First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq:FSLR) today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended, December 29, 2007.
Quarterly revenues were $200.8 million, up from $159.0 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2007 and up from $52.7 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006. Revenues for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2007 were $504.0 million, up from $135.0 million in fiscal year 2006.
Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 was $62.9 million or $0.77 per share on a fully diluted basis, compared to net income of $46.0 million or $0.58 per share on a fully diluted basis for the third quarter of fiscal 2007. Net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2007 included a one time tax benefit of $7.5 million, or $0.09 per fully diluted share due to the reversal of valuation allowances against previously established deferred tax assets in Germany. Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 was $8.0 million or $0.11 per share on a fully diluted pro-forma basis.
Net income for fiscal 2007 was $158.4 million or $2.03 per share on a fully diluted basis compared to net income of $4.0 million for fiscal 2006 or $0.05 per share on a fully diluted pro-forma basis.
Pro-forma earnings per share for the three months and fiscal year ended, December 30, 2006, have been adjusted to give effect to the Company's equity offerings during 2006, including its initial public offering, as if each occurred on January 1, 2006. The Company believes the pro-forma earnings per share presentation represents a meaningful basis for the comparison of its current results to results during fiscal periods occurring prior to the Company's initial public offering.
"During the fourth quarter of 2007 we benefited from the full capacity and economies of scale of our Frankfurt/Oder plant. This combined with continued throughput and conversion efficiency gains afforded us strong operating leverage and decreased our manufacturing cost per watt by 12% year over year to $1.12 per watt in the fourth quarter of 2007, further solidifying our cost leadership position in the industry," said Michael J. Ahearn, Chief Executive Officer of First Solar.
from Press Release
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GREENSKEPTIC NOTE: I continue to be impressed with First Solar's management. They are increasing ramp up on their Malaysia plant, are increasing conversion efficiencies, have long-term supply contracts with multiple suppliers for their primary inputs, and are realistic about the emerging competition while maintainming that their primary competition is with traditiomnal energy sources.
Remains to be seen how the 4Q announcement will play out today, but the 77 cents per share beats the mean expectation of 53 cents, and that has been good for FSLR shares in the past. Pre-market is above 200.
Disclosure: Long FSLR
2 comments:
Piper Jaffray raises its price target on First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) from $250 to $280, reiterating its Buy rating, following another beat and raise quarter.
The firm said, "We continue to believe that FSLR is the only solar OEM capable of providing utilities with a solution to meet renewable portfolio standards near term thereby substantially increasing its addressable market and growth prospects. FSLR's products continue to penetrate rooftop markets (~45% in Germany was rooftop), thereby putting to rest the bear case of their rigid substrates. FSLR is targeting a complete ramp up of their 4 Malaysian plants in 4Q09 bringing the company's total
production capacity to 1GW. We do not see any near term threats to FSLR stemming from new entrants into the CdTe market or any other thin film technology."
The firm also said channel checks indicated that FSLR panels generate the best energy yield (highest output per rated watt) with extremely low defect density.
Thanks, Anonymous!
Piper Jaffray raised its price target on First Solar to $280 per share, from $250 per share, in response to the quarter.
"We continue to believe that FSLR is the only solar [manufacturer] capable of providing utilities with a solution to meet renewable portfolio standards near term, thereby substantially increasing its addressable market and growth prospects," the report states. "We do not see any near-term threats to FSLR stemming from new entrants into the [cadmium-telluride] market or any other thin-film technology."
See greentech media post:
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/first-solar-rides-high-590.html
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