- Canadian Solar’s stock is up more than 60% so far in November, riding a wave of battery storage momentum and Q3 earnings that beat expectations. [1]
- Roth Capital has lifted its price target to $30 (from $11), while other firms remain cautious and the average Wall Street target still sits far below the current share price. [2]
- New headlines today include Canada’s largest battery project breaking ground with Canadian Solar’s e-Storage as EPC, a new German storage deal, and fresh insider sale filings by senior executives. [3]
As of mid-afternoon on November 17, 2025, Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ) is trading around $29–30 per share, after an extremely volatile few sessions that saw the stock spike to the mid‑$30s following its Q3 2025 earnings release. [4]
1. Stock performance: from laggard to November high‑flyer
Canadian Solar has turned into one of November’s surprise momentum stories:
- According to Investing.com, CSIQ is up about 61.75% just this month, including a 17.33% jump last Friday after earnings. [5]
- MarketBeat data show the stock trading as high as $34.59, a new 12‑month high, with a closing level of $33.58 on Friday on volume of about 11.7 million shares, far above its average. [6]
- A StockInvest summary similarly pegs the 52‑week range at $6.57–$34.59, with market capitalization around $2.25 billion when shares were in the mid‑$30s. [7]
Today’s action looks more like consolidation after a huge run: the real story on November 17 is in the newsflow around battery storage, analyst calls and insider activity, rather than another big price spike.
2. Q3 2025 earnings: revenue and margin beat, but still loss‑making
Last week’s Q3 2025 results are the fundamental backdrop for today’s headlines.
Headline numbers
Multiple sources summarise Canadian Solar’s Q3 performance broadly as follows: [8]
- Net revenues: about $1.49–1.5 billion, at the top end of company guidance and ahead of Wall Street’s ~$1.37 billion consensus.
- Gross margin:17.2%, above guidance of 14–16% and up slightly year-on-year (from ~16.4%), although sharply lower than Q2’s nearly 30% after a one‑off high‑margin project in that quarter.
- GAAP net income attributable to Canadian Solar: roughly $9 million, according to Renewables Now and German outlet Börse Express.
- Adjusted result: an EPS loss of about $0.58, significantly better than the -$1.08 loss analysts expected, implying a $0.50 beat per share. [9]
- Net loss attributable to common shareholders (on an adjusted basis): about $26 million, slightly worse than the prior quarter. [10]
MarketBeat calculates that despite the beat, Canadian Solar still shows a negative net margin (≈‑0.12%) and negative ROE (≈‑4.97%), underlining that profitability remains fragile. [11]
Solar slump vs. storage surge
The more important story for investors — and a big reason the stock is in the spotlight today — is the sharp mix shift from solar modules toward battery energy storage: [12]
- Module shipments: down to about 5.1 GW in Q3, a drop of roughly 35% quarter‑on‑quarter and nearly 40% year‑on‑year, reflecting intense pricing pressure and weaker solar module demand.
- Battery energy storage (e‑STORAGE):
- Record 2.7 GWh of BESS shipments in Q3, beating guidance of 2.1–2.3 GWh.
- A contracted storage backlog around $3 billion as of mid‑year, with ~1.8 GWh under construction in Australia alone. [13]
CEO Shawn Qu and CSI Solar president Yan Zhuang both emphasised on the Q3 call that: [14]
- Canadian Solar is leaning into higher‑margin storage and more profitable solar markets,
- Residential storage is on track to become profitable in 2025, and
- New U.S. manufacturing capacity should support margins and help the company comply with stricter Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) rules.
Guidance
For Q4 2025, the company is guiding to: [15]
- Revenue of $1.3–1.5 billion,
- Gross margin of 14–16%,
- Module shipments of 4.6–4.8 GW,
- Storage shipments of 2.1–2.3 GWh.
For 2026, management is targeting: [16]
- 25–30 GW of solar module shipments,
- 14–17 GWh of battery storage shipments,
- New U.S. factories in Indiana (cells, starting March 2026) and Kentucky (batteries, starting Q4 2026) coming online, alongside its existing 5 GW module plant in Texas.
All of that sets the stage for today’s three big themes: analyst moves, storage project wins and insider selling.
3. Analyst moves today: Roth goes to $30, but consensus stays cautious
Roth Capital: big target hike, neutral stance
Early this morning, Roth Capital’s analyst Philip Shen raised his 12‑month price target on CSIQ from $11 to $30, a 172.7% increase, but kept his rating at “Neutral.” [17]
- GuruFocus notes that while the new target is a major upgrade, Roth is still signalling balanced risk/reward rather than outright enthusiasm. The average Street target, across ~11 analysts, sits closer to $14–15, implying substantial downside from recent prices in the low‑30s. [18]
A Stocktwits pre‑market recap says this call helped push CSIQ about 1.6% higher in early trading today as traders reacted to the more bullish target. [19]
Diverging views: Oppenheimer vs. JPMorgan
Recent research shows a wide spread in how analysts see the stock: [20]
- Oppenheimer (last week) raised its target from $21 to $38 and maintained an “Outperform” rating. [21]
- JPMorgan still rates the stock “Underweight”, but has inched its target up from $8 to $10 over the past month. [22]
- Jefferies and Citigroup have shifted from more positive stances to Hold/Sell, with targets generally in the low double digits. [23]
GuruFocus and MarketBeat both show that, despite the recent rally: [24]
- The average rating hovers around “Hold/Reduce”,
- The average price target is in the low teens,
- Several valuation models (including GuruFocus GF Value and a consensus “fair value” narrative on Simply Wall St) suggest the stock trades well above typical historical multiples — though Simply Wall St’s own DCF model sees potential upside to around $58 per share.
In short: today’s Roth call validates the recent rally, but the Street as a whole still looks sceptical.
4. Storage pipeline headlines today: Canada’s largest BESS and a new German project
Skyview 2: “Canada’s largest BESS” breaks ground
The most eye‑catching operational news on November 17 is that construction has begun on the Skyview 2 battery project in Ontario, flagged by Energy‑Storage.News as “Canada’s largest BESS.” [25]
Key details:
- Size: about 411 MW / 1,858 MWh in Edwardsburgh Cardinal, Ontario.
- Role of Canadian Solar: its e‑STORAGE unit is the technology provider and EPC contractor, supplying around 390 units of its SolBank 3.0 storage solution.
- Timeline:
- Shipments of SolBank units expected to start February 2026,
- Commercial operation targeted for Q2 2027.
- Long‑term economics: e‑STORAGE has signed a 21‑year long‑term service agreement (LTSA), locking in recurring revenue from operations and maintenance.
The project was awarded under Ontario’s Long‑Term Reliability (LT1) energy storage procurement and is positioned by the provincial government as a key asset to support rapidly rising electricity demand toward 2050. [26]
Germany: new 20.7 MW / 56 MWh SolBank‑powered BESS
A Zacks headline today points to another storage win: Canadian Solar will supply a 20.7 MW battery energy storage system in Germany, using its SolBank technology. [27]
- Börse Express and other European coverage describe the project as a 20.7 MW / 56 MWh DC system in Lower Saxony, with a long‑term service contract and the latest SolBank 3.0 hardware. [28]
This German project, combined with Skyview 2, reinforces the narrative that Canadian Solar is rapidly transforming from a “solar module maker” into a battery‑focused energy storage company, a trend also highlighted in recent commentary from The Motley Fool and Investing.com. [29]
Recent Australian milestone: Mannum BESS in commercial operation
Today’s research notes and AI‑strategy pieces also keep citing Canadian Solar’s October milestone: the 220 MWh Mannum BESS in South Australia has officially reached commercial operation. [30]
- e‑STORAGE acted as EPC on the project, using its SolBank technology.
- The system is co‑located with a 46 MWp solar farm, and the company has roughly 1.8 GWh of additional BESS capacity under construction in Australia. [31]
Taken together, Skyview 2 (Canada), Mannum (Australia) and the new German project underline a global storage footprint that is increasingly central to the CSIQ investment story.
5. Insider selling today: Form 144 filings from key insiders
Another notable piece of November 17 news: two senior insiders have filed Form 144 notices with the U.S. SEC, signalling planned share sales.
Andrew Luen Cheung Wong – Director
Reuters, via TradingView, reports that director Andrew Luen Cheung Wong filed a Form 144 proposing the sale of 1,752 Canadian Solar shares: [32]
- Approximate date of sale: November 17, 2025.
- Broker: Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
- Aggregate market value (per the filing): about $58,800, based on a reference price of $33.58.
- The shares originate from recent employee share incentive plan awards in June, July and October 2025; Wong also sold about 6,773 shares in September according to the same filing. [33]
Given total shares outstanding of roughly 66.96 million, this is a very small transaction in percentage terms. [34]
Yan Zhuang – Senior executive (CSI Solar president)
A separate Form 144 filed by Zhuang Yan — an officer, director and affiliate of Canadian Solar and president of the CSI Solar segment — indicates a much larger potential sale: [35]
- Proposed sale: 30,000 common shares.
- Approximate value: about $1.01 million, again based on the $33.58 closing price on November 14.
- Broker: Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
- Shares were acquired under the employee share incentive plan in 2023.
The filing states there have been no sales in the prior three months, and, as standard, the insider certifies they are not aware of undisclosed material negative information. [36]
How should investors read this?
Form 144 notices do not guarantee that all shares will actually be sold, nor do they automatically imply negative news; executives often sell stock for portfolio diversification, tax planning or personal liquidity. However, in the context of a very fast share‑price run‑up, some investors will view today’s filings as a sign that management is taking advantage of strength to lock in gains.
6. Sentiment, AI models and “meme‑like” activity
Retail and AI‑driven enthusiasm
On the sentiment side, CSIQ is suddenly a favourite across social and AI‑driven services:
- Stocktwits reports “extremely bullish” retail sentiment and unusually high message volume, with users crowding into the name after Q3 earnings. [37]
- An Investing.com article highlights that Canadian Solar was one of its AI strategy’s “high‑conviction picks” for November. As of today’s article, that model shows CSIQ: [38]
- Up 61.75% in November,
- Up around 55% over three months and 86% over six months,
- Trading near its 52‑week high while still sporting a relatively low historical price‑to‑book ratio.
The same piece points to e‑STORAGE’s $3 billion backlog, the recently completed 220 MWh Mannum project, and U.S. investments in Texas and Kentucky as reasons the AI model flagged CSIQ. [39]
Policy risk and FEOC concerns
Yet even bullish notes today keep circling back to policy risk:
- The Stocktwits pre‑market story quotes Roth analysts warning about significant FEOC risk (Foreign Entity of Concern provisions) and U.S. solar import restrictions. [40]
- On recent calls, CEO Shawn Qu has said the company expects to meet FEOC requirements for U.S. shipments, helped by its U.S. manufacturing build‑out and possible relocation of some upstream operations to lower‑tariff regions. [41]
So the picture that emerges today is bullish momentum balanced against considerable regulatory uncertainty — something both Roth (with a Neutral rating) and other cautious analysts keep stressing. [42]
7. Macro backdrop: a rapidly expanding solar & storage market
A new report from Allied Market Research, published today, provides some useful macro context: [43]
- The global solar energy market was valued at about $0.4 trillion in 2024.
- It is expected to reach $1.6 trillion by 2034, implying a 15.2% CAGR from 2025–2034.
The report lists Canadian Solar among the sector’s major players, alongside First Solar, JinkoSolar, Trina Solar and others, underscoring that CSIQ is positioned at the centre of a structural growth industry — even if near‑term margins and policy risks remain challenging. [44]
8. What to watch next
For readers tracking CSIQ after today’s news, key upcoming checkpoints include:
- Next earnings date: Several data providers list December 4, 2025 as Canadian Solar’s next scheduled earnings release. [45]
- Execution on storage projects
- Margins and mix
- Quarterly updates on gross margin,
- The balance between lower‑margin solar modules and higher‑margin storage solutions. [48]
- Policy & FEOC clarity
- Concrete guidance on how FEOC rules and U.S. tariffs will impact Canadian Solar’s supply chain, project pipeline and U.S. manufacturing economics. [49]
- Insider and institutional flows
9. Bottom line
On November 17, 2025, Canadian Solar sits at the crossroads of:
- Explosive share‑price momentum,
- Genuinely strong storage execution,
- Mixed but improving profitability, and
- Non‑trivial policy and valuation risks.
Today’s news — Roth’s price‑target hike, new storage contracts, and insider sale filings — all fit into that narrative rather than fundamentally changing it. For now, CSIQ looks like a stock where battery energy storage and U.S. manufacturing strategy will matter at least as much as traditional solar modules in shaping its long‑term story.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always do your own research or consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.
References
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