What happened The stock of First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) was flaming out on Wednesday, down 9.8% as of 11:45 a.m. EST, and you can blame Barclays Capital. This morning, the British investment bank threw major shade at this solar stock. Once bullish on the shares, Barclays reversed course today and downgraded First Solar two notches -- all the way from overweight to underweight, assigning a target price of $49. An aerial view of a solar farm. Image source: Getty Images. So what What prompted the downgrade? To date, First Solar has demonstrated "an impressive ability" to book shipments of its Series 6 photovoltaic modules years ahead, Barclays said. Regardless, a review of industry data on 5,000 solar projects in the works or already completed tells the analyst that First Solar's business is now "in trouble." Specifically, Barclays says the company's systems business has lost 80% of its U.S. market share, TheFly.com reports, as competitors NextEra Energy, Electricite de France, and Invenergy steal away First Solar's utility-scale business. Although First Solar's module production business appears to be doing fine, the analyst thinks this "rapidly declining share" of the solar project market is reason enough to downgrade the stock over the near and medium term. Now what What's bad news for First Solar, however, isn't necessarily bad news for the entire U.S. solar industry -- much less renewable energy stocks in general. In fact, Barclays took pains to explain that "this is not a bear call on U.S. solar, but simply a shift in who's winning within the industry right now." And right now, that's not First Solar. 10 stocks we like better than First SolarWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and First Solar wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of December 1, 2019 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends First Solar and NextEra Energy. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source