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If You Invested $1000 in Canadian Solar a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

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How much a stock's price changes over time is a significant driver for most investors. Not only can price performance impact your portfolio, but it can help you compare investment results across sectors and industries as well.

Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Canadian Solar (CSIQ - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to CSIQ for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Canadian Solar's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Canadian Solar's main business drivers.

Ontario, Canada-based Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ - Free Report) is a vertically integrated manufacturer of silicon ingots, wafers, cells, solar modules (panels) and custom-designed solar power applications. The company designs, manufactures and delivers solar products and solar system solutions for both on-grid and off-grid use to customers worldwide. The company was incorporated in Canada in 2001. Subsequently, in Nov 2006, the company came out with its maiden public offering.

Canadian Solar’s production facilities in Canada, China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brazil are structured for the manufacturing of ingots, wafers, solar cells, solar PV modules, solar power systems and specialized solar products. A huge number of the company’s manufacturing facilities are located in Canada and China. The company's products include a range of solar modules built to general specifications for use in a wide range of residential, commercial and industrial solar power generation systems. Specialty solar products consist of customized solar modules that its customers incorporate into their own products and complete specialty products, such as portable solar home systems.

Canadian Solar operates through eight wholly-owned manufacturing subsidiaries. The company sells its products to customers worldwide, with operations spread across Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, Spain, Singapore, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. The company has active solar projects in the states of California, North Carolina and Massachusetts. The company also implements solar power development projects, primarily in conjunction with government organizations, to provide solar power generation in rural areas of China. Over the past 19 years, Canadian Solar has successfully delivered over 43 GW of premium quality modules to customers in over 150 countries around the world

Bottom Line

Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of a few things: research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Canadian Solar a decade ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in April 2011 would be worth $4,260.46, or a 326.05% gain, as of April 9, 2021. Investors should keep in mind that this return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.

In comparison, the S&P 500 gained 208.48% and the price of gold went up 14.51% over the same time frame.

Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for CSIQ.

Canadian Solar ended the fourth quarter of 2020 on an impressive note, with both earnings and revenues outpacing the Zacks Consensus Estimate. It has a strong pipeline of projects and carries out various acquisitions and strategies to further consolidate its position. Going ahead, Canadian Solar believes there are significant growth opportunities in the solar plus storage market, given declining battery storage costs. Its shares outperformed the industry in the past six months. However, courtesy of the coronavirus outbreak, the company has been witnessing significant logistic costs, mostly shipping expenses. This might weigh on its earnings performance in the coming days. Moreover, some projects are expected to move into 2021, which if continue, will hurt its operational results. Tariff imposition on Chinese imports may hurt the stock.

The stock is up 5.54% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 3 higher, for fiscal 2021. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.


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