Solar-Stock Sentiment Becomes Tug of War

And it's not a case of an overvalued stock coming down to earth: At the end of last week, Trina was trading just below 11 times the estimated $2.87 EPS for 2008.

But the difficulty that investors and analysts have in predicting Trina's financials may play a role in the cautious tone that the market is taking to this good news. Trina's revenue guidance of $112 million to $120 million for this quarter is right in line with analyst estimates. But who knows, really?

For all the long-term promise that remains for the solar industry, the bearish considerations are predominating for the moment. The speculation that made these sure-fire bets in 2007 has cooled. Yet whenever a flicker of insight shows that these companies' operations are in good working order, it seems to make little difference.

But that's the catch with sentiment-driven stocks: The prices move a lot -- you can just never be sure which way they'll go.

Know What You Own: JA Solar and Solarfun operate in the solar power sector. Some of the other stocks in this field include Suntech Power Holdings STP and SunPower SPWR, which were recently trading at $29.45 and $60.25, respectively. For more on the value of knowing what you own, visit TheStreet.com's Investing A-to-Z section.