11 Small-Cap Stocks Analysts Love the Most
Investors in stocks with small market values know all too well that they usually underperform in down markets. The flip side is that small-cap stocks often lead the way when markets are headed higher again.
Most small-cap investors can't wait for the market to turn. The S&P 500 has lost 16% since it peaked on Feb. 19. As for the small-cap benchmark Russell 2000? It has tumbled more than 25%.
This widespread pain among small caps might give investors pause about digging in. So we decided to suss out which stocks are holding up best, perhaps generating gains, and are set up for continued outperformance once businesses and markets get back to something resembling normal conditions.
Sure enough, even today, there's no shortage of great ideas when it comes to small-cap stocks.
To find the best candidates, we limited ourselves to companies with market capitalizations of between $1 billion and $2 billion. The stocks also had to outperform the S&P 500 since the bear market kicked off almost three months ago.
We further whittled the list down to stocks with an average broker recommendation of Buy or better. S&P Capital IQ surveys analysts' stock ratings and scores them on a five-point scale, where 1.0 equals Strong Buy and 5.0 means Strong Sell. Any score of 2.0 or lower means that analysts, on average, rate the stock a Buy. The closer the score gets to 1.0, the stronger the Buy call. Lastly, we dug into research and analysts' estimates on the top-scoring names.
From that pool, we
