Goldman Sachs analyst Brian Lee writes that the outperformance of the U.S. solar sector early in 2019 highlights its better than expected positive inflection of demand trends, also raising his demand forecast for the next 3 years by an average of 10%-15%. Lee says his top ideas are First Solar (FSLR), Canadian Solar (CSIQ), and Vivint Solar (VSLR), which he rates at Buy with respective $64, $26, and $6.50 price targets. Although solar stocks have "rebounded sharply off of last year's depressed levels", Lee notes that fundamentals are still in the early stages of a cyclical recovery amid signs of pricing stabilization and demand trends gathering momentum.

Wells Fargo notes that a group of seven domestic solar product makers, including First Solar (FSLR), filed a petition to levy anti-dumping and countervailing duties on solar imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, looking for duties ranging from 70.4% to 271.5%. The firm, which included the "important reminder" that "this is just a petition," says the uncertainty created by the petition is "incrementally positive" for First Solar and negative for Canadian Solar (CSIQ), Array Technologies (ARRY) and Nextracker (NXT).

As previously reported, Evercore ISI analyst Sean Morgan upgraded First Solar to Outperform from In Line with an unchanged price target of $227. The market is expecting the Biden administration to remove a trade exemption for bifacial solar modules imported to the U.S., which now represent about 98% of U.S. solar imports, the analyst noted. Solar panel imports skyrocketed in 2023 to 54GW and some market participants have stated that reliance on imports and oversupply are negatively impacting solar domestic factories, which have been a priority for the current U.S. administration, putting pressure on greater U.S. trade protections and policy support, the analyst added.

Evercore ISI analyst Sean Morgan upgraded First Solar to Outperform from In Line with a $227 price target.