Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) Raised to “Hold” at StockNews.com

Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on CSIQ. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Canadian Solar in a report on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $14.15 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $14.00 to $11.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $19.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Mizuho began coverage on Canadian Solar in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Canadian Solar from $15.00 to $13.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.31.

Canadian Solar Stock Performance

CSIQ stock opened at $12.74 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $842.87 million, a P/E ratio of -106.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.89 and a beta of 1.27. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average price is $12.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $13.74. Canadian Solar has a 1 year low of $10.60 and a 1 year high of $25.43.

Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The solar energy provider reported ($0.31) earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. Canadian Solar’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Canadian Solar will post 0.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Canadian Solar in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in Canadian Solar by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 8,900 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $149,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Canadian Solar during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $232,000 after purchasing an additional 4,739 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Canadian Solar by 8.0% in the 2nd 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 last quarter. 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.