Solar Stocks News - First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR ) Announces 2009 Second Quarter Financial Results

Solar Stocks News - First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR ) Announces 2009 Second Quarter Financial Results

TEMPE, Ariz.--July 30 2009 --First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR ) today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 27, 2009. Quarterly revenues were $525.9 million, up from $418.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2009 and up from $267.0 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2008. Revenues for the first six months of fiscal 2009 were $944.1 million compared to $464.0 million for the first six months of fiscal 2008.


Net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2009 was $180.6 million or $2.11 per share on a fully diluted basis, up from $164.6 million or $1.99 per share on a fully diluted basis for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 and up from $69.7 million or $0.85 per share on a fully diluted basis for the second quarter of fiscal 2008.

First Solar will discuss these results and outlook for fiscal 2009 in a conference call scheduled for today at 1:30 p.m. MST (4:30 p.m. EDT). Investors may access a live audio webcast of this conference call in the Investors section of the Company’s web site at www.firstsolar.com. An audio replay of the conference call will also be available approximately two hours after the conclusion of the call. The audio replay will remain available until Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. EDT and can be accessed by dialing 888-203-1112 if you are calling from within the United States or 719-457-0820 if you are calling from outside the United States and entering access code 6443641. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Investor section on the Company’s Web site approximately two hours after the conclusion of the call and will remain available for 90 calendar days. If you are a subscriber of FactSet and Thomson One, you can obtain a written transcript within 2 hours.

About First Solar, Inc.

First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR - News) is changing the way the world is powered by creating truly sustainable solar energy solutions. First Solar manufactures solar modules with an advanced semiconductor technology and provides comprehensive PV system solutions. By constantly decreasing manufacturing costs, First Solar is creating an affordable and environmentally responsible alternative to fossil-fuel generation. First Solar modules are most effective when demand for traditional forms of energy is at its peak. First Solar set the benchmark for environmentally responsible product life cycle management by introducing the industry's first comprehensive, pre-funded collection and recycling program for solar modules. From raw material sourcing through end-of-life collection and recycling, First Solar is focused on creating cost-effective renewable energy solutions that protect and enhance the environment. For more information about First Solar, please visit www.firstsolar.com, or www.firstsolar.com/media to download photos.

For First Solar Investors:

This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Those statements involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks associated with the company's business involving the company's products, their development and distribution, economic and competitive factors and the company's key strategic relationships and other risks detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. First Solar assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.

Financial tables visit Investors section of the Company’s web site at www.firstsolar.com



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Investorideas.com Solar Stocks Commentary with J Peter Lynch; The Stock Market and Solar Market Sector Outlook

Investorideas.com Solar Stocks Commentary with J Peter Lynch; The Stock Market and Solar Market Sector Outlook

Point Roberts, South Salem, New York- May 13 2009- Investorideas.com a leading green investor portal, presents solar stocks commentary with J .Peter Lynch, a solar expert and frequent contributor to Investorideas.com.

The Stock Market and Solar Market Sector Outlook
J. Peter Lynch
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As I have said many times over the years solar stocks have a bright future, a very bright future. But investors have to understand a number of things about the current stock market and solar stocks in particular in order to fully take advantage of this long-term trend.

Markets go up and markets go down and these moves usually occur when it is least expected. At the present time solar stocks, the energy industry and the market in general have been in a totally amazing rally since early March 2009. Unfortunately the market and solar stocks have put on the equivalent gains two excellent years (NOT average years) in the past 8 weeks and in my opinion this is simply not sustainable.

As I said in early March in my previous article:

“The Dow Jones Industrial Index recently recorded a twelve year low and the media is FULL of doom and gloom. This terrible news was all over the financial press, accompanied by scenarios of more of the same to come. In fact, the recent survey from the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) had fallen to the most bearish level in history – 70% of those surveyed felt that the direction of the market would be DOWN over the next 6 months”.

“Nothing is 100% for sure, as we all know. But I think we are either at a significant bottom or very close to it. Everything is so “oversold” at this time, that I think the worst case is that we get a significant rally in what could still be a bear market”.

“Keep in mind that ALL the bad news out there is in media now. We already know all the bad news. Remember that the stock market IS actually a discounting mechanism which looks out 6 to 9 months into the future. We do not need GOOD NEWS to turn the market around, only LESS bad news”.

Well in retrospect that was certainly prescient insight and the market took off with most of the major indexes being up over 25% and some of the foreign markets being up over 35% percent and the solar sector of the market being UP over 70% in JUST 8 WEEKS more than triple the general market indexes.


Symbol
Current Value
%Change Since 3-12-09
%Change Since 1-1-2009
AKNS
1.28
88.2
-25.5
ASTI
5.55
63.2
47.6
CSIQ
8.23
131.8
27.4
CSUN
3.39
111.8
-14.2
DSTI
0.86
-33.2
-8.4
EMKR
1.11
48
-14.6
ENER
16.41
-7.1
-34.9
ESLR
2.28
88.4
-28.5
FSLR
190.65
50.7
38.2
JASO
3.72
74.6
-14.9
LDK
9.42
133.1
-28.2
RSOL
2.28
33.3
-37.5
SOL
3.8
65.2
-13.8
SOLF
5.2
92.6
3.8
SOLR
7.22
85.6
149.8
SPIR
7.13
56.0
38.7
SPWRA
27.25
17.9
-26.4
STP
16.45
141.2
40.6
TSL
17.5
139.1
88.4
WFR
16.53
6.6
15.8
YGE
9.23
119.2
51.3
Solar Average

72%
12%




S&P 500
908.35
20.99
0.56
Dow Jones
8469.11
18.12
-3.5
NASDAQ
1715.92
20.32
8.81


The Solar Stock Market Sector Then and Now

Then

In March solar stocks had been doing terribly since the second quarter of 2007. Just like the general market, we need to look a little deeper, past the media hype, and see what is actually happening with solar stocks in the market. One of the measures (tools) that I utilize when looking at individual stocks is their 50 day moving average and whether the current price is above (bullish) the 50 day average or below (bearish) the average. It is not the only way to look at stocks and may not be the “best”, but it always seems to give me an idea of which way a stock is heading in the short to medium term and when looking at a specific market sector, what sort of condition that sector is in.

At that time, 3 of the 35 solar stocks I follow are ABOVE (Bullish) their 50 day moving average. On the other hand 92% of the stocks (32 of 35) are BELOW (Bearish) their 50 day moving average. This clearly told me that the solar sector was deeply OVERSOLD and that while it could go lower, it was probably due for at least a “technical” bounce.

Now

At the current time 34 of the 35 solar stocks I follow are ABOVE their 50 day moving average and only one stock (DayStar Technologies – DSTI) is trading below it 50 day moving average. Even in this case, DSTI’s decline was due to an announcement that it is basically running out of cash and will need more financing.

This situation clearly tells me that the solar sector is approaching a condition of being very OVERBOUGHT. It is possible that this is the dramatic of a HUGE new bull market for solar stocks, but as I said in the March article:

“To put it a different way, I do not think ALL the bad news regarding the solar sector is out yet and that there will be future negative surprises, such as earnings disappointments (ENER earlier this week for example), inventory write-offs, and possibly even bankruptcies. The solar sector will probably get carried UP when the general market rallies, but since they will have to work out some additional problems; I do not think their rally will be sustainable”.

However, I DO NOT feel that this is the case and I think there will be a significant correction and the industry will have to digest further bad news that will be coming BEFORE it turns around and moves up in a more sustainable manner.

Numerous opportunities will come, but investor patience will be required to wait out this tough period and for sector volatility to “settle” down. This is still an embryonic industry and it is going through a painful retracement and consolidation phase.


Rewards come to those investors who are patient and do not follow the crowd

Aspiring investors need to acquire and nurture patience. Historical data clearly shows that more money is made MISSING the downside than catching the upside. As I read my e-mails from readers, I get the feeling that people really want to buy solar stocks and ride them into a bright future. Many times I get the sense that they are afraid, that if they delay, they will miss the chance to profit from the solar industries bright future. This is NOT true. There will be plenty of time and many advances and declines in the future. Be patient, look for the strongest stocks and try not to get swept up in the crowd, because the crowd is always wrong.


Mr. Lynch has worked, for 32 years as a Wall Street security analyst, an independent security analyst and private investor in small emerging technology companies. He has been actively involved in following developments in the renewable energy sector since 1977 and is regarded as an expert in this field. He was the contributing editor for 17 years to the Photovoltaic Insider Report, the leading publication in PV that was directed at industrial subscribers, such as major energy companies, utilities and governments around the world. He is currently a private investor and has from time to time been a financial/technology consultant to a number of companies. He can be reached via e-mail at: SOLARJPL@aol.com. Please visit his website for the promotion of solar energy – www.sunseries.net


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Thin Film Technologies Changing the Solar PV Business

Thin Film Technologies Changing the Solar PV Business

Solar Stocks: First Solar, Inc.(NasdaqGS: FSLR),Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.( United Solar Ovonics) (NasdaqGS: ENER) , XsunX (OTCBB:XSNX), SolarWorld (SRWRF.PK), Sanyo Electric (SANYY.PK)

POINT ROBERTS, WA, January 6, 2009- Green Investor at Investorideas.com
http://www.investorideas.com/gi/ reports on Thin Film Technologies Changing the Solar PV Business.


By Paulo Nery

The solar photovoltaic (PV) industry is clearly in a rapid growth phase. The worldwide industry size was recently estimated at $50 billion. Over the past few years, production capacity is thought to have grown at an average of 48% each year and cumulative global production is now at 12.4 Giga Watts (GW). It is also an industry on the brink of change. New technologies are emerging that seem certain have an impact on the entire shape of the PV industry.

Since they were first developed in the 50’s there have been no major changes to the basic crystalline silicon solar cell. But significant improvements are now taking place with several competing innovations vying for position. Crystalline silicon cells, which come in mono and poly crystalline forms, are now being referred to as “first generation” PV. These mature technologies have experienced dramatic growth in volumes. But with shortages of silicon and high prices affecting finished costs, the volumes are dropping. If silicon prices drop further we could yet see more competitive prices for these solar PV modules. But there’s only so much that prices can drop with that technology.

Second generation PV, or thin film technology, holds out the real promise of more price competitive systems because they can be manufactured with dramatically less material, shorter supply chains and cheaper, faster processes. Thin film is still a nascent industry and competition between players is much more about intellectual property and access to capital than the manufacturing efficiencies that drive the first generation PV makers. So there are lower prices from improved efficiency to be anticipated still.

There are three main approaches to thin film technologies based on different materials that can be used for the semi-conductor of a PV cell. The first to be established was amorphous silicon pioneered by United Solar Ovonics (NasdaqGS: ENER) which sells under the brand Uni-Solar. This technique, now used by a few dozen manufacturers around the world, relies on a small amount of amorphous silicon alloy and accounts for about 60% of the thin film PV made today. These systems have been sold for several years as building-integrated PV offering the advantage of nearly undetectable systems on rooftops for both commercial and residential buildings. United Solar sales amounted to 73 megawatts in 2008 and their sales pipeline has $1.8 billion. Their production capacity is currently at 118 Mega Watts (MW) with planned growth to 1 GW by 2012.

XsunX, (XSNX.OB) is also manufacturing thin-film modules using amorphous silicon and has taken aim at utility scale and grid-tied commercial installations. XsunX has developed proprietary techniques that have enabled it to achieve outstanding efficiency levels for amorphous silicon. The company plans to have production capacity of 25 MW in 2009 and is aiming for 100 MW in a few years. It has also recently contracted to supply 15 MW of its solar modules, worth over $37 million, over 2 years. XsunX and United Solar Ovonics are the only listed companies that are real investment plays on silicon based thin-film technology. Yes, Canon, Sharp and even Mitsubishi are in the game, but those companies are diversified into so many other products that investing in them wouldn’t be a play on solar. Other companies manufacturing amorphous silicon thin film include Auria Solar in Taiwan, EPV in New Jersey, Free Energy Europe in France, Heliodomi in Greece, Polar PV in China, Shenzhen Topray in China, Sinonar in Taiwan, TerraSolar in New York and VHF-Technologies in Switzerland.

The next approach to thin film uses cadmium telluride (CdTe) as the semi-conductor material. While CdTe modules are cheaper and faster to produce, so far they are much less efficient at around 10%. For utility scale installations, that seems not to be a critical factor however. The leader in this field is First Solar (FSLR) with over 1 gigawatt of production capacity, over 600 megawatts shipped so far, and over 3.8 gigawatts of contracted sales, worth $6.3 billion through 2013. According to their annual report, First Solar’s gross margins are 56%, which is twice that of most of their competitors’ costs. And they claim their cost per Watt to be $1.29, half to a third of their competitors. First Solar’s objective, though, is to be at $0.65-0.70 per Watt by 2012. After a tremendous run through 2007 up to May of 2008, when the stock went from about 28 to over 300, it tumbled to 85 for a brief while in November of 2008 only to rebound recently to around 130. One of the other CdTe developments was an Ohio company, Solar Fields, which was bought last year by Q-Cells, a German company. Ava Solar, in Colorado, has recently secured $104 million in funding and plans to large scale manufacturing in 2009.

Another group of companies is manufacturing cells with Copper Indium Gallium Di-Selenide (CIGS) as the semi-conductor. These include ICP Solar in Quebec, Solyndra in California, Global Solar in Arizona, MiaSole in California, Heliovolt in Texas, TerraSolar in New York and Nanosolar in California. All of these companies remain private. One of the biggest efforts currently is coming from Honda, who is a major player in crystalline silicon cells. CIGS systems have demonstrated efficiencies that approach 20%, which is significantly higher that CdTe modules and close to the efficiency of crystalline silicon modules. However, to date at least, the manufacturing processes are less tolerant to change.

All of the thin-film technologies have the advantage of requiring much less semiconductor material. It can be less than 1 percent of silicone used in crystalline cells. And they can be manufactured using high-speed techniques such as roll-to-roll printing. Their disadvantage is their lower efficiency. Even so, many new manufacturers in each three types are coming online every month.

Third-generation PV technologies includes approaches such as dye-sensitized solar cells, quantum dots, nano-antennaes, nanomodified materials and organic cells. These all offer the promise of higher efficiencies and lower costs than even second generation technology. But none is yet clearly established as a leader, and none of these technologies is yet available as an exchange traded investment.
Both second and third generation solar technology companies are highly concentrated in the US. So some observers have concluded that there will be a shift back to the US of the solar cell manufacturing that went to Asia. However, as the companies in this sector scale up their operations they’ll be tempted to manufacture where prices are lower to keep their costs down. But it’s by no means clear since as fast as companies shift manufacturing to Asia, overseas companies are building facilities in the US. For instance, SolarWorld (SRWRF.PK) from Germany has opened what they say is the US’s largest solar cell factory in Hillsboro, OR. Meantime, Sanyo Electric (SANYY.PK) from Japan is building a factory in Salem, OR.
Thomas Friedman, author of “Hot, Flat and Crowded”, has said that energy technology is the industrial sector where global leadership will be established in the next several years. With the rush of new innovation taking place in advanced solar technologies in the US, there’s still a chance that the US can claim that leadership position. But the game is still wide open.


Paulo J. Nery


Disclaimer: Nothing in the above article in no way constitutes a recommendation to buy or invest in these or any other stocks. You should always seek professional financial advice when planning your investments or trading in the stock markets.

Featured Showcase Solar Stock:

XsunX Inc. : (OTCBB: XSNX) and (OTCBB:XSNXE) Based in Aliso Viejo, Calif., XsunX is developing amorphous silicon thin film photovoltaic (TFPV) solar cell manufacturing processes to produce TFPV solar modules. To deliver its products the Company has begun to build a multi- megawatt TFPV solar module production facility in the United States to meet the growing demand for solar cell products used in large scale commercial projects, utility power fields, and other on-grid applications. Employing a phased roll out of production capacity, it plans to grow manufacturing capacities to over 100 megawatts by 2010. More info on XsunX, Inc. can be found on our media profile at: http://www.investorideas.com/co/xsnx/default.asp or http://www.xsunx.com/

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http://www.RenewableEnergyStocks.com is one of several green investor portals within Investorideas.com and provides investors with stock news, exclusive articles and financial columnists, audio interviews, investor conferences, Blogs, and a directory of stocks.

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