ENPH vs FSLR Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Enphase and First Solar are both leading clean energy companies but serve entirely different solar markets. Enphase serves residential solar (individual homeowners with rooftop systems), while First Solar serves utility-scale solar (large ground-mounted solar farms for utilities and corporate buyers). They are not direct competitors — they sell to different customers and compete on different factors.
ENPH vs FSLR is a comparison between the residential solar microinverter leader facing demand recovery from high-rate headwinds (Enphase) and the US utility-scale solar panel manufacturer benefiting from IRA domestic content premiums with multi-year backlog visibility (First Solar).
FSLR holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. ENPH has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+8.76% vs -25.96%), though FSLR has the better forward P/E setup (7.32x vs 16.17x for ENPH). FSLR leads on both revenue growth (-3.70%) and operating margin (42.64%), suggesting a stronger fundamental setup on both dimensions. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for FSLR (+59.12%) than for ENPH (+25.61%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- prefer the residential solar microinverter market leader with home battery storage integration and European diversification
- value microinverter technology's superior safety, monitoring, and shading performance as a defensible residential solar position
- want residential clean energy exposure with recovery upside as US interest rates decline and residential solar installation activity recovers
- are comfortable with demand cyclicality tied to residential mortgage rates and installer sentiment that created significant 2022–2024 headwinds
- prefer the US utility-scale solar manufacturer with IRA domestic content bonus competitive advantage that Chinese panel makers cannot match
- value multi-year utility-scale customer backlog providing revenue visibility absent in residential solar market cycles
- want exposure to utility-scale solar infrastructure buildout driven by AI data center power demand and corporate renewable PPAs
- are comfortable with ASP compression risk as solar manufacturing economics improve and First Solar invests in new capacity
| Metric | ENPH | FSLR |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 54.0 | 47.0 |
| AI ranki | #374 | #718 |
| Latest closei | $31.55 | $194.51 |
| 1M returni | -5.68% | +10.42% |
| 3M returni | -19.00% | -17.86% |
| 6M returni | -11.87% | -10.78% |
| 1Y returni | +8.76% | -25.96% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | ENPH | FSLR |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $9.8K (-2.0%) started 2025-11-05 | $7.01K (-29.9%) started 2025-11-05 |
| 5Y ago | $1.31K (-86.9%) started 2021-11-08 | $16.91K (+69.1%) started 2021-11-08 |
| 10Y ago | $271.98K (+2619.8%) started 2016-11-07 | $57.62K (+476.2%) started 2016-11-07 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | ENPH | FSLR |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $4.92B | $18.48B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 36.88 | 10.60 |
| Forward P/Ei | 16.17 | 7.32 |
| Price/Salesi | 3.80 | N/A |
| EV/Revenuei | 3.46 | 3.15 |
| Analyst targeti | $46.79 | $273.67 |
| Target upsidei | +25.61% | +59.12% |
| Metric | ENPH | FSLR |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | -19.60% | -3.70% |
| Earnings growthi | -3.50% | 23.30% |
| EPS growthi | -3.50% | +23.30% |
| FCF margini | +5.90% | +29.73% |
| Operating margini | 17.98% | 42.64% |
| Profit margini | 10.09% | 32.46% |
| ROIC proxyi | 13.00% | 18.51% |
| Return on equityi | 13.00% | 18.51% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | 0.00% |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | N/A |
| Betai | 1.65 | 1.79 |
| Debt/equityi | 51.90 | 1.88 |
| Current ratioi | 3.45 | 2.52 |
| Quick ratioi | 2.53 | 1.70 |
Over the past year, ENPH and FSLR have moved moderately in the same direction (correlation of 0.49), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | ENPH | FSLR |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -2.02% | -29.88% |
| CAGRi | -2.02% | -29.91% | |
| Volatilityi | 85.48% | 53.02% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.33 | -0.50 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.55 | -0.68 | |
| Max drawdowni | 65.45% | 47.16% | |
| Current drawdowni | 56.38% | 38.88% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 27.00% | 24.27% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 33.38% | 27.46% | |
| Max daily dropi | 18.01% | 13.61% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 26.73% | 21.67% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -86.94% | +69.10% |
| CAGRi | -33.49% | +11.10% | |
| Volatilityi | 71.22% | 54.89% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.28 | 0.38 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.41 | 0.59 | |
| Max drawdowni | 92.56% | 59.97% | |
| Current drawdowni | 90.61% | 38.88% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 61.43% | 26.43% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 67.13% | 30.20% | |
| Max daily dropi | 25.73% | 17.89% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 33.19% | 21.67% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +2619.83% | +476.16% |
| CAGRi | +39.17% | +19.15% | |
| Volatilityi | 78.13% | 50.85% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.75 | 0.51 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 1.17 | 0.78 | |
| Max drawdowni | 92.56% | 61.26% | |
| Current drawdowni | 90.61% | 38.88% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 40.76% | 23.46% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 50.84% | 27.85% | |
| Max daily dropi | 26.00% | 17.89% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 42.51% | 25.40% |
| Category | ENPH | FSLR |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Enphase Energy, Inc. | First Solar, Inc. |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Solar | Solar |
| Core business | Enphase Energy is the leading residential solar microinverter and energy management system company. Its microinverters convert DC power from each individual solar panel to AC, providing better performance and monitoring than string inverters. Enphase also sells IQ batteries for home energy storage. Its platform integrates solar, batteries, and home energy management through the Enphase App. Revenue is primarily from US residential solar installers (SunPower, Sunrun, installers) and increasingly from Europe. | First Solar is the largest US-headquartered solar panel manufacturer, producing CadTel (cadmium telluride) thin-film solar modules for utility-scale solar installations. Unlike Chinese crystalline silicon competitors, First Solar manufactures primarily in the US (Ohio, Alabama) and internationally (India, Malaysia, Vietnam), making it the primary beneficiary of the Inflation Reduction Act's domestic content bonuses. Utility-scale solar customers include large IPPs, utilities, and corporate PPA buyers. |
| Investor focus | Investors track microinverter shipment volumes, US and European residential solar demand recovery from the 2023 interest rate-driven slowdown, IQ battery attachment rate (storage revenue per system), and the timeline for demand recovery in the residential solar installation market. | Investors track manufacturing capacity additions (gigawatts per year), order backlog and ASP (average selling price) trends, US domestic content bonus realization under the IRA, and module technology improvements (Series 7 efficiency gains). |
- Microinverter technology provides superior panel-level monitoring, safety (no high-voltage DC), and partial shading performance vs string inverters
- IQ Battery storage integration creates a complete residential solar + storage energy system with a competitive software management layer
- European market diversification (Germany, Netherlands, France) reduces dependence on US residential solar demand cycles
- Largest domestic US solar panel manufacturer — the primary beneficiary of IRA domestic content bonus credits that Chinese competitors cannot access
- CadTel thin-film technology uses no polysilicon, insulating First Solar from Chinese polysilicon supply chain constraints
- Multi-year utility-scale customer backlog provides revenue visibility that residential solar companies like Enphase lack
- US residential solar demand has been severely impacted by high interest rates, reducing installer pull-through for Enphase systems
- SolarEdge (string inverter with DC optimizer) and Chinese string inverter competitors offer lower upfront cost alternative technology
- Enphase revenue declined significantly from 2022–2023 peaks as inventory normalization and demand slowdown reduced shipments
- Module average selling prices (ASPs) can decline over time as manufacturing efficiency improves and competitors add capacity
- Utility-scale solar development timelines are subject to interconnection queue delays and permitting challenges
- IRA policy risk: any reduction in domestic content credits under future administrations would significantly impact First Solar's competitive advantage
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