2010 in Review: Universal Display

If you came here by way of the news feed for Universal Display (Nasdaq: PANL  ) at Yahoo! Finance, you may have noticed a preponderance of Foolish articles over there. Perhaps you're wondering why we cover the stock in so much more detail than other market news and analysis outlets.

Let me tell you a secret: I think we're onto something the broader market hasn't sniffed out yet.

2010 was a very exciting year for Universal Display as its OLED display technology became the gold standard of smartphone screens -- first in the HTC-made Nexus One from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG  ) and then a plethora of other Android devices. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL  ) came along in the early summer to rain on the OLED parade, as the Retina Display on the iPhone 4 sports a higher resolution than anything seen before or since. However, OLED displays were still in far greater demand than the supply available at the time. Sometimes you can be too popular for your own good.

The two leading OLED screen builders, Samsung and LG Display (NYSE: LPL  ) , announced and then started building expanded OLED factories that are set to open next year. Billions of dollars (or trillions of Korean Won, if you prefer) are being poured into this technology, and Universal Display reaps license payments for every unit sold.

Yet, only four Wall Street analysts have attempted to nail down the company's next bottom-line report. As we've already discussed, most media outlets are loath to touch the stock. But it has more than doubled in 2010 thanks to the quickly widening acceptance of OLED technology, and our Rule Breakers analysts first recommended it more than five years ago with market-crushing results. I think you're missing out something fierce if you don't know Universal Display.

Will this severely underfollowed stock continue to beat the market in 2011 as even more screens gain access to OLED technology? How long can the mainstream continue to ignore it? Add Universal Display to your Foolish watchlist to make sure you don't miss a beat.

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