First Solar, Inc. Shares Rise On Profit, FireEye Inc. Beats Guidance

First Solar (FSLR) and FireEye (FEYE) released their latest earnings reports after closing bell tonight. First Solar posted non-GAAP earnings of 25 cents per share on $892 million in revenue, compared to the Wall Street estimates of losses of 12 cents per share on $637.9 million in revenue.

FireEye reported non-GAAP losses of 9 cents per share on $173.7 million in revenue, against the analyst consensus estimates of 26 cents per share in losses and $163.5 million in revenue. In last year’s first quarter, the cyber-security firm reported adjusted losses of 47 cents per share on $168 billion in revenue. FireEye had guided for revenue of $160 million to $166 million and adjusted losses of 26 cents to 28 cents per share.

First Solar swings to profit

First Solar posted GAAP earnings of 9 cents per share, compared to GAAP losses of $7.22 per share in the year-ago quarter. The company said sales of the Moapa project boosted its results during the first quarter.

First Solar also boosted its guidance for this year, saying it now expects $2.85 billion to $2.95 billion in net sales compared to the previous outlook of $2.8 billion to $2.9 billion. The company expects a GAAP gross margin of 12.5% to 14.5%, versus the previous outlook of 11% to 13%. First Solar also updated its GAAP earnings per share range to between a loss of 30 cents to a profit of 40 cents per share, while it had previously been expecting to post a GAAP loss for the full year. The company now expects adjusted earnings of 25 cents to 75 cents per share, versus the previous guide of between breakeven and profits of 50 cents per share. It continues to look for shipments of 2.4 gigawatts to 2.6 gigawatts of shipments.

A trio of firms have upgraded First Solar over the last week or so, with the main driver not being anything the company itself is doing. Instead, the focus has been on a petition filed by Suniva, a manufacturer of solar cells and modules that recently filed for bankruptcy. Suniva is urging the U.S. International Trade Commission to invoke a temporary tariff on solar modules and cells imported from China. It said that these products are being sold at below-market prices, so it wants tariffs to raise the prices of solar cells and panels imported from China so that it will be easier for U.S. solar firms to compete.