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• Net sales of $584 million
• Net income per diluted share of $0.42
• Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and marketable securities of $1.9 billion
• Third quarter production of 2.0 GW _DC despite challenging freight and COVID-19 environment
• Increased top production bin to 465 watts, representing 19% glass area efficiency
• Started construction and purchased equipment for our next-generation factories in Ohio and India
• YTD net bookings of 10.5 GW _DC ; 1.5 GW _DC since prior earnings call
• Maintain 2021 EPS guidance of $4.00 to $4.60

First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR) announced financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021.

“I would like to thank our associates for their dedication and continued execution during the third quarter,” said Mark Widmar, CEO of First Solar. “Operationally, despite the challenging freight and COVID-19 environment our manufacturing team continues to deliver on their commitments. In the third quarter we produced 2.0 GW_DC of modules, and in October we increased our top production bin to 465 watts. In parallel we started construction of the building for our third Ohio factory, and began ordering equipment for our first factory in India. Commercially, we had a good quarter, increasing our record year-to-date bookings to 10.5 GW_DC. From a financial standpoint, while extended transit times for ocean freight impacted our third quarter results, we are reiterating our 2021 EPS guidance.”

Net sales for the third quarter were $584 million, a decrease of $46 million from the prior quarter, primarily due to lower systems segment revenue, which was partially offset by an increase in module segment revenue.

Operating income for the third quarter was $51 million. Third quarter operating income included depreciation and amortization of $66 million, underutilization and production start-up of $9 million, and share-based compensation of $6 million.

Net income per diluted share for the third quarter was $0.42, compared to $0.77 in the prior quarter.

Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and marketable securities at the end of the third quarter totaled $1.9 billion, a decrease of $111 million from the prior quarter. This decrease was primarily due to capital expenditures and reinvestment of restricted cash, which was partially offset by operating cash flows and collection of accounts receivables related to legacy systems activities.

2021 guidance has been updated as follows:

	Prior	Current
Net Sales	$2.875B to $3.1B	Unchanged
Gross Margin ($) (1)	$695M to $760M	Unchanged
Operating Expenses (2)	$285M to $300M	Unchanged
Operating Income (3)(4)	$545M to $625M	Unchanged
Earnings per Share	$4.00 to $4.60	Unchanged
Net Cash Balance (5)	$1.35B to $1.45B	$1.45B to $1.55B
Capital Expenditures	$825M to $875M	$675M to $725M
Shipments	7.6GW to 8.0GW	Unchanged

——————————
	(1)		Includes of $1 million of related ramp expense (unchanged) and $40 million of impact due to underutilization and reduced throughput (unchanged)
	(2)		Includes $20 million to $25 million of production start-up expense (unchanged)
	(3)		Includes $61 million to $66 million of related ramp expense, production start-up expense, underutilization and reduced throughput impact (unchanged)
	(4)		Includes a $147 million pre-tax gain related to the sales of the North American O&M and U.S. project development businesses ($149 million previously)
	(5)		Defined as cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities, and restricted cash less expected debt at the end of 2021

Source: First Solar

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