First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) ended Tuesday, December 23, 2025, under pressure after Monday’s breakout-style rally, with traders digesting a powerful demand narrative tied to big-tech energy needs — and then quickly shifting to profit-taking and valuation discipline.
At the close, First Solar stock finished at $269.39, down 5.34% on the day. The session was volatile: shares opened around $282, traded as high as about $283, and sank to roughly $262 before stabilizing into the close. Volume was about 3.8 million shares. [1]
In after-hours trading, the stock was essentially flat, hovering around $269.30 close to 8:00 p.m. ET. [2]
What matters now is whether the market treats Tuesday’s slide as a routine pullback after a sharp run — or as a signal that expectations got ahead of near-term fundamentals.
What happened to First Solar stock today
Tuesday’s decline followed a strong Monday move that pushed FSLR to fresh highs and refocused investor attention on U.S.-based solar manufacturing. From a tape-reading perspective, the setup looked like a classic “surge then retrace” pattern:
- Monday, Dec. 22: shares rallied to a fresh 52-week high (near $285.99) and closed at $284.59. [3]
- Tuesday, Dec. 23: shares gave back a chunk of that advance, closing at $269.39. [4]
- After-hours: little follow-through in either direction, with price holding around $269.30 late in the evening. [5]
A useful context point: commentary published today highlighted that FSLR has been unusually volatile, logging 35 moves larger than 5% over the past year. In other words, Tuesday’s swing is notable, but not unprecedented for this name. [6]
The main catalyst in focus: Alphabet’s Intersect deal — and why it matters for First Solar
The dominant headline driving solar chatter this week has been Alphabet’s agreement to acquire Intersect Power, a company described as operating at the intersection of data centers and clean energy infrastructure.
Reuters reported that Alphabet agreed to buy Intersect Power for $4.75 billion in cash (plus the assumption of debt), and that Intersect has roughly $15 billion of operating and under-construction assets and expects 10.8 GW online or in development by 2028. [7]
Here’s why this matters for First Solar investors:
- Intersect is a meaningful First Solar customer.
Intersect has historically signed multi‑gigawatt supply agreements for First Solar modules, as reflected in earlier deal announcements and industry coverage. [8] - Big-tech power demand is increasingly shaping clean-energy procurement.
Even if Alphabet’s acquisition doesn’t automatically translate into “more module orders tomorrow,” the market often trades the directional implication: data center growth and electrification can accelerate demand for utility-scale clean power — the part of the solar market where First Solar is most visible. - Tuesday’s pullback doesn’t erase the structural narrative — but it does reprice expectations.
Market commentary published today framed the decline as a valuation-driven pullback after a new high, rather than a reversal caused by a negative fundamental surprise. [9]
Analyst sentiment and forecasts: what Wall Street is signaling right now
Today’s reporting and “instant alert” coverage leaned heavily on the same takeaway: despite Tuesday’s drop, Street sentiment remains broadly constructive.
Key points circulating in analyst-aggregation reports:
- Wells Fargo raised its price target to $285 from $270 and maintained an Overweight rating (reported as a key driver behind Monday’s strength). [10]
- Multiple firms have lifted targets in recent months (examples cited include Citigroup to $300 and other boosts across the Street). [11]
- Aggregated ratings cited today indicate a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average target price around $271.27. [12]
Two important “before the open” implications from these forecasts:
- When a stock closes near the consensus target, the market often becomes more sensitive to incremental news (new bookings, policy shifts, margin signals) because the “easy upside” implied by targets is less obvious.
- The spread between bullish and bearish targets still looks wide — a sign that investors should expect debate around valuation, margins, and policy risk to remain active.
Fundamentals snapshot investors keep coming back to
While today’s move was primarily about trading dynamics and headline digestion, First Solar’s underlying fundamental profile is still the anchor for medium-term investors — especially its backlog and policy-linked tailwinds.
In its latest quarterly update (Q3 2025), First Solar reported:
- Net sales of $1.6 billion and EPS of $4.24
- Net cash balance of $1.5 billion (as defined in its release)
- Contracted sales backlog of 53.7 GW, valued at $16.4 billion, as of Sept. 30, 2025
- Updated 2025 guidance that includes net sales of $4.95B–$5.20B and earnings per diluted share of $14.00–$15.00 [13]
This matters for tomorrow because, absent a fresh company-specific announcement overnight, the market will likely keep trading the tension between:
- A long-duration backlog and domestic manufacturing positioning, versus
- The reality that solar stocks can re-rate quickly on discount rates, policy headlines, and near-term execution questions.
What to know before the market opens Wednesday, Dec. 24
1) Tomorrow is a holiday-shortened session
The U.S. stock market will be open on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, but NYSE and Nasdaq are scheduled to close early at 1:00 p.m. ET, and markets are closed on Thursday, Dec. 25 for Christmas. [14]
That has two practical consequences for FSLR traders:
- Liquidity can be thinner, which sometimes exaggerates intraday swings.
- News hitting late morning can have an outsized effect because there’s less time for the market to “digest” it before the early close.
2) Watch for follow-through headlines on the Alphabet–Intersect narrative
Because Monday’s rally and Tuesday’s pullback were both tied (directly or indirectly) to the Intersect storyline, markets may stay sensitive to:
- Any additional reporting on deal timing, approvals, or strategic priorities
- Any commentary on data-center power procurement and renewables pipelines
Reuters’ framing — including Intersect’s asset footprint and projected capacity — is likely to remain the reference point for how investors model the “demand halo” around this deal. [15]
3) Pay attention to how the stock behaves around recent breakout/pullback levels
While this isn’t a technical-analysis article, the simple behavioral question for Wednesday’s open is:
- Does FSLR stabilize and reclaim part of Tuesday’s drop, or
- Does it continue slipping, implying Monday’s optimism was fully “priced out”?
Today’s market coverage emphasized that the stock had been trading around a breakout area earlier in the week — and then slipped back below it on Tuesday. [16]
4) Keep an eye on valuation chatter
One of the clearest “day-of” explanations published today was that investors stepped back because valuation looked stretched after the recent run-up. [17]
That means the premarket tone could hinge less on “what happened” and more on “what multiple investors are willing to pay” in a thin session.
Bottom line heading into tomorrow’s open
First Solar stock closed down 5.34% on Dec. 23, with after-hours trading largely flat — a pullback that looks, based on today’s coverage, more like profit-taking and valuation digestion than a sudden shift in the company’s long-term demand story. [18]
For Wednesday morning, the two biggest practical points are:
- Holiday market structure matters: early close at 1:00 p.m. ET could amplify moves. [19]
- The Intersect/Alphabet angle remains the narrative center: it’s not just a headline — it’s a proxy debate about how AI-era power demand could shape utility-scale renewables and First Solar’s customer pipeline. [20]
This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice.
References
1. stockanalysis.com, 2. stockanalysis.com, 3. stockanalysis.com, 4. stockanalysis.com, 5. stockanalysis.com, 6. stockstory.org, 7. www.reuters.com, 8. investor.firstsolar.com, 9. stockstory.org, 10. www.marketbeat.com, 11. www.marketbeat.com, 12. www.marketbeat.com, 13. www.businesswire.com, 14. www.nyse.com, 15. www.reuters.com, 16. www.investors.com, 17. stockstory.org, 18. stockanalysis.com, 19. www.nyse.com, 20. www.reuters.com
