What Happened?
Shares of solar panel manufacturer First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) jumped 12.5% in the afternoon session after the company reported mixed results for its third quarter of 2025. The company’s revenue of $1.59 billion met Wall Street's expectations, marking a significant 79.7% increase compared to the same period last year. However, its profit of $4.24 per share slightly missed the analyst consensus of $4.32. Despite the positive year-on-year growth, First Solar lowered its full-year guidance for both revenue and earnings per share. The company now expects full-year revenue of $5.08 billion at the midpoint, below previous forecasts. The stock's positive reaction suggests investors may have focused on the strong year-over-year sales growth and positive free cash flow of $1.07 billion for the quarter.
Is now the time to buy First Solar? Access our full analysis report here.
What Is The Market Telling Us
First Solar’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 35 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for First Solar and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 16 days ago when the stock gained 5.7% on the news that several investment banks raised their price targets on the stock, reflecting strong confidence in the company's future performance. BofA Securities increased its price target to $254, while BMO Capital raised its target to $261. This followed a significant hike from a Citigroup analyst a day prior, who lifted the target to $300. Analysts pointed to First Solar's expansion of its U.S. production capacity as a key reason for the positive outlook. BMO noted the company's U.S. facilities were sold out through 2028.
First Solar is up 41.8% since the beginning of the year, and at $264.42 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of First Solar’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,975.
P.S. In tech investing, "Gorillas" are the rare companies that dominate their markets—like Microsoft and Apple did decades ago. Today, the next Gorilla is emerging in AI-powered enterprise software. Access the ticker here in our special report.
