pocket.change
5 months ago
Exploring Undervalued US Stocks With Intrinsic Discounts Ranging From 18.6% to 44.2%
https://stocks.apple.com/AWUfpGw5QSiK16iifeJA3zw
First Solar (NasdaqGS:FSLR)
Overview: First Solar, Inc. is a solar technology company that offers photovoltaic (PV) solar energy solutions globally, with a market capitalization of approximately $23.87 billion.
Operations: The company generates revenue primarily from its Modules segment, which amounted to $3.55 billion.
Estimated Discount To Fair Value: 44.2%
First Solar, trading at US$221.33, appears undervalued based on DCF with a fair value of US$396.8, indicating a 44.2% discount. The company's earnings are expected to grow by 27.32% annually, outpacing the US market forecast of 15%. Despite significant insider selling recently, First Solar's high non-cash earnings and a recent leap in annual profits by over 2360% highlight its financial health and potential for sustained growth. Additionally, recent investments in R&D and manufacturing aim to bolster future capabilities and market position.
- Insights from our recent growth report point to a promising forecast for First Solar's business outlook.
- Get an in-depth perspective on First Solar's balance sheet by reading our health report here.
conix
2 years ago
Mistake from Biden could end US solar industry
By Michael Stumo
Sunday, June 26, 2022
President Joe Biden has talked a lot about “Made in America” and creating 10 million clean-energy jobs. However, he’s made a serious error for America’s solar manufacturing industry that poses grave consequences for the nation’s energy future, including a greater dependence on Chinese solar panels.
China accounts for roughly 70% of global solar panel production. Much of that stems from the massive subsidies Beijing provides to its state-owned manufacturers. China also “dumps” solar panels in the world market at below the cost of production in an effort to put U.S. solar companies out of business.
Beijing’s tactics have worked. Between 2010 and 2016, America’s solar industry almost disappeared under a flood of Chinese solar cells. It wasn’t until the Trump administration-imposed tariffs on Chinese solar products in 2018 that America’s solar industry began to regain its footing as assembly of solar panels relocated to the United States.
Since then, U.S. solar companies have invested in new production and new workers. Last year, American-assembled solar cells accounted for 18% of new U.S. installations — an all-time high.
Despite this, America’s solar companies are still struggling. In response, the Department of Commerce recently initiated an investigation into Chinese solar companies operating in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia to illegally avoid U.S. tariffs.
Clearly, China is intent on dominating global solar production. But inexplicably, Biden issued a “Solar Emergency Declaration” that gives China a free pass to continue its illegal trade activities for two years. As NBC News reported, “nobody will be punished” — regardless of what Commerce finds.
It appears Biden has been listening to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), a trade group that claims tariffs hinder U.S. solar installations. That’s nonsense, though, since the U.S. installed 23.6 Gigawatts of solar power last year — almost half of all new generating capacity.
Significantly, SEIA represents Chinese solar producers, including companies that use forced labor in Xinjiang, Western China. In fact, the American Prospect reports that some of SEIA’s leading members are the “same Chinese-owned companies that are implicated not only in the investigation of illegal tariff evasion, but in the use of slave labor to produce solar components.”
Biden has also authorized the Defense Production Act (DPA) to accelerate domestic solar production. However, until Congress explicitly appropriates additional funding, the Biden administration can’t use the DPA for solar projects.
What Biden has done is signal that China can ship more solar panels to the U.S. by any means necessary. And he’s sabotaged the Commerce Department’s investigation into Chinese solar manufacturers illegally circumventing U.S. tariffs. Regardless of what the Commerce Department determines, no Chinese company can be punished since the president’s declaration gives them a free pass for the next 24 months.
The COVID pandemic has already demonstrated the pitfalls of America’s over-reliance on Chinese imports. Allowing China to overtake America’s solar industry jeopardizes America’s energy security. Biden should swiftly rescind his declaration and hold Chinese companies accountable for willfully undercutting America’s solar manufacturers.
Michael Stumo is CEO of the Coalition for a Prosperous America.
conix
3 years ago
FSLR in the News
How Did a Small Solar Company’s Complaint Bring the Industry To a Standstill?
Posted to Energy May 23, 2022 by Chris Woodward
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Political leaders from both parties are publicly decrying a Biden administration probe into solar panel imports that has brought parts of the U.S. solar industry to a virtual standstill. More quietly, they’re pointing fingers at an American company, First Solar, for helping create the crisis — one that benefits the Arizona-based company.
At issue are Obama-era tariffs on solar panel components made in China. A small solar panel assembly company, Auxin Solar, filed a petition with the Commerce Department to impose those tariffs on crystalline silicon photovoltaic (CSPV) solar panels and cells imported from Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia, claiming the facilities are a front for Chinese producers.
In late March, the Commerce Department launched its probe — and brought a series of large solar panel installation projects to a standstill.
“Initiation of this investigation is already causing massive disruption in the solar industry,” a bipartisan group of senators wrote President Joe Biden earlier this month. “It will severely harm American solar businesses and workers and increase costs for American families as long as it continues.”
There aren’t many issues that will bring together a liberal like Rhode Island’s Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and North Carolina conservative Sen. Thom Tillis. They’re both concerned the threat of retroactive tariffs — as high as 300 percent of the assessed value — will keep large-scale solar projects on the drawing board and slow efforts to combat climate change.
“They needed to resolve this yesterday,” Whitehouse told Axios.
A survey of more than 200 solar companies finds three quarters have canceled or delayed panel deliveries since the Commerce Department announced its probe. The survey, conducted by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), also found the impacts are being felt across all market segments — residential, commercial, community solar, and utility-scale solar.
“This investigation is based on a meritless trade case that is hammering the solar industry in real-time and diminishing our efforts as a country to tackle climate change,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO. “We urge the administration to expedite this investigation and end this unnecessary roadblock to our clean energy future.”
Gabriella Beaumont-Smith, policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, says it is an issue of concern for U.S. businesses.
“Companies that import those solar panels and solar cells are facing potentially some new rounds of import limitations,” says Smith. “They are wanting to wait and see what happens before they make any more investment decisions.”
Meanwhile, suspicions grow that Auxin Solar doesn’t have the resources to mount this expensive legal challenge alone. Inside sources say it’s being bankrolled by bigger players. One rumor is that oil or gas interests are behind it, but sources on Capitol Hill and in the industry call that a bank shot.
“It’s First Solar,” one lobbyist told InsideSources. “It’s an open secret that they’re behind this.”
First Solar is the largest solar manufacturer in the U.S. When news of the probe hit, its stock value rose 5.6 percent.
Mamun Rashid, president of Auxin Solar, denies he is being backed by any bigger players. He told The Washington Post his company had to act, regardless of the legal bills. “We don’t have a business if we don’t do something about this.”
At the same time, market analysts at Cowen and J.P. Morgan acknowledge First Solar is one of few U.S. companies to benefit from the imposition of the tariffs and the impact of the investigation.
And First Solar issued a flat denial: “The answer is an unequivocal, no, we are not a party to Auxin’s anti-circumvention petition,” said Samantha Sloan, First Solar’s Vice President of Policy. “Unfortunately, those lobbying against the law taking its course choose to obscure the facts with their loud, presumably expensive sky-is-falling campaign. This seems to indicate that they are afraid that the Department will find that Chinese solar manufacturers are, in fact, engaged in circumvention and will hold them accountable for their unfair and unlawful trade practices.”
Whoever’s behind it, Greg Nemet, a professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, says the net effect of the Commerce Department’s actions will be higher prices, which will hurt efforts for a clean energy future.
“If we care about meeting climate goals, that requires larger investment and faster installation of solar. and it’s hard to see how higher priced panels help that,” Nemet told E&E News.
The fight over Auxin Solar’s complaint is having immediate impacts. NiSource Inc. recently announced plans to delay the shutdown of a coal-fired power plant by two years because of the solar market situation.
“I think that not only is the Biden administration not doing a good job in freeing up trade in solar or environmental products overall, it is not doing a good job in reaching or using trade policy to reach its climate goals,” says Smith.
Ryan Young, a Senior Fellow focusing on trade policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, says this story highlights the unintended consequences tariffs can have.
“Assume, for the sake of argument that solar panel tariffs do, in fact, benefit American solar panel producers,” says Young. “Those benefits come at the expense of every consumer and every industry that uses solar panels, and now has to pay extra for them.”
For example, Young says construction costs would go up while projects get delayed, workers miss paychecks, and rents go up to cover the higher costs.
“It’s a zero-sum game at best,” says Young.
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