Every day, the sun rises on Wall Street, and a plethora of professional analysts wake to issue new opinions on stocks. Here at the Fool, we examine some of these picks -- and the track record of the firm behind them -- so individuals can make better investing decisions.

In addition to following professional banks, anyone can use Motley Fool CAPS to monitor the collective opinions of more than 110,000 members, many of whom demonstrate better investing insight than published analysts do.

Enough top-performing CAPS members have recently turned bullish on Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) to upgrade it from its four-star rank to a more formidable five stars. A total of 1,303 CAPS members have given their opinion on the company, with many of them offering analysis and commentary explaining the recent optimism.

While Applied Materials is seeing sales of semiconductor equipment sagging, the bright side is that revenue from its solar-panel business is growing. Last year it landed a $250 million deal to supply equipment for a thin-film plant in India, and this February it received a massive $1.9 billion order. Thin is definitely in with Applied Materials, and supplying thin-film solar lines to LDK Solar (NYSE:LDK) -- and potentially to other thin-film players like First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR), Energy Conversion Devices (NASDAQ:ENER), and Suntech Power (NYSE:STP) -- has prospects looking up.

Applied is expanding geographically, too, with plans to bolster its supply capability with a $60 million to $70 million plant in Singapore that will be completed in late 2009. New contracts are taking the company to new regions as well, with a deal with Masdar to build 210 megawatts of solar module production capacity in Abu Dhabi and an award from Italian renewable energy company Moncada Energy to supply it with a thin-film line.

The heavy load of thin-film orders has CAPS members bullish, with 94% of the 1,303 members rating the company expecting it to outperform the market.

To see what the very best CAPS members are saying now about Applied Materials -- as well as other winning stocks they are picking -- head on over to CAPS and have a look. The community research and resources in CAPS are totally free, unlike analyst opinions reserved for paying clients.

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