If you are someone who wishes to invest in the renewable energy sector and more specifically in solar energy, the First Solar share may interest you. But before you make that investment, you need to make sure you have the insight you need to perform your analyses. We'll therefore be presenting the complete activities of this company, its main competitors and strategic partners as well as the elements to take into account as part of your fundamental analysis.
First of all, it's important to closely follow the operations carried out by the First Solar group with the aim of improving the technology of its products. Investments in research and development in fact, allow it continuous innovation in order to offer more efficient products than those of the competition.
The geographic expansion strategy of the First Solar group, particularly with regard to emerging markets, is also important. You should therefore closely follow the news concerning the construction of solar fields in high-growth economies.
You need to also keep an eye on First Solar's strategic mergers and acquisitions, which represent long-term development and growth opportunities for the company.
First Solar's business will of course also be influenced by environmental and energy policies in the coming years along with concerns about climate change and government solutions.
You'll also need to follow the competition of this sector of activity with the greatest attention, which constantly attracts new players. However, the pricing strategies implemented by these competitors can influence the profitability of the First Solar group.
Finally, it's also important to monitor several other markets which have a direct or indirect influence on the profitability of the group such as raw materials or the price of oil as well as the foreign exchange market with the evolution of exchange rates which can impact the company’s international activities.
Now, learn more about First Solar Company and its core businesses and sources of income. This will allow you to understand its sector of activity and its future challenges.
The First Solar group is an American company specializing in the solar energy sector. More specifically, the First Solar Company carries out design, manufacture and marketing activities of photovoltaic solar modules.
To better understand the group's activities, they can be divided into several divisions according to the percentage of turnover they generate as so:
Currently, the group owns and operates 4 production sites around the world.
With regard to the geographical distribution of First Solar's revenues, we know that the group generates 44.8% of its turnover in the United States, 23.1% in Germany, 14.9% in France, 3.8% in Canada and 13.4% in the rest of the world.
After having discovered the activities of First Solar, let's move on to its economic and sectoral environment with a presentation of its main adversaries and competitors in the market.
This Chinese Company specializes in solar energy and is one of the world's leading manufacturers of photovoltaic cells. The company has four production sites located in Wuxi, Luoyang, Qinghai and Shanghai and employs 6,784 people. It distributes its products in over 55 countries.
This other Chinese company also manufactures photovoltaic panels and components for solar energy. It was established in 1998 and is based in Hebei. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2007 and distributes its products through 300 distributors and wholesalers around the world.
This other Chinese company is based in Jiangsu and has several branches in the United States, Europe and Asia. It specializes in the development and manufacture of ingots, wafers, solar cells and modules. Trina Solar has also developed a vertical integration supply chain ranging from the production of ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of high quality modules.
This time it's an Austrian company specializing in the manufacture of photovoltaic panels based in Pettenbach. The group is active in welding technology, photovoltaics and battery charging technology.
Finally, SunPower Corporation, majority owned by the TotalEnergies group, is also a major manufacturer of solar panels. The group has notably installed solar panel fields in Spain and built a solar power plant in South Korea.
The First Solar group does not only have competitors but can also count on its strategic partners since it sometimes sets up alliances with other large companies as in the examples below which should help you understand the interest.
In 2008, the First Solar group set up a strategic partnership with Sorgenia Solar which consisted of a long-term module supply contract with this developer of large-scale solar power plants connected to the grid in Italy. The same year, the group also specified that it had extended several other contracts, in particular with EDF, Energies Nouvelles, Ecostream, Juwi and Phoenix Solar. These various contracts enabled the group to expand the volume of modules under contract by a total of 525 MW and increase sales by $ 800 million for the period 2009 to 2013. The contracts are structured with conditions similar to those of the already existing long-term module supply contracts.
Another interesting partnership was signed in 2013 with Photosol aimed at supplying its advanced thin-film photovoltaic modules to four French solar power plants with a total capacity of 48 megawatts. Photosol manages these projects which are built in the Auvergne and Midi-Pyrénées regions with three plants and a total capacity of 73 MW and a fourth plant with a capacity of 11MW. On these different projects, the engineering, procurement and construction management services are managed by Jayme da Costa Energie which is one of the main French engineering companies and which has been working with Photosol since 2011.
At present, the main shareholders in the capital of the company First Solar are Lukas T Walton with 21.3% of the shares, The Vanguard Group with 6.58%, Baillie Gifford & Co with 6.14%, Farhad Fred Ebrahimi with 6.14 %, Capital Research & Management with 5.69%, Wellington Management with 4.40%, Artisan Partners with 3.05%, Maverick capital with 2.85%, Carmignac Gestion with 2.43% and BlackRock Fund Advisors with 2.38% of the shares.
If you want to perform a sound analysis of the First Solar share price, you should focus on several different types of analysis including technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis uses stock charts and volatility and trend indicators and fundamental analysis uses the study of major news and publications.
To invest in the First Solar share, there are several solutions. You can buy this security with a PEA (French equity saving plan) or a traditional securities account, but you can also use derivatives such as CFDs to trade directly on the direction that the trend will take on this asset in the more or less long term.
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