Wall Street is still trying to figure out the clear winners in RFID. According to one recent report, investors have yet to figure out how to separate the players from the pretenders.

So what are some of the hot publicly-traded companies in the RFID space? The Red Oak Growth Technology Fund, a mutual fund, is one that invests in RFID and thinks it has some of the answers, according to this report in Investor.com:

"We tried to find who will have a better-than-fair shot of participating in the market because of existing relationships and exposure to industries that will roll out RFID in the early innings."

His fund holds shares of Symbol Technologies (SBL) and Zebra Technologies (ZBRA). Symbol makes RFID portable readers and scanners and Zebra makes RFID label printers and encoders.

Other companies currently involved in RFID hardware include Avery-Dennison (AVY), Unova (UNA) and Matrics.

Chipmakers involved with RFID include Philips (PHG), Texas Instruments (TXN), STMicroelectronics (STM), privately held Alien Technology, WJ Communications (WJCI), and RF Micro Devices (RFMD).

Technology integrators include Checkpoint Systems (CKP), Lantronix (LTRX), Axeda Systems (XEDA), and Savi. Software companies are also involved in RFID: Manhattan Associates (MANH), Tibco (TIBX), WedMethods (WEBM), and Datamirror (DMCX).

Further, Sun Microsystems (SUNW) and IBM (IBM) have both established RFID testing and research centers.

Via RFID Times weblog.

Interesting run-down of public RFID companies. However, RFID as a broad category of stock investment has yet to come into its own. The Red Oak Growth fund has a negative return year to date and for most of the past five years, and is rated below average by Morningstar. And some of the stocks listed above also have negative returns in recent times.

On the other hand, some would view now as the time to buy, when stock prices are low. Especially if you research the companies well and buy thoughtfully.