First Solar Inc.'s second-largest shareholder sold half his shares, a signal that the world's biggest solar company may soon fizzle.
Chief Executive Officer Michael Ahearn reduced his stake to 3.07 million shares as of May 16 from 6.1 million shares at the company's initial offering in November, 2006. The latest disposals brought in $257 million since Feb. 19, according to company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company began in Toledo as Solar Cells Inc. and has its only North American manufacturing plant in Perrysburg Township. It shipped solar panels to Germany for years until it built and opened a plant there. It also is building four plants in Asia.
The sales came as the Phoenix firm told investors in regulatory filings that its cells made of toxic cadmium-telluride may be banned in the European Union, its biggest market. Declining subsidies risk hurting sales, while metal costs are rising and solar-panel prices are slipping.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080603/BUSINESS03/80...
Added:
So First Solar's (FSLR) CEO Sold Half His Stake, Who Cares? (FSLR)
http://www.clusterstock.com/2008/6/so_first_solar_s_fslr_ceo_sold_his_st...
First Solar (FSLR) CEO Cashes Out: Should You, Too? (FSLR)
http://www.clusterstock.com/2008/6/first_solar_ceo_cashes_out_should_you...
More Bad News For First Solar (FSLR) et al: GE Sees $1B Business in 3 Years (GE, FSLR)
http://www.clusterstock.com/2008/6/bad_news_for_solar_upstarts_ge_sees_1...
First Solar (FSLR) Sinks on Insider Sales and Concerns Over Potential EU Ban
http://www.streetinsider.com/Insiders+Blog/First+Solar+(FSLR)+Sinks+on+Insider+Sales+and+Concerns+Over+Potential+EU+Ban/3705929.html
So glad we're on the cutting edge of another failure.
This is an example why I got out of the stock game. There appears to be too many people who have inside information causing us normal everyday people to lose our shirts while they line their pockets with more money than they could ever spend.
Boy o boy, how I wish more of the middle class would realize what you now know. The middle class is so desperate for gains to offset hugely increased costs and being drained by consumer spending, that they can't admit the entire game is rigged.
A buddy of mine just left a great job with a great company to go work for First Solar...When I send him this article I think he will say, "DOH!"
Of course the stock market is rigged. We are manipulated every day. So when the President floated his idea of privatizing a portion of your S.S. I balked. I would rather have all my money now than invest it and possibly lose it. I also do not expect S.S to be around when it is my turn to cash in.
How nice would it be to turn your papers in and cash out at $257 million ? Wonder why he only sold half ? That must have been the federal limit he could legal get away with. Still plenty to live a wild life. CEO'S or any board members should not recieve stock or options in the companies they work for. They already make a small fortune with six and seven figure salaries. It is a great rackeet if you can swing it. It sounds criminal to me.
What? You don't want Bear Stearns investing your retirement money?
That's not the way the program for privatizing was going to be setup. It would have been entirely voluntary. You could either invest it or you could keep the same program as we have now with no return on your investment. In essence, those who opposed the SS program prevented me from dealing with my retirement as I see fit.
This doesn't mean First Solar is going to go under. It does mean that the CEO thinks the stock price is higher than it should be, but stock price and the success of a company are not always tied together.