People watch stocks for different reasons -- they're waiting for a dip in price, watching for a specific catalyst, gathering all the news and information that might affect stocks they already own, or considering a sell. Regardless of their motivation, we can better understand market sentiment by seeing who's watching what. With the Fool's free My Watchlist service, we have tens of thousands of people telling us the businesses that have, for whatever reason, piqued their interest.

With this data we have come up with a new metric, watch interest, to inform investors what stocks their peers keep tabs on in each industry. In the case of the electronics industry, watch interest is the percentage of people keeping an eye on electronics stocks in general who are specifically watching each company. By looking at what stocks people are most interested in an industry, you can get ahead of the curve by finding hot stocks that you might have otherwise overlooked.

The most-watched electronics stock is ...
Looking at the aggregate data, we see that Power-One (Nasdaq: PWER) is above the rest in terms of watch interest and for good reason. As CAPS player Trimalerus wrote this week:

Inverter market has sunk as PV systems sales have slumped. As investment in Alternative Energy recovers this company will be well positioned to increase sales & share price. Now is a good time to buy with the stock near 52 week low.

Here are the rest of the 15 most-watched companies in the industry with their watch interest along with the stocks' CAPS rating to show the sentiment of our investing community.

 

Company

Market Cap (in millions)

CAPS Rating (out of 5)

Watch Interest

1

Power-One

$761

****

21.4%

2

Corning (NYSE: GLW)

$24,164

****

18.5%

3

Universal Display (Nasdaq: PANL)

$1,294

***

12.3%

4

Dolby Laboratories (NYSE: DLB)

$4,556

*****

7.4%

5

TTM Technologies (Nasdaq: TTMI)

$1,099

*****

3.4%

6

China Security & Surveillance Technology (NYSE: CSR)

$520

***

2.3%

7

IPG Photonics (Nasdaq: IPGP)

$3,042

****

2.1%

8

Cognex (Nasdaq: CGNX)

$1,511

****

2.0%

9

Microvision (Nasdaq: MVIS)

$108

**

1.6%

10

Flextronics International (Nasdaq: FLEX)

$4,507

****

1.4%

11

Jabil Circuit (NYSE: JBL)

$3,740

****

1.3%

12

AU Optronics (NYSE: AUO)

$4,460

****

1.2%

13

KEMET (NYSE: KEM)

$514

**

1.0%

14

Nam Tai Electronics (NYSE: NTE)

$262

****

1.0%

15

eMagin (Nasdaq: EMAN)

$93

****

0.9%

Sources: Motley Fool, Motley Fool CAPS.

Whether you're keeping an eye on the industry stalwarts like Corning or are watching an up-and-comer like Nam Tai Electronics, it pays to watch. We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock tracking service. Click here to start now.