Shares in First Solar slump 14% in day

11/13/2007

PHOENIX Shares in First Solar LLC, which have risen dramatically this year, slumped $29.15, or 14 percent, yesterday to $177.70 after reports that solar energy tax credits might be left out of pending federal legislation.

The solar-panel maker is based in Phoenix but its only U.S. manufacturing plant and its top executives are in Perrysburg Township, and the firm evolved from one begun in Toledo by inventor Harold McMaster.

The stock opened a year ago at $20 a share on the Nasdaq National Market and has generally been on the rise since. Last week, after the firm reported a big increase in its quarterly profit, the stock jumped $57 in one day, catapulting it over $224.