• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Home
  • Daily Diary
  • Asset Class
    • U.S. Equity
    • Fixed Income
    • Global Equity
    • Commodities
    • Currencies
  • Sector
    • Basic Materials
    • Consumer Discretionary
    • Consumer Staples
    • Energy
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Industrials
    • Real Estate
    • Technology
    • Telecom Services
    • Transportation
    • Utilities
  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Video
    • Columnist Conversations
    • Best Ideas
    • Stock of the Day
  • Street Notes
  • Authors
    • Doug Kass
    • Bruce Kamich
    • Jim Cramer
    • Jim "Rev Shark" DePorre
    • Helene Meisler
    • Jonathan Heller
    • - See All -
  • Options
  • RMPIA
  • Switch Product
    • Action Alerts PLUS
    • Quant Ratings
    • Real Money
    • Real Money Pro
    • Retirement
    • Stocks Under $10
    • TheStreet
    • Top Stocks
    • Trifecta Stocks
  1. Home
  2. / Investing
  3. / Energy

Warm Up to Chinese Solar Names

They are the only stocks that have lagged in the sector this year.
By ERIC JACKSON Sep 06, 2014 | 02:00 PM EDT
Stocks quotes in this article: CSIQ, SPWR, SUNE, FSLR, TSL, JKS, YGE

The solar stocks had a great year in 2013, but stumbled for the first half of 2014, especially in the spring momentum stock meltdown. However, many of the solar names have ended up having a great 2014.

The best performing ones are the U.S.-only names. SunPower(SPWR) is up 29% for the year. SunEdison (SUNE) is up 66% for the year, as they've been able to talk about their plan for aYieldCo spinoff. First Solar (FSLR) is up 29% for the year.

There is also, you have the magic beans of Elon Musk over atSolarCity (SCTY). That stock is up 22% for the year, mostly because of its big acquisition of module-maker Silevo.

Then, you have an in-between solar company such as Canadian Solar (CSIQ). Although it's based in Canada and has a lot of its module sales around the world and utility sales in North America, it's also treated by many investors like a Chinese solar company because almost all of its manufacturing facilities are based over there. Still, it's having a great year. The stock is up 28% for the year after being down 50% at one point earlier in the year.

Many of these names are still interesting but there is one sector in the entire solar industry that has really lagged so far: the Chinese solar names.

Many of the Chinese solar stocks had their initial public offerings in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. Pre-crisis, they were a play on the view that there was going to be a super spike in the price of commodities thanks to the serious growth of China. Back then, Goldman was calling for the price of oil to spike up to $200 a barrel. So solar seemed like it would have to take off in order to ease the high cost of commodities. China was the cheapest place to assemble solar panels, so suddenly a bunch of Chinese stocks started going public to an eager American market.

To give you a sense of just how big a bubble we saw, JA Solar(JASO) hit a price of $367 per share in December 2007. It's now trading at less than $10 per share. It's a $500 million market cap stock today. It was worth $17 billion back in 2007. To put JA's current stock price in perspective, it's about where it was at the March 2009 lows.

The stock got up to $47 per share in late 2010 after the reflation in stocks started to happen and people started to get more bullish about solar. However, shortly after that, the price of polysilicone started falling. There was a glut of supply in China and concerns of too much competition and saber-rattling between the U.S. and Chinese governments on tariffs.

This year, JA Solar is up 8% for the year. Trina Solar (TSL) is up 4%. JK Solar (JKS) is up 7%. And Yingli Green Energy (YGE) is down 26% for the year. So, if you want an unloved part of the solar space that is lagging on the participation, look to these Chinese names.

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.

At the time of publication, Jackson was long CSIQ.

TAGS: Investing | U.S. Equity | Energy | China | Markets

More from Energy

Weakness After Protracted Upside Move Causes Discomfort

James "Rev Shark" DePorre
Dec 5, 2019 10:52 AM EST

Some traders seem unsettled by a bit of downside volatility after not experiencing much of it of late.

Insiders at These Companies Didn't Wait for Cyber Monday to Buy

Bret Jensen
Dec 2, 2019 10:00 AM EST

A handful of midstream energy companies and a travel giant have seen insiders purchase their shares in recent weeks.

These Two 'Contenders' Fight for the Dividend Aristocrat Title

Chris Versace
Nov 30, 2019 10:17 AM EST

NextEra Energy and Lincoln Electric Holdings both appear lined up to become Dividend Aristocrats soon -- here they duke it out for top choice.

This Energy Stock Has 'Royal' Dividends

Bob Ciura
Nov 27, 2019 2:37 PM EST

Royal Dutch Shell offers over a 6% dividend yield and is in growth mode.

Can Energy Names Ever Make an Upside Breakout?

Bruce Kamich
Nov 27, 2019 11:41 AM EST

Let's check the charts and see if prices will make an upside breakout in the near future.

Real Money's message boards are strictly for the open exchange of investment ideas among registered users. Any discussions or subjects off that topic or that do not promote this goal will be removed at the discretion of the site's moderators. Abusive, insensitive or threatening comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions, please contact us here.

Email

CANCEL
SUBMIT

Email sent

Thank you, your email to has been sent successfully.

DONE

Oops!

We're sorry. There was a problem trying to send your email to .
Please contact customer support to let us know.

DONE

Please Join or Log In to Email Our Authors.

Email Real Money's Wall Street Pros for further analysis and insight

Already a Subscriber? Login

Columnist Conversation

  • 01:06 PM EST CAROLYN BORODEN

    MRK and LVS Targets Coming Up

    View Chart » View in New Window »  LVS View C...
  • 12:01 PM EST BOB LANG

    Rolling up Apple

    just the other day we added some apple calls on th...
  • 12:24 PM EST GARY BERMAN

    Fibocall: The SPX-Cash Long-Term View

    You will hear from many analysts on TV screaming t...
  • See More

COLUMNIST TWEETS

  • A Twitter List by realmoney
About Privacy Terms of Use

© 1996-2019 TheStreet, Inc., 14 Wall Street, 15th Fl, NY, NY 10005

Need Help? Contact Customer Service

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data & Company fundamental data provided by FactSet. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions Group.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

FactSet calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.

Compare Brokers

Please Join or Log In to manage and receive alerts.

Follow Real Money's Wall Street Pros to receive real-time investing alerts

Already a Subscriber? Login