This has been an outstanding year for solar stocks, with most climbing steadily throughout 2013. Strong markets in Japan and the U.S. have boosted global demand, and as these markets grow we've seen demand for high-quality modules increase and prices actually rise slightly. This dynamic has been a boon for Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ ) , SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ: SPWR ) , JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE: JKS ) , and SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ: SCTY ) .
....JinkoSolar
Not all Chinese solar stocks have had a great year (see Suntech Power and LDK Solar), but those with strong balance sheets and downstream project exposure have performed well. JinkoSolar has been helped by having just $530.8 million in net debt, which pales in comparison to the billions of dollars drowning larger manufacturers.
On the project side, JinkoSolar expects to complete 213 MW of projects this year, with a pipeline of 700 MW of utility scale projects and 400 MW of distributed systems, which are among the highest in the industry.
Combine all of those factors with a solid cost structure and you have two straight quarters of profits so far in 2013. That's what helped JinkoSolar become a market leader, something it hopes to expand upon next year.
Foolish bottom line
It was a transformative year for the solar industry and as a result these four stocks performed incredibly. ....www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/12/19/...ocks-in-2013.aspx