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

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ)’s share price gapped down before the market opened 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 traded.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Canadian Solar in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Canadian Solar in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $14.15 price target on the stock. Citigroup cut Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Canadian Solar from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $14.00 to $11.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Four investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.31.

Institutional Trading of Canadian Solar

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Canadian Solar by 37.1% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 31,029 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $520,000 after buying an additional 8,404 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Canadian Solar by 494.4% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 115,328 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $1,932,000 after buying an additional 95,924 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Canadian Solar by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 486,800 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $8,159,000 after buying an additional 25,901 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Canadian Solar by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 110,188 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $1,847,000 after buying an additional 1,522 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of Canadian Solar in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,109,000. 52.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Canadian Solar Stock Performance

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

Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) last released its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. Canadian Solar had a return on equity of 0.02% and a net margin of 0.01%. Canadian Solar’s revenue was down 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Canadian Solar Inc. will post 0.06 EPS for the current year.

Canadian Solar Company Profile

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.