By Patrick O’Grady | Phoenix Business Journal Blog
First Solar Inc.’s stock price hit a 52-week high on Monday, the result of another good earnings report.
Tempe-based First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) has been benefiting from a return on higher revenues and some quarterly profits of its own and other companies. Today the good news came from JA Solar, which didn’t even make a profit.
The last couple of years have not been good times for First Solar. It shuttered its German operations and put on hold plans to open a Mesa manufacturing plant that it already has built. Its latest move was to announce layoffs of about 150 employees, mostly in the U.S.
At the same time, investors have been begrudgingly coming back to the stock as well as other solar stocks. Today it hit a high of $55.50 — despite falling back to $54.89 a share before close. It was up about 10 percent on the day after it had been hovering in the mid-$40 range since late April.
The last time First Solar’s stock was this high was the end of 2011. It’s a long way from the $12 per share range the company was trading around this time last year.
If you’d like to discuss energy issues, contact Court Rich, Co-Chair of Rose Law Group’s Renewable Energy Department at crich@roselawgroup.com
