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.

The most-watched communications stock is ...
Looking at the aggregate data, we see that Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) is above the rest in terms of watch interest, the percentage of people keeping an eye on communications stocks in general who are specifically watching each company. And for good reason. As CAPS All-Star akazakoff wrote two weeks ago.

Great long term stock, with a great breadth of products in an industry that isn't going extinct any time soon. Net income and cash flows from operations are back up from 2 years ago, so it looks like management has gotten back on the right track.

Here are the rest of the top 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 (millions)

CAPS Rating (out of 5)

Watch Interest

1

Cisco Systems

$95,800

****

21.4%

2

Arris Group

$1,534

*****

10.4%

3

Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN)

$866

*****

9.0%

4

Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM)

$89,601

****

8.0%

5

Netgear

$1,191

****

4.5%

6

Research In Motion

$29,950

**

3.8%

7

InterDigital (Nasdaq: IDCC)

$2,174

****

3.6%

8

Nokia

$32,900

**

3.1%

9

Motorola Solutions

$15,041

***

2.8%

10

F5 Networks

$8,131

**

2.7%

11

Acme Packet

$4,693

**

2.4%

12

JDS Uniphase (Nasdaq: JDSU)

$4,454

**

2.3%

13

Riverbed Technology

$5,701

***

2.0%

14

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU)

$12,850

**

1.8%

15

Brocade Communications Systems (Nasdaq: BRCD)

$2,915

****

1.4%

Source: Motley Fool, Motley Fool CAPS.

Whether you're keeping an eye on the industry stalwarts such as Cisco or are watching an up-and-comer such as Brocade, 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.