The shares of First Solar Inc. fell 6.9% on Tuesday morning trading, following Raymond James analyst’s double downgrade from bullish to bearish, reports MarketWatch. Pavel Molchanov, Raymond’s analyst, cited concerns over the effects of Joe Biden’s presidency.
- Concerns are rising over Biden’s likely repeal of U.S. tariffs Sections 201 and 301 on imported photovoltaic (PV) modules that President Trump boosted to step up the trade war with China.
- First Solar benefited from Trump’s tariffs since they applied only to crystalline silicon modules and stands to lose if repealed.
- Molchanov cut First Solar’s rating by two notches to a rare “underperform” from “outperform,” with only 3% of companies covered by Raymond James in the underperform category
- Molchanov upgraded Maxeon Solar Technologies Ltd. to “outperform” from “market perform,” raising the stock 2.7% since it is likely to benefit from a repeal of the tariffs.
First Solar’s stock has rallied 43.3% year to date but is currently declining. FSLR: NASDAQ is down 5.77%
