5 Best Solar Stocks For 2014

Solar stocks were on fire this week, soaring double digits on a variety of positive news items. China continues to support a few specific players, major projects are now under way, and analysts are starting to buy into the solar industry.

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These factors have helped solar this week, so here's what investors need to know.

China continues to prop up solar
Suntech Power and LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK  ) have both defaulted on loans, but that doesn't appear to be a clear sign that China is willing to let its solar industry consolidate. These two companies along with countless others would be bankrupt in the U.S. or Europe but investments from state-owned entities and loans from state-owned banks have propped up the entire industry.

This week, LDK Solar received a cash infusion of $25.8 million when Fulai Investments agreed to buy 25 million shares. This is the second investment by the company and may help LDK pay back loans it defaulted on last week. �

Top 5 Financial Companies To Invest In Right Now: 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.

5 Best Solar Stocks For 2014: Renesola Ltd.(SOL)

ReneSola Ltd, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of solar wafers and solar power products. It offers virgin polysilicons, monocrystalline and multicrystalline solar wafers, and photovoltaic cells and modules. The company also provides cell and module processing services. Its products are used in a range of residential, commercial, industrial, and other solar power generation systems. The company sells its solar wafers primarily to solar cell and module manufacturers. It principally operates in Mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, India, Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, France, the Czech Republic, and the United States. The company was founded in 2003 and is based in Jiashan, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Claudia Assis]

  Top gainers in the solar sector included SolarCity Corp. (SCTY) , with shares up 0.8%. U.S.-listed shares of ReneSola Ltd. (SOL) �rose 3.1%.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  But Trina gave a troubling update to its quarterly guidance a couple weeks ago, saying that it shipped 390-400 megawatts of solar modules during the quarter, down from its original 420-430 megawatt estimate. With gross margins of just 1% to 3%, Trina isn't faring as badly as peer ReneSola (NYSE: SOL  ) , which posted negative gross margins in its quarterly report earlier this month. Yet Trina still isn't making enough money to come close to profitability in the near future.

5 Best Solar Stocks For 2014: Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited(YGE)

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, manufacture, marketing, sale, and installation of photovoltaic (PV) products in the People?s Republic of China and internationally. The company offers PV cells, PV modules, and integrated PV systems, as well as polysilicon ingots, blocks, and wafers. It sells its PV modules to distributors, wholesalers, power plant developers and operators, and PV system integrators in Germany, the United States, Italy, China, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Japan under the Yingli and Yingli Solar brand names. The company also offers its integrated PV systems directly to end-users or to contractors for use in the electricity projects, as well as to mobile communications companies in the People's Republic of China. Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Baoding, the People? s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  Chinese solar companies have been reporting massive losses, but one company has improved its financial performance and strategic position significantly over the past year. In the following video, solar analyst Travis Hoium covers why he thinks Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ  ) is a likely candidate to emerge from Chinese solar consolidation, even better than big names such as Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE  ) and Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL  ) . If the company is able to return to profitability, the sky is the limit for Canadian Solar.�

5 Best Solar Stocks For 2014: JinkoSolar Holding Company Limited(JKS)

JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of solar power products in China and internationally. The company provides solar modules, silicon wafers and ingots, and solar cells, as well as processing services, including silicon wafer tolling services. It sells its products under the JinkoSolar brand name. The company?s customers include distributors, project developers, and system integrators. It trades its products under short-term contracts and by spot market sales. The company also produces accessory materials for solar power products, such as solar aluminum frame, solar junction box, aluminum materials windows, and other metal component parts. JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. was founded in 2006 and is based in Shangrao, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  On the other hand, if you were looking to buy stocks, Monday turned out to be a great time to do so. For instance, in the solar arena, JinkoSolar (NYSE: JKS  ) and Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL  ) plunged Monday on feras of the impact of geopolitical tension on the solar business, even though Jinko had reported reasonably strong results earlier that day. Yet Monday, Trina and Jinko soared, with Trina's positive report confirming the health of the solar industry.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  But the real news is the near vertical trajectory in share prices for the two stocks. This could be another manifestation of the market�� hunger for some momentum plays, as we noted earlier this morning the bump to share prices for both JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: JKS) and Shutterstock Inc. (NASDAQ: SSTK), both of which held secondary share sales this morning.