Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on the stock from $13.00 to $10.00. The stock had previously closed at $13.29, but opened at $12.77. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Canadian Solar shares last traded at $12.93, with a volume of 194,956 shares changing hands.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $11.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Canadian Solar in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $14.15 price objective for the company. Citigroup downgraded Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $11.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Mizuho assumed coverage on Canadian Solar in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. Finally, StockNews.com raised Canadian Solar from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.31.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Canadian Solar by 25.4% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 5,115,665 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $75,456,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037,800 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Canadian Solar by 494.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 115,328 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $1,932,000 after purchasing an additional 95,924 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Canadian Solar by 101.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 113,461 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $1,902,000 after acquiring an additional 57,246 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Canadian Solar in the third quarter worth about $219,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Canadian Solar by 131.5% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 428,733 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $7,186,000 after acquiring an additional 243,542 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.36% of the company’s stock.

Canadian Solar Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The company has a 50 day moving average of $12.27 and a 200 day moving average of $13.73. The firm has a market cap of $842.87 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -106.17, a PEG ratio of 8.89 and a beta of 1.27.

Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The solar energy provider reported ($0.31) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by $0.13. Canadian Solar had a return on equity of 0.02% and a net margin of 0.01%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Canadian Solar Inc. will post 0.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Canadian Solar

Canadian Solar Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides solar energy and battery energy storage products and solutions in in Asia, the Americas, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, CSI Solar and Recurrent Energy. The CSI Solar segment designs, develops, and manufactures solar ingots, wafers, cells, modules, and other solar power and battery storage products.