First Solar missed expectations on profit and offered investors weak guidance on Tuesday, but most analysts nonetheless remain bullish on the solar panel manufacturer. Shares of First Solar plummeted 13% in Wednesday’s premarket trading hours after the company reported first-quarter earnings of $1.95, missing the $2.49 analysts polled by FactSet had forecast. While the company’s first-quarter revenue beat expectations, First Solar’s second-quarter earnings guidance also missed the mark. First Solar sees its earnings for the current quarter coming in between $2 to $3 per share, lower than FactSet’s estimate of $3.99. As an additional blow, the company lowered its full-year earnings guidance to a range from $12.50 to $17.50, again below FactSet’s $17.77 estimate. The company’s prior guidance had called for earnings to range between $17 to $20 per share. Despite this earnings disappointment, most analysts maintained their bullish stance on First Solar, although they unanimously lowered their price targets. Here’s what analysts at some of Wall Street’s biggest shops had to say on the report. KeyBanc downgrades shares to underweight from sector weight, adopts price target of $100 Analyst Sophie Karp’s target implies about 27% downside from Tuesday’s close. “While FSLR has sizable domestic manufacturing capacity that is used to serve the U.S. market, the impact of volumes imported from its facilities in Vietnam, Malaysia, and India appears to be greater than we thought, and not likely to be mitigated in the NT under the 10% global tariff regime or higher ‘reciprocal’ tariffs. This uncertainty is pancaked on top of broader anxiety over the fate of various IRA provisions, and we believe will put pressure on valuation in the NT.” Oppenheimer downgrades First Solar to perform from outperform, removes prior price target of $304 “Uncertainty on timing of policy resolution (FSLR’s indicated federal budget negotiations could extend into 2026) suggest the low-end of guidance in 2025 is a realistic scenario. We downgrade to hold pending further policy clarity.” Bank of America reiterates buy rating but lowers price objective to $185 from $215 Bank of America’s forecast corresponds to upside of around 35%. “We reiterate our Buy rating on First Solar despite a weaker-than-expected Q1 and a meaningful cut to ’25 guidance due to tariff-driven uncertainty impacting SEA production. The decision to remove up to 2.5 GW of potentially uneconomic volume from guidance and idle…
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