Top 5 Solar Companies For 2014

Middleby (NASDAQ: MIDD) shares jumped 0.80% to touch a new 52-week high of $249.85. Middleby's PEG ratio is 1.25.

China Finance Online Co (NASDAQ: JRJC) shares reached a new 52-week high of $6.85 after the company reported its Q3 unaudited financial results.

Avis Budget Group (NASDAQ: CAR) shares touched a new 52-week high of $41.03. Avis Budget shares have jumped 94.61% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 24.92% in the same period.

SunEdison (NYSE: SUNE) shares surged 0.50% to reach a new 52-week high of $13.99. SunEdison's trailing-twelve-month revenue is $2.06 billion.

Posted-In: 52-Week HighsNews Intraday Update Markets Movers

(c) 2014 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

  Most Popular Solar Sector On Fire as Traders Getting More Optimistic Benzinga's Top #PreMarket Gainers

Top 10 Promising Stocks To Buy Right Now: Canadian Solar Inc.(CSIQ)

Canadian Solar Inc. engages in the design, development, manufacture, and sale of solar power products in Canada and internationally. The company offers solar cell and solar module products that convert sunlight into electricity for various uses. Its products include a range of standard solar modules for use in a range of residential, commercial, and industrial solar power generation systems. The company also designs and produces specialty solar modules and products consisting of customized modules that its customers incorporate into their products, such as solar-powered bus stop lighting; and specialty products, such as portable solar home systems and solar-powered car battery chargers. In addition, it sells solar system kits, a package consisting of solar modules produced by it and third party supplied components, such as inverters, racking system, and other accessories, as well as implements solar power development projects. The company sells its products under the Canad ian Solar brand name. Canadian Solar Inc. offers its standard solar modules through a direct sales force and sales agents primarily to distributors, system integrators, and original equipment manufacturer customers, as well as to solar projects; and specialty solar modules and products to the automotive, telecommunications, and light-emitting diode lighting sectors. The company was founded in 2001 and is based in Kitchener, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  Shipment and margin trends aren't usually isolated to one Chinese solar manufacturer so it's easy to assume that other companies will see disappointing numbers in the first quarter. The first two to watch are Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE  ) and Canadian Solar� (NASDAQ: CSIQ  ) , who round out the top three Chinese solar module suppliers with Trina. All three have high debt, low margins, and massive losses. �

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ) dropped 7.19% to $23.50 in pre-market trading after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q1 earnings and issued a weak forecast.

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ  ) jumped as much as 16% today after announcing a major project development.

  So what: The company has been hired by Samsung Renewable Energy to design and build a 130 MW utility-scale project called Grand Renewable Solar. The project will generate $301.1 million in revenue for Canadian Solar and will begin construction in the third quarter of this year. �

Top 5 Solar Companies 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.

Top 5 Solar Companies 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 Reuben Brewer]

  Coal, which is generally sent by rail, on the other hand, has seen utility demand fall off. That's been bad news for coal companies with large U.S. thermal operations, like Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU  ) , and for the railways that carry the fuel. Peabody saw its U.S. coal volume fall around 8% in the first half.

• [By Sean Williams]

  Coal miner Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU  ) was the biggest gainer within the index today, adding 7.6% after reporting first-quarter earnings results that impressed investors. For the quarter, revenue fell 14%, to $1.75 billion, as U.S. shipments and realized coal prices continued to be under pressure. However, Peabody's adjusted loss per share of $0.05 was much smaller than the $0.13 loss forecast by analysts. Looking ahead, Peabody anticipates second-quarter EPS will fall within a range of a $0.25 loss to a $0.01 profit. Peabody's results helped pull CONSOL Energy (NYSE: CNX  ) and a myriad of other coal companies higher, because its better-than-expected forecast could signal that the softness in coal prices is abating, and that coal demand, domestically and overseas, is improving. With natural gas prices having doubled in the trailing 12-months, electric utilities are going to be less inclined to make the switch to natural gas at these prices, making Peabody and CONSOL potentially attractive investments.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Weakness in commodities, however, dragged commodity stocks down, as talk of an attack on Syria was dialed back. Peabody Energy (BTU) dropped 3.8% to $17.22, making it the S&P 500′s biggest loser. Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF) finished off 3.1% at $20.97.

• [By Reuben Brewer]

  Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU  ) is the largest and most diversified publicly traded pure-play coal miner. Its first quarter loss of nearly $0.20 a share doesn't inspire confidence in the broader coal market's future. But the company's global footprint does provide a glimpse of what's going on throughout the industry.�

Top 5 Solar Companies For 2014: Ascent Solar Technologies Inc.(ASTI)

Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc., a development stage company, focuses on commercializing flexible photovoltaic (PV) modules using its proprietary technology. The company intends to manufacture roll-format PV modules that use copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) on a plastic substrate. Its proprietary manufacturing process deposits multiple layers of materials, including a thin-film of CIGS semiconductor material on a plastic substrate and laser patterns the layers to create interconnected PV cells or PV modules through monolithic integration process. The company would serve the building applied photovoltaic (BAPV) and building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) market, as well as specialty markets, such as defense, portable power, transportation, electronic integrated photovoltaic, and space and near-space. It has a strategic relationship with Norsk Hydro Produksjon AS to access customers in the BIPV/BAPV markets worldwide. Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. was founded in 200 5 and is based in Thornton, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Solar stocks have not exactly given buy and hold investors a smooth ride, but small cap�GT Advanced Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: GTAT) could be an interesting materials play on the solar sector���meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock along with potential peers like Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc (NASDAQ: ASTI) and STR Holdings, Inc (NYSE: STRI) plus solar ETF Guggenheim Solar ETF (NYSEARCA: TAN). I should mention that just last week, we added GT Advanced Technologies to our�SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity (SCN EO) portfolio for both�fundamentals and technical reasons and we are already up almost 9%.