Six of 147: Samlyn Holds 52.1% of the Tracked First Solar Stake, and the Verified Cohort Grew 29.9% in a Quarter When the Price Rose 19.6%

GetCoattail Research — The Filing Tape #162. First Solar has recently been on Zacks.com's list of the most searched stocks, down 8.9% in a month when the broad index was flat. The June filings show 6 tracked holders of 147 — one more than doubling — an insider record with no purchase in it, and a borrow of 9.79% of the share count.

The Hype

The attention is search traffic, not a single headline. Zacks reports that First Solar "has recently been on Zacks.com's list of the most searched stocks," with shares down 8.9% over the past month against no change in the Zacks S&P 500 composite, while its Solar industry lost 13.3%. Zacks, October 22, 2026 The same note carries the tension in the name: the current-quarter consensus is $4.64 a share, up 9.4% year over year but revised down 2.1% in 30 days; the full-year estimate is $17.63, up 24.1%; and Zacks assigns Rank #3 (Hold) even as its Value Style Score is graded A. The last reported quarter printed revenue of $1.06 billion, down 3.7%, and EPS of $3.92 against $3.18 a year earlier — a 43.07% EPS surprise. Our own price file, which ends October 2, shows why the searches may be anxious ones: the stock rose 19.6% in Q2 ($197.26 on March 31 to $235.96 on June 30), then fell 26.0% to $174.61 at October 2 — 45.1% below the 252-day high close of $318.25 on June 3, 2026, and just 1.5% above the 252-day low close of $172.11 on October 1.

The Tape

For First Solar, the one hundred and sixty-second Filing Tape audit, the tape shows 6 tracked managers whose verified positions grew 29.9% — powered by a single holder that more than doubled — a full market that added 17,045,998 shares, an insider record with no purchase and 235 sales, one small Senate purchase, a 5% register topped by a 12.79% print a later filing zeroed out, and a borrow of 9.79%.

Lens 1 — the superinvestors: six holders, one of them doubling. The collection holds 147 managers (144 at June 30; 3 early filers at September 30). The June 30, 2026 register is 6 distinct managers holding 2,007,462 shares worth $473,618,408, long only, with no option rows. The largest is Samlyn Capital, 1,045,479 shares, 52.1% of the cohort, at a 4.02% weight, labelled INCREASED at +104.6%. Behind it sit Mirova US (655,621 shares, 32.7%, DECREASED −6.1%), John Rogers - Ariel Investments (242,450 shares, 12.1%, DECREASED −10.7%), Guinness Asset Management (48,665 shares, DECREASED −2.6%), Energy Income Partners (10,429 shares, INCREASED +2.4%) and Saturna Capital (4,818 shares, INCREASED +12.9%) — three increases, three decreases, no NEW labels. Every label verifies under both pairing methods: the six held 1,545,356 shares at March 31 and 2,007,462 at June 30, a verified change of +29.9% (+462,106 shares), in a quarter when the price rose 19.6%. Samlyn alone added 534,548 shares — more than the cohort's entire net gain. One tracked name exited: Polen Capital Management, 1,275 shares in March. No September early filer holds the name. The cohort's implied price is $235.93 against the $235.96 close (−0.01%); five of the six holders imply exactly $235.96, and Saturna implies $223.02 (methodology). At 2.05% of reported institutional shares the cohort is a sample, not the register. 13F figures are as of June 30, 2026, published up to 45 days later.

Lens 2 — institutions: 52 more filers, 17.0 million more shares. At June 30, 2026, 1,016 institutions reported positions on the name's single CUSIP, up 52 from 964 at March 31 (+5.39%); 1,006 are long. Reported shares rose 21.06% to 98,000,772 (+17,045,998 shares), while reported value rose 43.29% to $31,948,158,885, labelled "reported" because the aggregate includes option rows (methodology). Flow counts agree (901 entered, 849 exited, net +52). The aggregate implies $326.00 against the $235.96 close (+38.16%) — a gap this audit reports rather than smooths over: because the reported value sums option rows as well as stock, its implied price need not equal the close. The share count is the cleaner measure, and it rose 21.06% on a broader crowd — the same direction as the cohort's verified +29.9%, at a smaller scale.

Lens 3 — insiders: no purchase, 235 sales. The parsed Form 4 record holds 195 filings, from January 6, 2025 through October 2, 2026, inside windows that run through October 2, 2026. The last 90 days (a filing-date window, per the aggregate's own definition) hold 17 filings, no open-market purchase, and 9 sale-coded rows across 16,681 shares worth $3,756,285.15, by 4 sellers, all 9 officer rows. The last year holds no purchase either, against 164 sale-coded rows across 188,420 shares worth $43,434,494.33, by 13 sellers, 160 of them officer rows. The full parsed record holds no purchase at all: 0 purchase rows, against 235 sale-coded rows across 283,730 shares worth $58,658,889.04, 231 officer rows, by 13 sellers — 71 sale rows, in 89 filings dated before October 3, 2025, sit outside the last year's window. Within this record, which begins in January 2025, the purchase column is blank in every window.

Lens 4 — Congress: one Senate purchase, in the smallest band. The combined aggregate (as of October 3, 2026) carries 1 member with 1 purchase and 0 sales, the last purchase dated August 13, 2026, entirely on the Senate side: the House aggregate and House member file carry no row for this ticker. The Senate member file (as of October 1, 2026; transactions dated on or after April 1, 2026) names the buyer: Senator John Boozman (R, AR), 1 purchase and 0 sales, dated August 13, 2026, in the $1,001 - 15,000 amount band — the smallest band offered. The underlying PTR, filed September 11, 2026, records the same purchase as a joint holding. One purchase, one member, one minimum-size band.

Lens 5 — the 5% register: a 12.79% maximum that a later print zeroed. Our full parse holds 17 SC 13D/G filings: 16 in the SC 13G family (8 SC 13G and 8 SC 13G/A amendments) and 1 SC 13D/A. The 17 filings carry 45 reporter rows. The register maximum is The Vanguard Group, 13,721,919 shares and 12.79%, as of September 30, 2025, filed October 30, 2025 — but the same reporter later prints 0 shares and 0.0% as of March 13, 2026, so the maximum is a dated print, not a current stake; two Vanguard entities print again at March 31, 2026 (Vanguard Capital Management, 7,836,039 shares and 7.3%; Vanguard Portfolio Management, 5,710,409 shares and 5.32%). BlackRock, Inc. prints 12,659,898 shares and 11.8% as of June 30, 2026. The latest filing, August 14, 2026, prints five Susquehanna reporters at 7,518,532 shares and 7.0% each as of June 30, 2026. The single SC 13D/A is an amendment from Farhad Fred Ebrahimi and Mary Wilkie Ebrahimi, each at 5,296,289 shares and 4.95% as of March 21, 2025 — below the 5% line, with no original SC 13D in this parse.

Lens 6 — short interest: 9.79% of shares, rebuilt after June. The latest FINRA settlement, September 15, 2026, records 10,522,255 shares sold short at 5.27 days to cover, 9.79% of the share count in our fundamentals file (a measured count, methodology). The borrow rose 11.61% from the prior settlement, sits 28.0% above the June 30, 2026 settlement (8,222,758 shares) and 2.5% above the year-ago settlement (10,261,379 shares). The series maximum is 11,816,585 shares at May 15, 2025, and the latest reading sits 11.0% below it; the minimum is 3,164,859 shares at May 31, 2022. The summer's path: 8,222,758 (June 30), 9,890,366 (July 15), 10,237,172 (July 31), 9,748,851 (August 14), 9,427,542 (August 31), 10,522,255 (September 15) — a climb, a two-settlement dip, then a new leg up, in the weeks the price fell 26.0% from its June 30 close.

The Gap

The search story is a beaten-down solar name with a Value grade of A, full-year consensus growth of 24.1%, and a Rank #3 (Hold). The June tape underneath is not absence — it is accumulation on one side and one-directional selling on the other. Institutions and the tracked cohort both added — the cohort faster, at a verified +29.9%, powered by Samlyn more than doubling to 52.1% of the cohort. That buying happened in a quarter when the price rose 19.6% — before the 26.0% fall after June 30, which no June filing can see. Against it, insiders contribute one direction only: no purchase anywhere in the parsed record, 235 sales, 9 in the last 90 days, almost all officer rows. Congress contributes exactly one minimum-band Senate purchase. And the borrow rebuilt all summer, from 8,222,758 shares at June 30 to 10,522,255 at September 15 — 9.79% of the share count — as the price fell. One plausible reading is that the October search interest is a valuation argument happening in public, while the record shows institutions and one tracked holder buying into the June strength, insiders selling throughout, and short sellers rebuilding into the autumn decline.

What Would Change the Picture

Nothing above is a recommendation. These filings would change it:

• 1. The 2026Q3 13F season (filing window closing mid-November 2026). The baseline is 6 June common-stock holders with 2,007,462 shares, the continuing holders verified at +29.9%, Samlyn at 52.1% of the cohort, and zero September early filers holding the name. Whether Samlyn adds again, trims or exits — and whether Polen re-enters or any new tracked holder appears — would change this lens.
• 2. A first insider open-market purchase — the first in the parsed record. The record through the October 2 window end holds 0 purchases against 235 sale-coded rows. A single purchase filed after that date would break a pattern that currently has no exception in the record.
• 3. A second congressional trade, or any congressional sale. The combined aggregate holds one purchase by one Senate member in the smallest amount band, and nothing on the House side. A second purchase, a larger band, or any recorded sale would change this lens.
• 4. A new SC 13D, or a 13G print above 12.79%. The register holds one SC 13D/A amendment at 4.95% and no original SC 13D in this parse; its maximum is the passive 12.79% print dated September 30, 2025, later zeroed by its own reporter. An original 13D from any reporter, or a passive print above 12.79%, would change this lens.
• 5. Short interest above 11,816,585 shares, or below 8,222,758. Above the May 15, 2025 reading would set a new series high and extend the summer rebuild; below the June 30, 2026 settlement would unwind it instead.

Methodology and data notes

• As-of & limits: The lenses rest on different clocks, none live: 13F is a June 30, 2026 snapshot published up to 45 days later; Form 4 windows run through October 2, 2026 (the last First Solar filing in the parsed record is itself dated October 2, 2026); Congress aggregates run through October 3, 2026 (Senate through October 1, 2026); 13D/G through August 14, 2026; short interest through September 15, 2026; the price file ends October 2, 2026. Ten limits are specific to this audit. First, the roster expanded before the recent audits — from 85 managers (83 filing) to 149 (147 filing) — so "of 147" counts are not comparable to earlier pieces' "of 83" figures. Second, this name's common stock carries a single CUSIP (336433107), and the full-market by-CUSIP row matches the by-ticker aggregate on every field — holders, long holders, shares, reported value, prior holders and prior reported value — so no CUSIP blending question arises. Third, the tracked register's change labels are verified, not taken on trust: all six continuing holders were verified by two methods that agree exactly — a total-value prefix pass and accession identity plus CUSIP-overlap pairing, each June filing paired to a unique March filing, with every label recomputing exactly and no fallback lookup needed. The registers then reconcile with no remainder: the March 31 register holds 1,546,631 shares, equal to the verified continuing holders' 1,545,356 plus the 1,275 shares of the single exit, Polen Capital Management, with no early-filer rows on either side; the June 30 register holds 2,007,462 shares, equal to the June cohort's 2,007,462. Fourth, the June cohort's implied price is $235.93 against the June 30 close of $235.96 (−0.01%), but one holder breaks the pattern: Saturna Capital's row implies $223.02, 5.5% below the close, on a small 4,818-share position; the other five holders each imply exactly $235.96. This audit reports the cohort aggregate and flags the single row rather than adjusting it. Fifth, the full-market aggregate implies $326.00 against the June 30 close of $235.96 (+38.16%): the aggregate is a reported sum that includes option rows, so its implied price need not equal the close — and for this name the gap is large in both quarters (the March aggregate implies $275.42 against a $197.26 close). This audit uses filer counts and share counts as this lens's primary measures and reports the value as reported only. Sixth, the insider lens rests on a single aggregate bucket — this issuer's filings sit under one symbol spelling, "FSLR", with no case split — cross-checked against a row-level scan of all 195 parsed filings for the issuer (CIK 1274494): filing counts, transaction counts, share counts, officer-row counts and values reproduce exactly in every window, with a value difference of $0.00 in all three windows and no accession appearing under more than one symbol spelling. On that record, every insider implied-price check that applies passes: the 90-day implied sale price of $225.18 sits inside its filing-window close range ($172.11–$250.05), and the one-year and full-record figures likewise sit inside their ranges; no window holds any purchase rows, so no implied-price check applies on the buy side. The site's insider aggregate (dated October 22, 2026, a 90-day window ending that day) carries a row for this name — 0 purchases, 8 sale rows, $3,617,085.15, 4 sellers — which differs from the full parse's 90-day filing-date window (ending October 2, 2026) by one sale row and $139,200.00, consistent with the site window's later end date shifting its start past one early-window sale; this audit reports both figures and uses the full parse, whose window is defined in the aggregate file itself. Seventh, the congressional lens rests on the Senate side only: the House aggregate and House member file carry no row, while the Senate aggregate and Senate member file agree on one purchase. The Senate member file's window begins April 1, 2026; one further Senate purchase in the underlying PTR file, by Senator Alan Armstrong dated March 27, 2026 for $1,001 - $15,000, predates that window and is therefore not in the aggregate — it is noted here so the window's edge is explicit, and no figure in the text counts it. Eighth, the 5% register's cross-date share total of 256,683,671 is an arithmetic sum of 45 reporter rows across different reporters and as-of dates, including joint-report rows that repeat the same position and one reporter's own 0-share print, and is not a current combined stake; each print is reported individually in the text. Parsed totals match the aggregates exactly. Ninth, the short-interest series holds no step of 2x or more and no step to one-half or less (the largest step is 1.427x, at March 15, 2023; the smallest is 0.749x, at September 30, 2021), so the series carries no discontinuity on this measure across its span. No row carries a split flag; two rows carry a FINRA revision flag (June 15, 2021 and May 31, 2023). The issuer-name field reads "First Solar, Inc. Common Stock" at all 137 settlements, on a single market class (NNM) throughout. The share count behind the short-interest percentage is 107,469,788 shares in our fundamentals file, a measured period-end count (dei/EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding, as of July 24, 2026), so the 9.79% figure rests on a measured denominator. Our price file records no single-day close move across the thresholds this audit normally treats as split patterns, and records no split factor for this name. The company's fundamentals as collected print fiscal 2025 revenue of $5,219,376,000, net income of $1,528,229,000 and assets of $13,321,310,000; those figures are reported as collected and are not used in any lens above. Every price statement from our own file is mechanical, a date and a close. The Zacks figures in The Hype — the search ranking, the past-month return and the consensus estimates — are that outlet's published figures, cited as such, not blended into file-based calculations.
• Market context sources: Zacks, October 22, 2026 (First Solar recently on Zacks.com's list of the most searched stocks; past-month return −8.9% against no change in the Zacks S&P 500 composite; Solar industry −13.3%; current-quarter consensus EPS $4.64, up 9.4% year over year, revised −2.1% over 30 days; fiscal-year consensus $17.63, up 24.1%, revised −0.8% over 30 days; next fiscal year $24.48, up 38.9%, revised +2.2%; Zacks Rank #3 (Hold); Value Style Score A; last reported quarter revenue $1.06 billion, down 3.7%, EPS $3.92 against $3.18 a year earlier, EPS surprise +43.07%, EPS beats in two of the trailing four quarters and a revenue beat in one). Google Trends US daily snapshot via Cyber Kendra, updated October 22, 2026 (top queries are sports and entertainment names; no stock query appears, so the Zacks trending-stock selection above is the fallback basis). Figures we could not confirm were left out; the external items above are reported figures from those outlets, not GetCoattail measurements.
• First Solar is in the GetCoattail stock-page universe: First Solar (FSLR) stock page. Series data: fslr_lens_data.csv · fslr_short_interest_series.csv. Earlier audits: Leidos · Newmont.

Past patterns are not a promise of future results. For education only — not investment advice.

This article describes public filings as of the dates stated. It is not investment advice and makes no recommendation. Filings lag reality: 13F positions are as of June 30, 2026, and later trading is not yet public.

Revision history: v1.0 — October 23, 2026: first publication.