Earnings Preview: First Solar Revenue Expected to Rise Over Last Quarter - First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR)

First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) announces its next round of earnings this Tuesday, July 26, 2011. Here's Benzinga's advanced look at the company's second quarter earnings report.

Earnings and Revenue:

Wall Street expects a positive EPS reading of 97 cents per share and revenues of $589.6 million. Whether the reported numbers beat or miss analysts' estimates, they will also be compared against last year's numbers for the same period, which were a profit of $1.84 per share on revenues of $587.9 million. We'll have to wait for Tuesday to see if First Solar reports rising revenue and shrinking EPS from the year-ago quarter, as analysts are expecting.

Here's how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Quarter	Q1	Q4	Q3	Q2
EPS Estimate	$1.16	$1.76	$1.96	$1.60
EPS Actual	$1.33	$1.80	$2.04	$1.84

Stock Performance:

At last check, shares of First Solar were trading at $123.36. Since January 1st, shares of First Solar have declined 5.2%.

Average Stock Rating:

The average rating by analysts for First Solar is a Hold. The strength of this rating has declined slightly over the past three months.

Competitors:

Looking for a sympathy stock to trade or interested in the performance of other companies in the same sector? Take a look at some of First Solar's peers.

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE): Moderate Buy with a $0.31 recent quarter EPS
Evergreen Solar (ESLR): Moderate Sell with a -$1.21 recent quarter EPS
SunPower (SPWRA): Moderate Sell with a $0.01 recent quarter EPS
Suntech Power Holdings (STP): Hold with a $0.17 recent quarter EPS

First Solar is in the solar industry, which has experienced price/earnings growth of 0.6%.

Finally, a description of the company's main areas of operation: First Solar designs and manufactures solar electric power modules using a proprietary thin film semiconductor technology. .

Take Action:

There is your peek into First Solar's upcoming earnings numbers, including some competitors to watch around the time of the announcement. Check back in with us after the announcement for a full recap of the announcement. In the meantime, here are some links to explore today.

To see up-to-date news on First Solar, click here
To see other trading ideas, click here
To see other company earnings recaps, click here

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