In this clip from "The High Energy Show" on Motley Fool Live, recorded on Feb. 8, Motley Fool contributor Travis Hoium discusses one leading company in the solar manufacturing space that has continued to innovate, improve its efficiency, and reduce its costs.
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Travis Hoium: I had a couple of stocks that I wanted to highlight here. First Solar (FSLR -1.31%) was the one that I really wanted to bring to bear for people. Like Jason said, this is a company that's just been a rock in the solar industry. I think I've really underestimated the company's ability to just keep innovating, keep improving their efficiency, and reducing their costs. For a period of time, in the late 2000s, early 2010s, they were just printing money hand over fist and they got a lot of competition from China, but they really handled that fairly well and have now gotten to the point where last Fall they announced that they are basically going to double their production over the next three years. We could see operating leverage take place there. If they're able to maintain, or even improve, margins with another technology improvement, they could be a company that really sees profitability increase. Like I said, as consolidation has taken place in the solar manufacturing industry, we could see a lot of tailwinds on the bottom line there.
Jason Hall: With their balance sheet, they can do it through any part of the cycle. They're not going to get hamstrung if the cycle turns.
Hoium: Exactly. They can buy companies if they want to. They have not chosen to do that and that's probably been the right strategy. But if they want to become an acquirer, they can do that as well.
