First Solar Stock: 5 Straight Red Days, Down 15%
First Solar (FSLR) stock is on a 5-day losing streak, down 14.8% since the run began. That erased about $3.2 billion from the company’s market value, which now stands at about $18.4 billion. The stock closed at $171.39 on Friday, November 13, 46.1% below its 52-week high of $318.25 and 1.9% above its low of $168.15.
The Streak Next To The S&P 500
Returns for FSLR and the S&P 500 over the streak and the periods around it, all ending Friday, November 13 and including dividends:
| Return Period | FSLR | S&P 500 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Day | -0.5% | -0.4% |
| 5 Days (Current Streak) | -14.8% | 2.5% |
| 1 Month (21 Trading Days) | -4.1% | -2.3% |
| 3 Months (63 Trading Days) | -21.3% | -2.1% |
| Year To Date | -34.4% | 11.5% |
| 1 Year (252 Trading Days) | -35.9% | 11.7% |
How The Streak Compares With The Market
The market explains little of this: the S&P 500 gained 2.5% over the same 5 sessions, including dividends, against First Solar’s -14.8%. 2 other S&P 500 stocks are currently on losing streaks of 5 days or longer. Over the past three months the stock is down 21.3%, a window that includes the streak; over the other 58 sessions of that window it was down 7.7%.
Do The Fundamentals Justify The Selling?
On the fundamentals, revenue declined 0.7% over the last twelve months, against a median of 17.9% for S&P 500 Information Technology stocks; its operating margin is 37.7%, versus a median of 21.6%; and the stock trades at 9.9 times trailing earnings against a median of 29.0. The fundamentals give the sellers some support: shrinking revenue.
If the drop has you weighing an entry, resist buying on price alone. Our Buy the Dip screen ranks the marked-down names where growth and cash generation still hold up.
Prefer the theme to the single name? An energy AlphaDEX ETF like FXN holds the whole group, not just this stock. It is still a concentrated bet on one theme, which is the gap the portfolio below is built to close.
Weakness In One Name Should Be Noise, Not News
For a diversified holder, a streak like this is a data point. For a concentrated one, it is a hole in the plan. The difference is never the stock; it is the portfolio built around it.
Building that portfolio is what the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio does: roughly 30 businesses with the cash generation and balance-sheet strength to absorb a bad month, selected and rebalanced by rules. It has a track record of outpacing a benchmark that combines the S&P 500, the S&P MidCap 400, and the Russell 2000. Make the next streak, in either direction, someone else’s drama.