Hot Solar Companies To Watch For 2014

 DELAFIELD, Wis. (Stockpickr) -- Trading stocks that trigger major breakouts can lead to massive profits. Once a stock trends to a new high, or takes out a prior overhead resistance point, then it's free to find new buyers and momentum players that can ultimately push the stock significantly higher.

One example of a successful breakout trade I flagged recently was renewable energy player Hanwha Solarone (HSOL), which I featured in Sept. 26's "5 Stocks Ready to Breakouts" at around $4.10 a share. I mentioned in that piece that shares of HSOL were uptrending strong over last few months, with shares making mostly higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move was starting to push HSOL within range of triggering a big breakout trade above its 52-week high at $4.28 a share.

Guess what happened? Shares of HSOL didn't wait long to take out its former 52-week high and trigger that breakout, since the stock cleared $4.28 a share with monster volume on September 30. Shares of HSOL have continued to soar higher since triggering that breakout, with the stock hitting a recent high of $5.66 a share. That represents a solid gain of over 30% from the time of my article for anyone who played this technical setup. I don't think shares of HSOL are done going higher either, so traders should look for more upside in this stock if it clears its new 52-week high at $5.66 with strong volume.

Top 5 Forestry Stocks To Buy For 2015: LDK Solar Co. Ltd.(LDK)

LDK Solar Co., Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of photovoltaic (PV) products; and development of power plant projects. It offers solar-grade and semiconductor-grade polysilicon; and multicrystalline and monocrystalline solar wafers to the manufacturers of solar cells and solar modules. The company also provides wafer processing services to monocrystalline and multicrystalline solar cell and module manufacturers; and sells silicon materials, such as ingots and polysilicon scraps. In addition, it engages in the production and sale of solar cells and modules to developers, distributors, and system integrators; and design and development of solar power projects in Europe, the United States, and China, as well as provides engineering, procurement, and construction services. LDK Solar Co., Ltd. operates in Europe, the Asia Pacific, and North America. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in Xinyu City, t he People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Chinese solar companies are a different story. Many manufacture their own silicon wafers and sell silicon to other makers. Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE: TSL), LDK Solar Co. Ltd. (NYSE: LDK), JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) and Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ) all manufacture and sell solar ingots, wafers or cells.

• [By Travis Hoium]

  Who wins?
  It's important to remember that the only change from two months ago is that Chinese panels will have a higher price. So, companies such as LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK  ) , who were trying to compete on price alone, will likely be left in the dust. Investors should focus on higher-quality manufacturers like Yingli Green Energy, Trina Solar, and Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ  ) as potential winners from the negotiated solar deal.

Hot Solar Companies To Watch For 2014: EMCORE Corporation(EMKR)

EMCORE Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides compound semiconductor-based products for the broadband, fiber optics, satellite, and solar power markets. The company operates in two segments, Fiber Optics and Photovoltaics. The Fiber Optics segment offers broadband products, including cable television, fiber-to-the-premises, satellite communication, video transport, and defense and homeland security products; and digital products comprising telecom optical, enterprise, laser/photodetector component, parallel optical transceiver and cable, and fiber channel transceiver products. This segment?s products enable information that is encoded on light signals to be transmitted, routed, and received in communication systems and networks. The Photovoltaics segment provides gallium arsenide (GaAs) multi-junction solar cells, covered interconnected cells, and solar panels for satellite applications; and concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) power systems for commercial and utility scale solar applications, as well as GaAs solar cells and integrated CPV components for use in other solar power concentrator systems. The company markets its products through its direct sales force, external sales representatives and distributors, and application engineers worldwide. EMCORE Corporation was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  EMCORE Corporation (Nasdaq:EMKR), a leading provider of compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the fiber optic and solar power markets, reported that it is ramping production and shipping the Opticomm-EMCORE NEXTGEN OTP-1DVI2A1SU insert cards for the Optiva platform.

Hot Solar Companies To Watch For 2014: Peabody Energy Corporation(BTU)

Peabody Energy Corporation engages in the mining of coal. It mines, prepares, and sells thermal coal to electric utilities and metallurgical coal to industrial customers. The company owns interests in 30 coal mining operations located in the United States and Australia, as well as owns joint venture interest in a Venezuela mine. It is also involved in marketing, brokering, and trading coal. In addition, the company develops a mine-mouth coal-fueled generating plant; and Btu Conversion projects that are designed to convert coal to natural gas or transportation fuels; and clean coal technologies. As of December 31, 2011, it had 9 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves. The company was founded in 1883 and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Robert Rapier]

  The fortunes of US coal companies have declined along with US demand for coal. Major coal producers like Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) and Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) have seen large declines in their market caps. But what about coal-oriented MLPs? How have they fared, and might an investor find value in that sector?

• [By Robert Rapier]

  This is obviously an item of significant interest for fossil fuel companies and shareholders. In fact, in February several investor groups filed shareholder resolutions with 10 fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Devon (NYSE: DVN), Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) and Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU), seeking an assessment of the possibility that some of their fossil fuel reserves may become stranded under a low-carbon scenario.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  In response, Arch Coal has sought to increase its exports to countries where coal is still in higher demand. With its deal with Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI  ) to help boost its export capacity, Arch hopes that boosting its access to export markets will provide a new avenue for selling its coal. Yet again, Arch suffers a competitive disadvantage here compared to rival Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU  ) , because Peabody's resources are better located strategically to take advantage of export opportunities.

Hot Solar Companies To Watch For 2014: Hanwha SolarOne Co. Ltd.(HSOL)

Hanwha Solarone Co., Ltd., an investment holding company, engages in the manufacture and sale of silicon ingots, silicon wafers, and PV cells and modules. The company also offers mono crystalline and multi crystalline silicon cells; and provides PV module processing services. It sells its products to solar power system integrators and distributors primarily in Germany, Italy, Australia, the United States, the Czech Republic, Spain, and China. The company was formerly known as Solarfun Power Holdings Co., Ltd. and changed its name to Hanwha SolarOne Co., Ltd. in December 2010. Hanwha Solarone Co., Ltd. was founded in 2004 and is based in Qidong, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Big Earnings Movers: Hanwha SolarOne Co. (NASDAQ: HSOL) is down 13.9% at $4.36. D.R. Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI) is up 4.7% at $18.91 on good earnings boosted by land sales.

• [By Rebecca McClay]

  The tech market's news today includes a plunge in Hanwha SolarOne Co. Ltd. (Nasdaq: HSOL) shares, which are down 5% in morning trade after its second-quarter loss narrowed to $0.32 per share from a loss of $0.43 in Q1.

• [By Sean Williams]

  Lights out, China
  China may have its fair share of struggles -- which has caused its strong economy to back off its 30-year average growth rate of 10% -- but when push comes to shove, plenty of investors are still paying close attention to multinational companies making investments in China. However, if there were one sector with a gigantic "beware" stamp attached to it, it would be Chinese solar panel producers like Hanwha SolarOne (NASDAQ: HSOL  ) .

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Stocks on the move: Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) is up 31.5% at $5.13 on the announcement that Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) will acquire the Finnish firm�� mobile phone business for $7.2 billion. Chinese solar energy stocks are getting a boost again today, with Hanwha SolarOne Co. (NASDAQ: HSOL) up more than 15.9% and ReneSola Ltd. (NYSE: SOL) up 14.9%.