First Solar’s Q4 sales more than double year-on-year

First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA – which makes thin-film photovoltaic modules based on cadmium telluride (CdTe) as well as providing engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) services – has reported full-year net sales of $2244m for 2018, down 23.7% on $2941m for 2017.

However, fourth-quarter net sales were $691m, up 2.2% on $676.2m last quarter (due mainly to the sale of certain projects in Japan) and more than doubling from $339.2m a year ago.

Operating expenses have risen from $70.7m last quarter to $87.3m.

Net income was $52.1m ($0.49 per diluted share), down from $57.8m ($0.54 per diluted share) last quarter. Full-year net income was $1.36m ($1.36 per diluted share) for 2018.

Due mainly to capital investments in Series 6 manufacturing capacity, factory ramp activities, and the timing of cash receipts from certain systems project sales, cash and marketable securities fell during the quarter from $2.7bn to $2.5bn. Net cash balance (cash and marketable securities minus expected debt at the end of 2018) was $2.1bn.

“We had a number of notable accomplishments in 2018, including strong net bookings of 5.6GWDC and the start of Series 6 [module] production at three factories,” says CEO Mark Widmar. “Our Series 6 progress in 2019 continues to be encouraging, with the start of production at a fourth factory, and ongoing improvements in throughput and efficiency at our existing facilities,” he adds. “We continue to see good demand for Series 6, and our pipeline of contracted shipments positions us well for the year.” First Solar’s year-to-date net bookings in 2019 so far are 1.3GWDC.

To reflect lower expected operating expenses (associated primarily with a decrease in expected production start-up costs from $90-100m to $75-85m), full-year 2019 guidance for OpEx has been reduced from $390-410m to $375-395m. Due to expected increases in production ramp costs (from $20-30m to $35-45m), gross margin guidance has also been lowered, from 20-21% to 19.5-20.5%. These adjustments offset each other, so there are no changes to the associated guidance ranges for EPS ($2.25-2.75) and net cash balance ($1.6-1.8bn).

Full-year 2019 guidance is unchanged for shipments (5.4-5.6GW), net sales (a rise to $3.25-3.45bn) and capital expenditure ($650-750m).

See related items:

First Solar expects full-year revenue to grow to $3.25-3.45bn in 2019

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