On Thursday, First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR), the world’s largest solar panel maker, announced its third-quarter financial results ended in September 2021.
The CEO of First Solar, Mark Widmar said, “I would like to thank our collaborators for their work and dedication towards the business during the third quarter.”
In his speech, he also stated that ” Despite many challenges in the Covid-19 environment our manufacturing unit was continued to deliver their services. In this third quarter, we produced 2.0 GW (DC) of modules. In October, we also increased our top production to 456 watts. We also started the construction of the building for our third Ohio Factory in parallel. We began ordering the equipment and necessary items for our first factory in India. Commercially, we had a great quarter. But from a financial view, we impacted in our third-quarter results.”
As company officials said, their financial results are impacted, their revenue from sales was expected to be $685 million. However, they reported $584 million. Also the decrease of $46 million of revenue from the last corresponding quarter. As it is seen that company results are down from the expectation of analysts.
The operating income in this quarter is $51 million which is very low the last respective quarter which was $207 million. Due to less operating income, it is clear the earnings per share or net income per share fall from 77 cents per share to 42 cents per share.
Their cash, cash equivalent, and cash securities are totaled $1.9 billion at the end of the quarter drop of $111 million from the last respective quarter. The company stated that this was due to expanding in the expansion of business, capital expenditures, and reinvesting the business products and services.
FIRST SOLAR, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(In thousands, except per share amounts)
(Unaudited)
| Three Months Ended | Nine Months Ended | ||||||||||||||||||
| September 30, 2021 |
June 30, 2021 |
September 30, 2020 |
September 30, 2021 |
September 30, 2020 |
|||||||||||||||
| Net sales | $ | 583,504 | $ | 629,180 | $ | 927,565 | $ | 2,016,058 | $ | 2,102,100 | |||||||||
| Cost of sales | 458,924 | 455,062 | 634,550 | 1,532,593 | 1,581,287 | ||||||||||||||
| Gross profit | 124,580 | 174,118 | 293,015 | 483,465 | 520,813 | ||||||||||||||
| Operating expenses: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Selling, general and administrative | 43,476 | 36,346 | 49,861 | 131,909 | 160,218 | ||||||||||||||
| Research and development | 25,426 | 23,935 | 22,972 | 69,234 | 71,068 | ||||||||||||||
| Production start-up | 2,945 | 1,715 | 13,019 | 16,014 | 23,812 | ||||||||||||||
| Litigation loss | — | — | — | — | 6,000 | ||||||||||||||
| Total operating expenses | 71,847 | 61,996 | 85,852 | 217,157 | 261,098 | ||||||||||||||
| Gain on sales of businesses, net | (1,866) | (1,745) | — | 147,284 | — | ||||||||||||||
| Operating income | 50,867 | 110,377 | 207,163 | 413,592 | 259,715 | ||||||||||||||
| Foreign currency loss, net | (1,018) | (1,000) | (1,852) | (4,613) | (3,549) | ||||||||||||||
| Interest income | 1,752 | 1,288 | 2,109 | 3,996 | 15,113 | ||||||||||||||
| Interest expense, net | (2,958) | (4,623) | (10,975) | (10,577) | (21,018) | ||||||||||||||
| Other (expense) income, net | (2,603) | (3,247) | (3,236) | 2,598 | (8,653) | ||||||||||||||
| Income before taxes and equity in earnings | 46,040 | 102,795 | 193,209 | 404,996 | 241,608 | ||||||||||||||
| Income tax (expense) benefit | (837 | (20,346 | (38,107) | (67,673) | 40,894 | ||||||||||||||
| Equity in earnings, net of tax | — | $ | — | (65) | — | 150 | |||||||||||||
| Net income | $ | 45,203 | $ | 82,449 | $ | 155,037 | $ | 337,323 | $ | 282,652 | |||||||||
| Net income per share: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Basic | $ | 0.43 | $ | 0.78 | $ | 1.46 | $ | 3.18 | $ | 2.67 | |||||||||
| Diluted | $ | 0.42 | $ | 0.77 | $ | 1.45 | $ | 3.16 | $ | 2.65 | |||||||||
| Weighted-average number of shares used in per share calculations: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Basic | 106,320 | 106,313 | 105,967 | 106,241 | 105,830 | ||||||||||||||
| Diluted | 106,899 | 106,836 | 106,751 | 106,879 | 106,537 | ||||||||||||||
About The First Solar Inc.
First Solar Inc. is an American manufacturer of Solar Panels and a provider of finance, engineered, and eco-efficient of the world’s largest grid-connected PV power plants. These are developed in Research & Developed in labs of California and Ohio. First Solar is used rigid thin-film modules for making their solar panels and as a semiconductor, it uses cadmium telluride (CdTe).
The company was made public in 2006 and listed on NASDAQ. First Solar was the first Solar company by 2009 to lower its manufacturing cost to $1 per watt. First Solar is the second-largest PV modules manufacturing company in the world.