Think of investor sentiment as a pendulum that swings in tandem with a company's share price. When investors begin to think highly of your company, its stock might also start heading in the right direction. Alas, you can rarely tell when investors are warming to a stock until after it has made that upward swing.

An astrolabe for investors
But Motley Fool CAPS' proprietary ratings, aggregated from the opinions and accuracy of 130,000-plus members, offer a great way to monitor investor sentiment. Like astronomers scanning the skies, investors can follow a stock's stars through its CAPS rating trend, tracking sentiment to help determine the best time to invest. So let's look at companies that recently earned a confidence boost from investors after having been rated one or two stars and see whether that added confidence is warranted.

Company

CAPS Rating (out of 5 max)

Recent Price

Next-Year EPS Growth

Estimate

Duke Realty (NYSE: DRE)

***

$9.30

(20%)

Gentex Group (Nasdaq: GNTX)

****

$12.37

68%

Great Wolf Resorts (Nasdaq: WOLF)

***

$3.29

(32%)

HQ Sustainable Maritime Industries (NYSE: HQS)

*** Continued...