Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $18.31.

CSIQ has been the topic of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Canadian Solar from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup cut shares of Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $19.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Canadian Solar from $13.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Mizuho initiated coverage on Canadian Solar in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $14.00 to $11.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th.

Canadian Solar Price Performance

Canadian Solar stock opened at $10.96 on Friday. Canadian Solar has a 1 year low of $10.22 and a 1 year high of $24.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $11.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $13.42. The stock has a market cap of $725.11 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -91.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.27.

Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The solar energy provider reported ($0.31) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by $0.13. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. Canadian Solar had a net margin of 0.01% and a return on equity of 0.02%. Canadian Solar’s revenue was down 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Canadian Solar will post -0.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Canadian Solar

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSIQ. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Canadian Solar in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. USCF Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of Canadian Solar by 66.7% in the 4th quarter. USCF Advisers LLC now owns 2,500 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in Canadian Solar by 20.3% during the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 8,900 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $149,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares in the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Canadian Solar in the 4th quarter worth about $133,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in Canadian Solar during the 3rd quarter valued at about $219,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.36% of the company’s stock.

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.