First Solar Posts Big Q2 Beat

First Solar, Inc. FSLR released its Q2 results after market close on Wednesday. Earnings per share came in above Wall Street consensus expectations, sending shares higher.

First Solar reported EPS of $0.87 and revenues of $934 million. Analyst consensus had an EPS estimate of $0.55 and revenues of $862 million.

First Solar saw FY16 revenues at $3.8-$4 billion vs. estimates of $3.86 billion and FY16 EPS $4.2-$4.5 from of $4.1-$4.5.

"Our operational execution in 2016 continues to be strong and resulted in another quarter of solid financial results," said Mark Widmar, CEO of First Solar.

"Our lead line module efficiency exited the quarter at over 16.6%, and we further lowered our module cost per watt. We sold our Kingbird project in Q2, and our steady execution across our portfolio of systems projects resulted in significant cost reductions. With our recent decision to reallocate capacity to focus on our Series 5 assembly capabilities we continue to position the Company for future success," stated Widmar.

At time of writing, First Solar traded at $50.80 in Wednesday's after-hours session, up 3.2 percent.