- First Solar (FSLR -6.6%) suffers a nasty reversal from initial gains after the company beat Q4 earnings expectations and raised its 2017 sales outlook.
- Credit Suisse downgrades shares to Underperform from Neutral, saying guidance on project timing poses risks to FSLR's 2017 earnings estimates and could further impair the value of its 8point3 Energy Partners (CAFD +0.7%) yieldco.
- Also, the firm says FSLR's book of business for 2018 seems unlikely to support 3x earnings growth, and a valuation on normalized earnings trajectory is not compelling following the stock's 23% advance in the past three months.
- Meanwhile, Canadian Solar (CSIQ -6.2%) plunges after J.P. Morgan cuts shares to Neutral from Overweight, "given what we believe will be a challenging 2017-18 owing to industry-wide manufacturing overcapacity, and lower Y/Y demand in key end markets."
- The solar sector is broadly lower: SPWR -4.3%, TSL -0.8%, JKS -2.9%, JASO -0.3%, TAN -0.8%.