RBC Capital: The 7 Best Small-Cap Stocks With Big Upside Potential

Much of the media attention is focused on a few big-name mega cap stocks that dominate the market. But for investors looking to diversify their portfolios and consider new opportunities, these high conviction small cap stocks provide some interesting investing ideas. We took these stocks from RBC Capital’s recently released list of small cap stock picks. These are the best investing ideas in the small cap space, all with less than $3 billion of equity market value and notable upside potential. You can click the stock tickers to delve deeper into the stock’s overall outlook from the Street.

Which are the top small cap ideas that you should be tracking?

1. Proofpoint Inc (NASDAQ:PFPT)

This cybersecurity company protects people, data, and brands from today’s advanced threats and compliance risks. The stock also has the backing of top RBC Capital analyst. Hedberg has a very strong track record on PFPT stock specifically (89% success rate and 29% average return across 19 ratings).

PFPT represents a “a relatively open-ended opportunity as revenue represents ~1% of estimated worldwide market opportunity in 2017E” says Hedberg. He also notes that PFPT has a “solid growth profile” and “a strong and evolving product portfolio to meet customer demand and take share from incumbents.”

The analyst has a $103 price target on PFPT which means 14% upside potential from the current share price. Note also PFPT also has a Strong Buy analyst consensus rating.

2. Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE)

For those of you who haven’t heard of FIVE, look out. This discount chain claims to be one of the fastest-growing retail stores with over 500 stores across 32 states. Aimed at teens and pre-teens, all the products are priced at under $5. One fan of the strategy is Scot Ciccarelli who recently raised his FIVE price target from $50 to $57 (14.3% upside). He says: “The low price point not only affords the company some defense against e-commerce cannibalization, but more importantly, the affordability of the products offered empowers its young target demographic to shop both with their parents and independently.”

And while the company is in a rapid-growth phase to reach its targeted 2,000 stores it has nonetheless remained FCF positive. This is “highly impressive” according to Ciccarelli. Overall the stock has a Moderate Buy analyst consensus.

3. BMC Stock Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BMCH)

BMCH is the second-largest North American independent distributor of lumber and building materials. Top RBC Capital analyst Robert Wetenhall praises the stock’s strong competitive position, strong growth prospects and disruptive product innovation.

“The distribution business can be challenging due to price competition in commodity products like lumber. BMCH has countered deflationary pricing trends by focusing on providing builders with value-added products and services that are difficult to replicate.” Wetenhall, one of the top 25 on TipRanks, has a bullish $23 price target on the stock (9% upside). The stock has a Strong Buy analyst consensus rating.

4. Meritor, Inc. (MTOR)

This automobile component manufacturer has the power to outperform its competitors says five-star analyst Joseph Spak. A significant backlog should drive top-line growth with an impressive $900mm in new business opportunities, of which it expects to win 50%. Plus Meritor plans to repay debt and return 25% of free cash flow to shareholders.

“As MTOR proves its execution with the market, the stock may begin to trade more on P/E, similar to other CV peers. On a P/E basis, MTOR trades at a significant ~40% discount to CV peers.” For this reason, Spak has a $23 price target on the stock which works out at 19% upside from the current share price.

5. Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA)

Seth Weber, who is ranked #188 out of 4,600 TipRanks analysts, has high hopes for MWA- one of the US’s largest manufacturers and distributors of fire hydrants, gate valves, and other water infrastructure products. He says US water infrastructure should rise going forward due to strong demand, improving municipal budgets, and increasing construction activity.

“Our Outperform rating reflects our view that MWA is well positioned to benefit from an improving U.S. water infrastructure investment cycle. The company enjoys a leading position in its core markets (no exposure to emerging markets), which have high barriers to entry.” The $14 price target suggests sweet upside potential of 15.3% from the current share price.

6. Western Alliance (NYSE:WAL)

This Arizona-based bank is a top small cap pick for five-star analyst. We can see that overall the stock also has the full support from the Street with six back-to-back buy ratings in the last three months. Arfstrom, who has a $58 price target on the stock, is predicting 21% upside potential for the next 12 months.

“Due to a combination of strong organic growth potential, ongoing market share gains, as well as acquisitions, Western Alliance remains well positioned to continue to deliver above average growth” says Arfstrom. He believes investors should focus on banks like WAL with strong commercial lending franchises, sustainable growth potential, and levers to drive higher earnings.

7. Criteo SA (NASDAQ:CRTO)

Criteo is responsible for the online ads that pop up to remind you of products you previously visited on other websites. The company already received $1.8 billion in ad-spend in 2016 and “aims to become the marketing solution for anything with a performance metric”. According to Mark Mahaney this means expanding from ad displays to new offerings such as creative optimization, e-mail, cross-device, native, and audience targeting. Mahaney also sees potential in the company’s geographic expansion via its investments in Latin America and China.

Mahaney, ranked #15 out of 4,600 analysts tracked by TipRanks, believes the stock can reach $60- a big 36% upside from the current share price. Overall Criteo also has a ‘Strong Buy’ analyst consensus rating with 4 buy ratings and just 1 hold rating in the last three months.

Disclaimer: TipRanks is an independent cloud based service that measures and ranks digitally published financial advice. TipRanks' natural language processing (NLP) algorithms aggregate and ...

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