ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Dear Readers, My deepest apologies for a recent piece I wrote on GT Solar, International (SOLR). I quoted from a Seeking Alpha transcript from a year ago and did not read the correct date. I hope to report an accurate piece at some point as I remain deeply interested in and bullish on the company. … Read more
Despite my general caution on the stock market at current levels (it just flipped to overbought status on Monday), I continue to look out for bullish moves on individual stocks. This time, I found a fresh breakout candidate in the solar sector. On Monday, SunPower Corporation (SPWRA or SPWRB) finally broke free of a nine-month … Read more
On Wednesday, Wunderlich Securities issued a trading call on solar stocks citing a correlation with oil prices. First Solar (FSLR) was the prime beneficiary of this research. Eric Rosenbaum from TheStreet.com beat me to the punch critiquing this call in “Should Solar Stocks Trade on Rising Oil?“, but I will add my two solar panels … Read more
On Monday, Goldman Sachs added First Solar (FSLR) to its conviction buy list with a $165 price target. The market’s response was swift with FSLR ending the day up 6% and a closing price of $156.40. I wish I had received the memo because I sold off the last of my FSLR positions on Friday. … Read more
During the last earnings conference call for Evergreen Solar (ESLR), management claimed that the company had the resources to meet its liquidity needs and had enough cash to sustain current and planned burn rates. A little over two months later, ESLR has announced that it is retrenching and shutting down its manufacturing facility in Devens, … Read more
LDK Solar has started off the new year for solar with a bang. The company significantly raised guidance for both the fourth quarter of FY10 and the entire FY2011 with particularly strong expectations for the module business. Here is a listing of the new sales guidance compared to the old guidance: Revenue 4Q10: $870-910M from … Read more
Another earnings-related presentation, another yawn from the stock market – such is the life of First Solar (FSLR). On December 14, First Solar hosted a conference call to discuss its guidance for 2011. Overall, it was a relatively bullish call. However, the stock had rallied over 10% into the call and, presumably, expectations were high. … Read more
NOW I better understand Wunderlich Securities’s bullish case for GT Solar (SOLR). When I wrote December 1 about how diversification into sapphire crystallization systems (used in the manufacture of LED products) is paying dividends for SOLR, I noted my confusion over Wunderlich’s reiteration of a buy rating on SOLR. That reiteration came at the same … Read more
Evergreen Solar’s balance sheet is a common concern in nearly every earnings conference call. After reviewing earnings on November 4, I concluded that Evergreen Solar (ESLR) “remains a very speculative bet on survival.” After Monday’s announcement of a major recapitalization plan, it is clear that ESLR’s balance sheet remains in precarious shape. The recapitalization plan … Read more
Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) reported earnings last week with excellent headline results and strong guidance, but the stock market rewarded the company with a 7% loss on extremely high selling volume. Wedbush even reiterated its outperform rating and $43 price target based on TSL’s performance (according to briefing.com). Most of those initial losses were erased … Read more