Sometimes, a big market washout like we had on Friday, when the S&P 500 fell 10 points and the Dow was down 170 points at its worst level, can reveal an awful lot about individual stocks. It's days like these when the winners stick out like sore thumbs and reveal just how much demand there is for their shares. On Friday, there was a collection of such stocks.

All the following names have had astounding gains in the past year, and it sure looks like they are prepared to continue on that same trajectory. These stocks stuck out like a sore thumb on Friday because of significant buying interest in a terrible broad market tape. None of the moves in these names was driven by news

Shares of communication equipment company JDS Uniphase Corp. (JDSU) are trading sharply higher in after hours trading today after posting strong fiscal second quarter results after the market closed.

Analysts were expecting to see earnings of $0.19 per share, but actual adjusted earnings were much higher at $0.29.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Aeropostale Inc. (NYSE: ARO) strong Q2 results were in line with analysts' expectations.
• BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) reported a record annual profit on demands for commodities in China.
• Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC) beat Q4 expectations despite struggling with commodities costs.
• Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL) reported that it easily beat earnings expectations for the second quarter.
• GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) reported strong Q2 results despite a decline in gross margins.
• Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) narrowed its 2008 guidance due to rising costs of commodities.
• HJ Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) Q1 results topped analysts' estimates and raised its full-year guidance.
• JDS Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ: JDSU) offered disappointing quarterly results and Q1 guidance.
• Limited Brands Inc. (NYSE: LTD) reported better-than-expected Q2 results and boosted its forecast.
• Novatel Wireless Inc. (NASDAQ: NVTL) fell short of estimates, leading to a new 52-week low.
• Saks Inc. (NYSE: SKS) reported a smaller-than-expected Q2 loss and forecast lower operating margins.
• Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) warned of lower profits due to continued challenging market conditions.
• Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) warmed of weakness in the second half, including lower same-store sales.

For more earnings highlights from this week, see: Home Depot, Lehman, Hewlett-Packard, Gap, BJ's and others

Upcoming quarterly reports include Big Lots (NYSE: BIG), Borders (NYSE: BGP), Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP), Tivo (NASDAQ: TIVO), Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL), Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD), and Tiffany (NYSE: TIF).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

JDS Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ: JDSU) was an investor favorite during the great internet bubble of the late 1990s. Its shares rose to over $250 in 2000 before falling into the single digits when the tech bubble popped. Times have been hard lately for the tech infrastructure company, which engineered a 1:8 reverse split in October of 2006.

However, in the last few days, there has been a lot of positive press about JDS. BusinessWeek cited the company as an attractive high-growth stock. It was one of only four stocks that made it past the magazine's screen, which is "based on fundamental data such as corporate earnings and growth potential, return on equity, current yield relative to the S&P 500, and price-to-book value."

JDS was also mentioned in Barron's this week. In an interview, George Putnam III, the grandson of the founder of Putnam Investments and the author of "The Turnaround Letter," which focuses on distressed companies, said that he likes JDS at its current valuation. He noted that the company is not distressed, but is out of favor with investors right now. Putnam cited the company's impressive cash levels and expressed confidence that the firm is here to stay. He likes JDS as a telecom equipment play. In Putnam's view, telecom companies are a growth area once again, with growth driven by hardware upgrades among cable and phone companies chasing customers for triple-play (voice, video, data) packages.

All of this attention is having a positive effect on the stock. JDSU is up 32 cents, or 2%, as of 1:30 this afternoon, to $15.82.

JDS Uniphase Corporation (NASDAQ: JDSU), the optical components maker, reported 16% revenue growth last night and positive EPS for the fourth quarter in a row. Revenue came in at $351 million and EPS of $0.07 versus estimates of $338 million and $0.04, respectively.

The company provided guidance of $345 to $360 million in revenue for the current quarter, which is acceptable and could be a bit conservative.

Acquisitions in the test and measurement business are paying off as this was the business that drove a good portion of growth. However, its optical communications business, JDS's claim to fame, came in weak with operating margins of -8.2% vs -1.0% for the quarter. The weak operating performance was driven by poor factory utilization as it transitions to a new lean manufacturing model along changes with several of its largest customers which led to order slowness, the company claimed.

JDS, under the leadership of Cisco former top exec, Keven Kennedy, continues to push forward, but it appears more acquisitions and new products are needed to keep the momentum going. Despite claiming leadership in the better segments of the optical space, the products do not seem to have the ability to generate the margins investors would find attractive. Plus, the company still has some debt on its balance sheet that it would be nice to see cleaned up.

Goldman has put a $17 price target on the company, for 16% appreciation. With the recent broad- based drop in the stock market, investors might look elsewhere for better returns.

Finisar (NASDAQ:FNSR) trades like water. On a good day, ten million shares in the optical equipment maker change hands. The optics business should be strong. With companies like Verizon (NYSE:VZ) building out big fiber networks, there ought to be plenty of business to go around.

That brings Wall Street to the case at hand. Finisar revenue rose only 16% in its most recently reported quarter to $108 million. The firm can't give out complete financials until its options back-dating probe is behind it.

Finisar made matters worse by guiding for $104 million to $110 million in revenue in the current quarter. Reuters says investors are looking for $116 million.

Shareholders had to be hoping for better. Over the last year, Finisar shares are down about 35%. Other companies in the industry like JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ:JDSU) are guiding for better days ahead.

And, perhaps that is the problem. Companies like JDSU are beating Finisar in the horse race to supply capacity to provide infrastructure for rising internet traffic.

The internet traffic boom will not last forever. Video streaming is already in the market with huge bandwidth hogs like Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube.

For Finisar, if not now, when?

Shares should be down today, or it is a victory of hope over reason.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ: JDSU) raised its revenue guidance last night. The company had seen Q2 revenue of $332M-$352M and now sees revenue at $360M-$365M; consensus is for $343.29M.

The company cited strong performance by its communications test and measurement segment, which has been an area of focus for JDSU CEO, Kevin Kennedy, a former top executive at Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO).

However, JDSU's test and measurement business is focused more on IP and optical traffic than the test and measure tools used in the semiconductor space. Two different businesses.

This is another data point that the optical business continues to improve. Ciena (NASDAQ: CIEN) should also benefit from this news.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: JDS Uniphase (JDSU-old, JDSUD), Western Digital (WDC) and MGM Mirage (MGM) top today's list of upgrades.

• JDS Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ:JDSUD) was upgraded to Strong Buy from Buy at Needham. They believe the worst is over for JDSU and see upside to near-term estimates after the company's profitable first-quarter results. JDS Uniphase was also upgraded by Deutsche Bank to Buy from Hold, citing valuation and expectations of improved profitability.
• Western Digital Corp. (NYSE:WDC) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James following their strong earnings report.
• MGM Mirage (NYSE:MGM) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at KeyBank/McDonald based on valuation and fundamentals.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Sina Corp (NASDAQ:SINA) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank. The firm cited Sina's strong results and a positive 2007 outlook for the upgrade. Citigroup also upgraded Sina Corp to Buy from Hold.
• DA Davidson upgraded Trident Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRID) to Buy from Neutral on valuation.
• Finally, JP Morgan upgraded Unilever N.V. (NYSE:UN) to Neutral from Underweight. The firm expects positive news flow and possible upside surprises over the next six to nine months driven by margin expansion and cost stabilization.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).