First Solar Trims 2026 Outlook as Third-Quarter Sales Fall 23%, Launches $500 Million Buyback

First Solar reported third-quarter 2026 results on October 29, posting lower sales but higher profit than a year earlier, and told investors it now expects to sell less solar module volume for the full year than it had previously guided. The Arizona-based manufacturer’s board also authorized a new $500 million share repurchase program, effective immediately.

Net sales came in at $1.23 billion, down 23% year-over-year, which the company attributed primarily to a decline in the volume of modules sold to third parties, according to its SEC filing. Net income rose to $571 million, or $5.30 per diluted share, up from $456 million, or $4.24 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $744 million from $671 million a year earlier. The diluted EPS figure came in ahead of the roughly $4.63 per-share estimate analysts had penciled in ahead of the print, according to consensus data compiled by Benzinga, even though revenue landed below the roughly $1.29 billion analysts had expected.

Guidance Cut Even as Margins Improve

Alongside the results, First Solar lowered its full-year 2026 guidance across several metrics. The company now expects to sell 16.0 GW to 17.0 GW of modules, down from a prior range of 17.0 GW to 18.2 GW, with net sales guided to $4.6 billion–$4.9 billion versus $4.9 billion–$5.2 billion previously. Adjusted EBITDA guidance narrowed slightly to $2.55 billion–$2.75 billion from $2.6 billion–$2.8 billion, and planned capital expenditure was cut to $0.6 billion–$0.8 billion from $0.8 billion–$1.0 billion. Gross profit guidance ($2.4 billion–$2.6 billion) and operating expense guidance ($610 million–$635 million) were left unchanged, as was the net cash balance target of $1.7 billion–$2.3 billion. For the fourth quarter, First Solar expects to sell 4.3 GW to 5.3 GW of modules, including 3.4 GW to 4.3 GW from its US factories, with adjusted EBITDA of $643 million to $843 million.

The company’s net cash balance fell to $1.5 billion as of September 30 from $2.4 billion at the end of 2025, a decline the filing said was “partially offset by Section 45X cash receipts and IEEPA tariff refunds received” during the quarter — a reminder of how directly US industrial-policy cash flows are now feeding into First Solar’s balance sheet alongside its underlying manufacturing economics.

Backlog Holds at 44 GW as Section 232 Reshapes the Market

First Solar’s contracted sales backlog stood at 44.0 GW as of September 30, broadly steady with recent quarters even as near-term volume guidance came down — a sign that the pullback is more about the pace of deliveries this year than a weakening in underlying demand. Chief executive Mark Widmar framed the quarter against a shifting US trade backdrop, saying “Section 232 represents a structural change in how the United States approaches solar manufacturing” and that the company believes it is “structurally positioned to benefit from this environment.”

Widmar’s reference is to a presidential proclamation signed on August 6, 2026 that imposes a 15% tariff on polysilicon derivatives — ingots, wafers, solar cells and modules — alongside minimum import price floors, effective December 4, 2026, according to trade-compliance analyses of the measure. The action replaces a narrower safeguard tariff on imported solar cells and modules that expired in February 2026, and is widely read in the industry as another lever pushing module buyers toward US-made supply such as First Solar’s.

Expanding US Capacity

That US-manufacturing push is already visible on the ground: First Solar opened the first phase of its $330 million module plant in Gaffney, South Carolina in late October, part of a broader build-out of domestic capacity the company has leaned on as tariff and incentive policy increasingly favors US-based production.

Sources

• First Solar, Form 8-K / Q3 2026 earnings press release, October 29, 2026 — SEC EDGAR filing — primary source for Q3 financial results, updated 2026 guidance, buyback authorization and CEO quotes.
• Benzinga, First Solar (FSLR) earnings forecasts page, accessed October 2026 — benzinga.com — source for pre-earnings analyst consensus estimates.
• Wiley Rein LLP, “Trump Administration Imposes Section 232 Tariffs and Minimum Import Prices on Polysilicon and its Derivatives” — wiley.law — source for Section 232 polysilicon tariff scope, rates and effective date.

Illustrative image. Photo: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source