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

Shares of Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) 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 trading hands.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Canadian Solar in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in Canadian Solar by 20.3% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 8,900 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $149,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in Canadian Solar during the third quarter worth $219,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in Canadian Solar by 43.1% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 15,733 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $232,000 after purchasing an additional 4,739 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Canadian Solar by 8.0% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 18,716 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $276,000 after buying an additional 1,383 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.36% of the company’s stock.

Canadian Solar Price Performance

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 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $12.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $13.74.

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, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. Canadian Solar’s revenue was down 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect 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.