You'll Never Guess the Top-Performing Stock of the Last Five Years

The top-performing stock on the S&P 500 over the last five years isn’t Tesla Inc. It’s not a meme stock soaring thanks to an army of Redditors or a semiconductor chip household name like NVIDIA Corp.

Instead, it’s a company called Enphase Energy Inc. ENPH. Enphase is a developer and supplier of solar power systems that pioneered its own microinverter technology. And over the last five years, Enphase has returned 10,600% — enough to turn every $1,000 invested into $107,000. 

In case you’re wondering, the second-best performer is also a solar energy stock. SolarEdge Technologies Inc. SEDG, an Israeli company that makes inverters for solar panels, has returned 814% over the last five years. Meanwhile, Tesla is third on the list, having returned 729%. Tesla isn’t a pure play on solar power, but after acquiring SolarCity in 2016 it’s now completed 500,000 solar panel installations to date.

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And solar’s big run could be just getting started. The U.S. Energy Information Agency now forecasts that 54% of all new electric-generating capacity in the U.S. will come from solar this year. Solar power generation has already grown exponentially over the last few months, with planned new capacity doubling from November to December. 

Can solar’s big run continue? Analysts expect Enphase to grow revenue by 36% this year. That’s robust growth, but after its meteoric rise, the stock has a hefty price-to-earnings ratio of 45, making it expensive by most metrics. 

Another more speculative way to play the rise in solar is through YouSolar, a California-based company that’s pioneering its own new technology to help homes transition to a clean energy grid as quickly and conveniently as possible. Its patented, fully-integrated solar nanogrid technology has received acclaim in Northern California for its ability to provide uninterrupted solar power for entire homes. 

For more information on YouSolar, click here. 

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