Deutsche Bank Reiterates Buy on First Solar (FSLR); $300 PT

Deutsche Bank reiterates its Buy rating and $300 price target on First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) following a recent 11% decline in the company's stock price over the last two weeks.

The firm believes three issues have led to the decline and increased volatility:

• CEO stock sales
  
• speculation on potential legislation banning cadmium
  
• tellurim availability issues

While these issues have made their way to the mainstream over the last couple weeks, Deutsche believes these concerns are nothing new, calling them "recycled issues", and notes that they should have no affect on First Solar's fundamentals.

Specifically, the firm points out that CEO and Chairman, Michael Ahearn, has consistently been selling shares under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan since First Solar went public at the end of 2006. Next, Deutsche said it is not expecting shortages of tellurim over the next several years, nor a ban on cadmium in Europe.

Deutsche's $300 price target on First Solar is based on about 35x the firms discounted CY10 EPS estimate of $9.70. With shares trading around $247 today, the firms price target represents a potential gain of about 21%.

First Solar, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells solar electric power modules using a proprietary thin film semiconductor technology.

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