New York, May 23, 2026, 11:01 (EDT)
- Canadian Solar closed up 4.3% at $18.88 on Friday, ending the week about 5.6% above where it started.
- U.S. stock markets are closed for the weekend. Nasdaq stays shut on Monday for Memorial Day.
- This week is about margin pressure, the U.S. factory ramp-up, and storage orders. New earnings aren’t in focus.
Canadian Solar Inc. shares picked up 4.3% to close at $18.88 on Friday, wrapping up a shortened week for U.S. markets. Solar stocks were generally higher ahead of Memorial Day. The Nasdaq-listed name saw volume at 3.25 million shares. For the week, the stock rose around 5.6%, boosted by three straight climbs after an early drop.
This is key now as there’s no next-day trade to react. U.S. stock markets shut down for the weekend, and Nasdaq’s 2026 calendar lists markets closed Monday, May 25, for Memorial Day, so regular trading resumes Tuesday.
Dow Jones closed at a record Friday, Reuters said, while the S&P 500 scored its eighth weekly win. Investors were watching stronger earnings and some movement on ending the Middle East conflict.
Canadian Solar traded higher along with some solar peers. First Solar was up 3.6% Friday, and JinkoSolar tacked on 2.1%. The Invesco Solar ETF, which tracks the sector, gained 1.6%. SolarEdge dropped 1.7%, showing not all solar names joined the move.
Canadian Solar’s shares have bounced back after the company slashed expectations with earnings out earlier this month. On May 14, the company reported first-quarter sales of $1.1 billion, a gross margin of 25.1%, and a net loss trimmed to $32 million, or 71 cents a share.
Canadian Solar Inc. beat shipment goals this period, moving 2.5 gigawatts of solar modules and 2.1 gigawatt-hours of storage. A gigawatt measures power, while a gigawatt-hour refers to stored energy. The company’s margin got a lift from a $93 million tariff refund—tariffs it had paid were returned.
Canadian Solar says the easier part could be over. The company put out second-quarter revenue guidance of $1.0 billion to $1.2 billion and sees gross margin at 13% to 15%, which is down from the strong margin in the first quarter. CEO Colin Parkin said “solar margins remaining under pressure.” He said Canadian Solar expects better storage volumes and more from U.S. solar-cell manufacturing, mostly in the second half. Canadian Solar Inc.
Parkin took over as CEO on May 14, as founder Shawn Qu shifted to executive chairman and chief technology officer. Parkin said “competition in the storage sector is intensifying.” Qu added the Jeffersonville, Indiana solar-cell plant has started trial production, with commercial operation planned in about two months from the May 14 announcement. Canadian Solar Inc.
Analysts are split, not bullish. TipRanks said this week that Freedom Broker’s Dmitriy Pozdnyakov downgraded Canadian Solar to Hold from Buy and set a $16 price target. He said the margin beat got help from tariff refunds, but earnings per share and cash flow “remain weak.” TipRanks
Analyst sentiment remains muted. 11 analysts tracked by MarketScreener rate the stock a Hold, giving an average target of $18.29. That’s under Friday’s close at $18.88.
Tuesday’s reopen could just make Friday’s move look like a short-covering bounce, not a shift in the narrative. If storage margins return to normal before orders pick up, or the U.S. manufacturing ramp eats more cash than people expect, attention may shift back to debt, cash flow, and the weaker second-quarter margins over the shipment surprise.
