10 Small-Cap Stocks to Buy for 2019 and Beyond

Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary believes that small-cap stocks are the perfect investment over the next few years as trade issues get sorted out and tax cuts deliver their full impact.

"I say there is 20% more cash to come to these companies in the next 24 months through tax reform, so I am staying on this trade," O'Leary told CNBC back in August. "I am betting they continue to outperform not only the S&P 500, but maybe even emerging markets. There is tremendous value to be unlocked in small caps in America."

That call hasn't exactly looked great in the short-term, with the small-cap Russell 2000 Index dropping 12% over the past three months. But that's the nature of the beast - higher risk, higher reward - so I still couldn't agree with O'Leary more.

While certainly more volatile and risky, small caps (typically between $500 million and $2 billion in market value, though definitions vary across information providers) add the potential for explosive growth that many established blue-chips simply can't match. After all, it's much easier to double revenues from $1 million than to do the same from $1 billion - and the same kind of performance expectations tend to hold true for shares of smaller companies versus larger ones.

Here are the 10 best small-cap stocks to buy for 2019. Each has high potential to beat the S&P 500 for at least the next 12 to 24 months.