3 Stocks Shaking the Market

Some stocks are one-hit wonders, making a big splash when they first appear, then quickly fizzling into obscurity or oblivion. But for other stocks, that initial big move is only a preview for even bigger and better gains to come.

Today, we've listed three stocks that made some of the biggest upward moves over the past month, which we'll pair with the ratings issued by our Motley Fool CAPS community. The higher each stock's rating, the greater CAPS members' faith in that company's ability to keep on beating the market.

Source: CAPS. ^From Aug. 9 to Sept. 9.

Let's see why the CAPS community thinks these companies might continue to outperform the market.

A mighty temblor
An impressive quarter for solar wafer shop ReneSola has investors believing the sector can become hot again. If it does regain popularity -- perhaps if the government overcomes its reluctance to extend stimulus spending on alternative energies -- then the company is worth a look.

Consider that revenue was up 23% from last year, to $254 million, generating earnings of $0.42 a share, nicely ahead of estimates. The growth was accomplished through effective expense management, but also as a result of decreasing polysilicon costs. Companies gaining fatter margins through cost cutting are a familiar site, but ReneSola seems to also be getting the advantage of lower input costs, which will have benefits down the road.

A slick opportunity
Independent oil and gas exploration company Hyperdynamics was off to the races with the release of a survey by a respected resource evaluation company essentially confirming its own estimates of recoverable unrisked prospective oil resources in the Republic of Guinea off the west coast of Africa.

Hyperdynamics is one of a number of independent developers looking for Africa to become the next big resource center for oil. VAALCO Energy (NYSE: EGY) is doing the same in Gabon. The potential for Hyperdynamics is that the engineering firm looked at just 3,600 square kilometers of its 25,000-square-kilometer concession; it expects similar results from the balance of its holdings there. As CAPS member iwanna10bagger wrote, it could be huge: "HDY has drilling rights in a large area of offshore Guinea, West Africa. If they strike oil, this could be a 10 bagger."

This is something of sweet vindication for many who stood by Hyperdynamics while critics took potshots.

A speedy opportunity
There's pretty much just one reason anyone's interested in VirnetX Holding: its huge win against Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) earlier this year that led to the software giant becoming the first licensee of VirnetX's technology. When the small company put Cisco in its crosshairs last month, there was little doubt that it was serious about using its extensive patent portfolio to bolster its performance.

Despite a 65% gain in its shares over the last month, VirnetX still trades at just 6.7 times earnings estimates for 2011. If other tech giants capitulate as Microsoft did, those valuations are going to look crazy cheap very soon. CAPS members remain almost evenly divided about its prospects, but that could change very soon if one of these companies decides VirnetX is viewed better in its fold than in the courtroom.

Plead your case on the VirnetX Holding CAPS page on whether you think this security software specialist will remain free.

Shake, rattle, and roll
With these stocks shaking the market this past month it pays to start your own research on them at Motley Fool CAPS. Read a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made, all from a stock's CAPS page.