First Solar Inc. Common Stock (FSLR) : juste valeur

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First Solar makes thin-film cadmium telluride photovoltaic modules at factories in the US, Malaysia and Vietnam, and sells them mainly to utility-scale solar developers, which keeps it a manufacturer of panels rather than a project developer. Its structural edge is cost and policy: the company runs high-margin, non-silicon technology with a 42.6% operating margin and a 44.0% gross margin, while the US manufacturing and domestic content incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act give it a protected position in American utility solar. The near-term question is whether volume recovers after revenue declined 3.7%, since the margin profile only matters if shipments stabilise. The stock trades at 11.0 times trailing earnings and 8.3 times forward earnings, a sizeable gap that implies the market expects earnings to fall before any recovery, and an 18.5% return on equity confirms the business is currently profitable. Our score of 58/100 and the absence of index membership suggest the name is cheap for a reason, so it merits a deeper look focused on order backlog and tariff exposure rather than on the multiple alone.