, February 25, 2009

First Solar Shares Plunge On Grim Near-Term Outlook. Analyst Reaction and Earnings Call Transcript (FSLR)

The stock was recently trading near the day's low, at $108.02 down $29.66.
In the third of last night's posts on First Solar, I said:
...Something seems odd about this frankness. We didn't see it when the stock was over $300.
I wouldn't be surprised to see insider buying should FSLR trade under a hundo....
Eric Savitz seems to be picking up a similar vibe. From Tech Trader Daily:

First Solar (FSLR) shares are taking a pounding this morning as the Street absorbs the company’s remarkably grim description of the near-term outlook for the solar sector.

While the company posted better-than-expected results for the fourth quarter, CEO Michael Ahearn told investors on the call that 10%-15% of its 2009 orders were at risk of customer default. He also said that the company had stretched out payment terms for its customers, agreed to cut prices in exchange for volume orders, and was taking the extraordinary step of taking equity stakes in some projects which otherwise were having trouble getting financed.

The revised strategy provoked some strong reaction on the Street:...MORE including analyst downgrades

Here's the transcript of the conference call, I won't get to it until this weekend.