JPMorgan analyst Paul Coster upgraded First Solar to Overweight from Neutral and raised his price target for the shares to $85 from $74. The shares closed yesterday up $2.17 to $69.43. The analyst believes investors need to take a "tactical view" of owning First Solar shares, buying and selling the stock within a $60-$110 range through the end of 2019. With the shares closer to the lower-end of that range, he's upgrading the name to Overweight. First Solar is arguably the "best-in-class company and the highest-quality stock in the solar module space," but its earnings growth is range-bound by the absence of pricing power in a global commodity market, Coster tells investors in a research note. The analyst, however, also sees "strong industry-wide unit growth for the foreseeable future and excellent revenue and earnings visibility" at the company.

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.