First Solar, Inc. (FSLR): Among Chris Rokos' Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential

Yahoo

10-05-2025

We recently published an article titled . In this article, we are going to take a look at where First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) stands against Chris Rokos' other stock picks with huge upside potential.
One of the traits that define investors who become billionaires is the ability to make money regardless of market conditions. Chris Rokos is one example. For instance, in March 2025, the hedge fund gained 3.4% amid heightened volatility. At the same time, fellow big-name asset managers like Point72, Citadel, and Millennium struggled to handle the volatility.
Christopher Charles Rokos is a British hedge fund manager. He co-founded Brevan Howard in 2002 after nearly 10 years with Goldman Sachs, where he traded interest rate products. In 2015, he established Rokos Capital Management. The asset manager has approximately $20 billion worth of assets under management (AUM) as of 2025. Rokos is the fund's Chief Investment Officer (CIO).
The billionaire hedge fund manager made the most of Trump's election in November last year. According to a Bloomberg report, Rokos netted nearly $1 billion in profits in a single day following Trump's victory. This, according to the report, is a 'standout trading performance' since Rokos Capital started operating in 2015.
READ ALSO: Billionaire Ray Dalio's Bridgewater's 10 Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential and Billionaire Mario Gabelli's 10 Large-Cap Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential.
And the winning didn't stop there. Since that election victory, Trump has fueled rallies and routs in almost equal measure. But, interestingly, Rokos keeps turning up profits regardless of market conditions. Thanks to the Trump-fueled rally in November 2024, Rokos Capital Management ended the year with 31% in returns.
In early April 2025, Trump's tariffs triggered a large sell-off, and many hedge funds lost money. But not Rokos. The asset manager advanced 4.5% in the first two weeks of the month. This gain helped the hedge fund's returns for the year to reach 8% as of mid-April 2025.
But whether Rokos Capital Management will keep winning this year is something that remains to be seen, especially in light of the conditions in the market. On Monday, May 5, 2025, the S&P 500 snapped out of a nine-day rally—the longest winning streak in 20 years. The broader market index fell 0.64%, while the Nasdaq shed 0.74% and the Dow lost 0.24%.
Market observers quoted by CNN put the decline on tariffs. For instance, Argent Capital Management's Jed Ellerbroek said that the 'market is intensely focused on where the tariff rates end up, and it's bouncing around day to day as those assessments change.'
Veteran technical strategist Tom DeMark told Bloomberg that a bear market is a likely scenario shortly. 'A top is imminent. Too much technical damage has been done. Stocks are vulnerable right now and can easily get hit pretty badly if anything quickly changes on the global trade outlook.'
However, it won't come as a surprise that Rokos Capital manages gains out of the bleak market (if the current predictions hold). They have done it before. As such, it appears wise to get an idea of the hedge fund's stock picks, especially those with a huge upside potential.
We combed through Rokos Capital Management's SEC Q4 2024 13F filings. We focused on the fund's most valuable equities holdings (excluding ETFs and options) and then ranked the stocks based on analyst price targets as of May 7, 2025. We picked stocks with an upside potential of at least 30% and then picked the top 10. We have also mentioned the broader hedge fund sentiment for these stocks, as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points ().
A solar panel farm with an orange sky illuminating the vast landscape.First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) is the largest publicly traded solar modules manufacturer in the US. The company designs and manufactures photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and develops utility-scale solar power projects. Some of its products include thin-film solar modules, battery systems, and large solar farms.
First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) reported Q1 2025 earnings in late April 2025; the results are solid. Gross margin was 41% (up from 37% in the prior quarter), and energy production reached 4.0 gigawatts. But despite these highlights, the company cut its full-year guidance. Earnings forecast was reduced to between $12.50 and $17.50 per share (down from $17 to $20), and revenue expectations were cut to $4.5-$5.5 billion (from $5.3-$5.8 billion).
CEO Mark Widmar indicated that while the company had anticipated some trade policy changes, the scale and depth of Trump's tariffs were more disruptive than expected. This situation created a "significant economic headwind" for First Solar, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:FSLR) manufacturing facilities in India, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The company faces uncertainty regarding whether the tariffs will remain at 10% or increase after the president's 90-day pause. This complicates the company's ability to quantify precise tariff rates for module shipments.
On April 30, 2025, Jefferies downgraded the stock from "Buy" to "Hold" and reduced its price target to $127 from $202. The research firm cited concerns over the challenging near-term environment and margin compression.
Overall FSLR ranks 6th on our list of Chris Rokos' stock picks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of FSLR as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than FSLR but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings check out our report about this
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at .