First Solar Stuns Investors With Solid Earnings and Guidance

Energy

Published: February 23, 2016 4:42 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 12:48 pm

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) reported its fourth-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Tuesday. The company had $1.60 in earnings per share (EPS) on $942 million in revenue. That compared to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $0.78 in EPS on $929.01 million in revenue. The same period from the previous year had $1.89 in EPS on $1.01 billion in revenue.

Net sales for this quarter decreased slightly from the prior quarter primarily due to lower revenue from the Desert Stateline project, which achieved initial revenue recognition in the third quarter. Additionally, sales of third-party module and module plus offerings decreased.

During the fourth quarter, record annual bookings totaled 3.4GWdc in 2015. Also so far in 2016, bookings are over 160MWdc.

In terms of guidance for the 2016 full year, the company expects to have EPS in the range of $4.00 to $4.50 and revenues in the range of $3.8 billion to $4.0 billion. There are full year consensus estimates of $4.12 in EPS on $3.83 billion in revenue.