First Solar Past Earnings Performance

Past criteria checks 4/6

First Solar has been growing earnings at an average annual rate of 42.8%, while the Semiconductor industry saw earnings growing at 37.4% annually. Revenues have been growing at an average rate of 4.1% per year. First Solar's return on equity is 16.4%, and it has net margins of 32.4%.

Key information

42.8%

Earnings growth rate

42.5%

EPS growth rate

Semiconductor Industry Growth	30.6%
Revenue growth rate	4.1%
Return on equity	16.4%
Net Margin	32.4%
Last Earnings Update	30 Sep 2024

Recent past performance updates

Recent updates

Revenue & Expenses Breakdown

How First Solar makes and spends money. Based on latest reported earnings, on an LTM basis.

Earnings and Revenue History

XTRA:F3A Revenue, expenses and earnings (USD Millions)
Date	Revenue	Earnings	G+A Expenses	R&D Expenses
30 Sep 24	3,851	1,248	275	189
30 Jun 24	3,764	1,204	264	180
31 Mar 24	3,564	1,025	260	165
31 Dec 23	3,319	831	262	152
30 Sep 23	3,162	474	271	140
30 Jun 23	2,990	156	275	128
31 Mar 23	2,801	42	257	116
31 Dec 22	2,619	-44	238	113
30 Sep 22	2,524	95	206	111
30 Jun 22	2,479	189	186	108
31 Mar 22	2,487	216	172	106
31 Dec 21	2,923	469	191	99
30 Sep 21	2,625	453	227	92
30 Jun 21	2,969	563	244	89
31 Mar 21	2,983	517	264	88
31 Dec 20	2,711	398	263	94
30 Sep 20	3,501	223	247	96
30 Jun 20	3,121	99	256	98
31 Mar 20	3,063	43	260	100
31 Dec 19	3,063	-115	251	97
30 Sep 19	2,355	-3	254	93
30 Jun 19	2,484	24	230	90
31 Mar 19	2,209	-6	244	86
31 Dec 18	2,244	144	268	84
30 Sep 18	1,892	-340	277	87
30 Jun 18	2,303	-192	292	85
31 Mar 18	2,617	-92	274	86
31 Dec 17	2,941	-166	245	89
30 Sep 17	2,933	-484	240	94
30 Jun 17	2,527	-539	238	106
31 Mar 17	2,920	-603	245	117
31 Dec 16	2,905	-416	263	125
30 Sep 16	3,516	499	255	132
30 Jun 16	4,106	698	251	129
31 Mar 16	3,986	803	265	126
31 Dec 15	4,113	593	272	131
30 Sep 15	3,645	576	283	129
30 Jun 15	3,264	316	294	137
31 Mar 15	2,910	223	275	140
31 Dec 14	3,391	396	259	144
30 Sep 14	3,152	268	250	147
30 Jun 14	3,527	373	246	145
31 Mar 14	3,504	406	256	143

Quality Earnings: F3A has a high level of non-cash earnings.

Growing Profit Margin: F3A's current net profit margins (32.4%) are higher than last year (15%).

Free Cash Flow vs Earnings Analysis

Past Earnings Growth Analysis

Earnings Trend: F3A has become profitable over the past 5 years, growing earnings by 42.8% per year.

Accelerating Growth: F3A's earnings growth over the past year (163.3%) exceeds its 5-year average (42.8% per year).

Earnings vs Industry: F3A earnings growth over the past year (163.3%) exceeded the Semiconductor industry -9%.

Return on Equity

High ROE: F3A's Return on Equity (16.4%) is considered low.

Return on Assets

Return on Capital Employed

Discover strong past performing companies

Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

Data	Last Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis	2025/01/21 13:08
End of Day Share Price	2025/01/21 00:00
Earnings	2024/09/30
Annual Earnings	2023/12/31

Data Sources

The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.

Package	Data	Timeframe	Example US Source ^*
Company Financials	10 years	Income statement Cash flow statement Balance sheet	SEC Form 10-K SEC Form 10-Q
Analyst Consensus Estimates	+3 years	Forecast financials Analyst price targets	Analyst Research Reports Blue Matrix
Market Prices	30 years	Stock prices Dividends, Splits and Actions	ICE Market Data SEC Form S-1
Ownership	10 years	Top shareholders Insider trading	SEC Form 4 SEC Form 13D
Management	10 years	Leadership team Board of directors	SEC Form 10-K SEC Form DEF 14A
Key Developments	10 years	Company announcements	SEC Form 8-K

^* example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.

Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more here.

Analysis Model and Snowflake

Details of the analysis model used to generate this report is available on our Github page, we also have guides on how to use our reports and tutorials on Youtube.

Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Industry and Sector Metrics

Our industry and section metrics are calculated every 6 hours by Simply Wall St, details of our process are available on .

Analyst Sources

First Solar, Inc. is covered by 87 analysts. 37 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.

Analyst	Institution
Anders Rosenlund	ABG Sundal Collier
Adam Krop	Ardour Capital Investments, LLC
James Fontanelli	Arete Research Services LLP

First Solar Past Earnings Performance

Past criteria checks 4/6

Key information

Recent past performance updates

Third quarter 2024 earnings released: EPS: US$2.92 (vs US$2.51 in 3Q 2023)

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q3, 2024 Results on Oct 29, 2024

Second quarter 2024 earnings released: EPS: US$3.26 (vs US$1.60 in 2Q 2023)

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q2, 2024 Results on Jul 30, 2024

First quarter 2024 earnings released: EPS: US$2.21 (vs US$0.40 in 1Q 2023)

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q1, 2024 Results on May 01, 2024

Recent updates

Third quarter 2024 earnings released: EPS: US$2.92 (vs US$2.51 in 3Q 2023)

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q3, 2024 Results on Oct 29, 2024

Investor sentiment improves as stock rises 16%

Second quarter 2024 earnings released: EPS: US$3.26 (vs US$1.60 in 2Q 2023)

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q2, 2024 Results on Jul 30, 2024

Investor sentiment deteriorates as stock falls 17%

First Solar, Inc. Becomes the Solar Industry's First EPEAT Climate+ Champion, Setting Global Standard for Ultra-Low Carbon Solar

Insider recently sold €1.7m worth of stock

Investor sentiment improves as stock rises 27%

Insider recently sold €1.3m worth of stock

First quarter 2024 earnings released: EPS: US$2.21 (vs US$0.40 in 1Q 2023)

First Solar, Inc. Reaffirms Earnings Guidance for the Year 2024

New minor risk - Insider selling

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q1, 2024 Results on May 01, 2024

First Solar, Inc., Annual General Meeting, May 08, 2024

First Solar, Inc. Provides Earnings Guidance for the Year 2024

Full year 2023 earnings released: EPS: US$7.78 (vs US$0.41 loss in FY 2022)

First Solar, Inc. Announces Board Resignations

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q4, 2023 Results on Feb 27, 2024

Investor sentiment improves as stock rises 19%

Investor sentiment improves as stock rises 17%

First Solar, Inc. Updates Earnings Guidance for the Full Year 2023

Third quarter 2023 earnings released: EPS: US$2.51 (vs US$0.46 loss in 3Q 2022)

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q3, 2023 Results on Oct 31, 2023

First Solar, Inc. Maintains Earnings Guidance for the Full Year 2023

Second quarter 2023 earnings released: EPS: US$1.60 (vs US$0.52 in 2Q 2022)

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q2, 2023 Results on Jul 27, 2023

First Solar, Inc. Announces Limited Production Run of World’S First Bifacial Thin Film Photovoltaic Module

Independent Director recently sold €528k worth of stock

First Solar, Inc. (NasdaqGS:FSLR) acquired Evolar AB from Magnora ASA (OB:MGN) for $38 million.

First quarter 2023 earnings released: EPS: US$0.40 (vs US$0.41 loss in 1Q 2022)

Independent Director recently sold €1.5m worth of stock

Full year 2022 earnings released: US$0.41 loss per share (vs US$4.41 profit in FY 2021)

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q4, 2022 Results on Feb 28, 2023

Third quarter 2022 earnings released: US$0.46 loss per share (vs US$0.42 profit in 3Q 2021)

First Solar, Inc. Updates Earnings Guidance for the Year 2022

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q3, 2022 Results on Oct 27, 2022

The funds managed by Real Assets group of PAG completed the acquisition of A solar operations and maintenance (O&M) platform with approximately 665 MWDC ,in Japan from First Solar, Inc. (NasdaqGS:FSLR).

Insider recently sold €77m worth of stock

Independent Director recently sold €638k worth of stock

Second quarter 2022 earnings released: EPS: US$0.52 (vs US$0.78 in 2Q 2021)

First Solar, Inc. Updates Earnings Guidance for the Year 2022

Investor sentiment improved over the past week

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q2, 2022 Results on Jul 28, 2022

The funds managed by Real Assets group of PAG completed the acquisition of 293 Megawatts Utility Scale Solar Development Platform in Japan from First Solar, Inc. (NasdaqGS:FSLR).

First Solar, Inc. Announces Director Appointments

Insufficient new directors

PAG entered into a definitive agreement to acquire O&M platform from First Solar, Inc. (NasdaqGS:FSLR).

First quarter 2022 earnings released: US$0.41 loss per share (vs US$1.98 profit in 1Q 2021)

First Solar, Inc., Annual General Meeting, May 26, 2022

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q1, 2022 Results on Apr 28, 2022

First Solar, Inc. Announces Kathryn A. Hollister Not to Stand for Re-Election as A Member of the Board of Directors

First Solar in Talks to Sell Japan Project Development, O&M Biz

Full year 2021 earnings: Revenues and EPS in line with analyst expectations

First Solar, Inc. Provides Earnings Guidance for the Year 2022

Investor sentiment improved over the past week

Sharon L. Allen Intends Not to Stand for Re-Election as Member of the Company’s Board of Directors of First Solar, Inc

First Solar, Inc. to Report Q4, 2021 Results on Mar 01, 2022

Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Reminds Investors of Looming Deadline in the Class Action Lawsuit Against First Solar, Inc

First Solar, Inc. Investors with Substantial Losses Have Opportunity to Lead Class Action Lawsuit

Now 26% undervalued after recent price drop

Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP Announces the Filing of A Securities Class Action Lawsuit Against First Solar, Inc

Third quarter 2021 earnings released: EPS US$0.42 (vs US$1.46 in 3Q 2020)

Second quarter 2021 earnings released: EPS US$0.78 (vs US$0.35 in 2Q 2020)

Investor sentiment improved over the past week

First quarter 2021 earnings released: EPS US$1.98 (vs US$0.86 in 1Q 2020)

First Solar, Inc. Raised Earnings Guidance for the Full Year 2021

Investor sentiment improved over the past week

First Solar Appoints Kathryn A. Hollister to Board of Directors