Small caps have the ability to produce huge returns for investors. These young companies with innovative ideas and personnel pose a huge threat to industry leaders with the ability to adjust quickly to dynamic markets.
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) is a great example.
Back in the late 1990s, the company blazed a trail in e-commerce by creating a platform for consumers to buy goods online. Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Sears Holdings (Nasdaq: SHLD) were slow to respond to the new online paradigm, enabling Amazon to capture the market and catapult to a $120 billion valuation.
These are the kind of innovative companies Andy Obermueller profiles in his Game-Changing Stocks newsletter. Take a look at the big gain below.
Hot Gas Companies To Watch For 2016: KongZhong Corporation(KONG)
KongZhong Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides wireless interactive entertainment, media, and community services to mobile phone users in the People's Republic of China. It also involves in the development, distribution, and marketing of consumer wireless value-added services, including wireless application protocol, multimedia messaging services, short messaging services, interactive voice response services, and color ring back tones. In addition, it offers interactive entertainment services, such as mobile games, pictures, karaoke, electronic books, mobile phone personalization features, entertainment news, chat, and message boards; and through Kong.net offer news, community services, games, and other interactive media and entertainment services; and sells advertising space in the form of text-link, banner, and button advertisements. Further, the company develops and publishes mobile games, including downloadable mobile games and online mobile games cons isting of action, role-playing, and leisure games. As of December 31, 2009, it had a library of approximately 300 internally developed mobile games. Additionally, it develops online games; and provides consulting and technology services, as well as media and net book services. The company was formerly known as Communication Over The Air Inc. and changed its name to KongZhong Corporation in March 2004. KongZhong Corporation was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Kongzhong (Nasdaq: KONG ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Top 10 Small Cap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Texas Instruments Incorporated(TXN)
Texas Instruments Incorporated engages in the design and sale of semiconductors to electronics designers and manufacturers worldwide. The company?s Analog segment offers high-performance analog products comprising standard analog semiconductors, such as amplifiers, data converters, and interface semiconductors; high-volume analog and logic products; and power management semiconductors and line-powered systems. Its Embedded Processing segment includes DSPs that perform mathematical computations to process and enhance digital data; and microcontrollers, which are designed to control a set of specific tasks for electronic equipment. The company?s Wireless segment designs, manufactures, and sells application processors and connectivity products. Its Other segment offers smaller semiconductor products, which include DLP products that are primarily used in projectors to create high-definition images; and application-specific integrated circuits. This segment also provides handhe ld graphing and scientific calculators, as well as licenses technologies to other electronic companies. The company serves the communications, computing, industrial, consumer electronics, automotive, and education sectors. Texas Instruments Incorporated sells its products through a direct sales force, distributors, and third-party sales representatives. It has collaboration agreements with PLX Technology Inc.; Neonode, Inc.; and Ubiquisys Ltd. The company was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Myra Ramdenbourg]
Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN): Sr. Vice President and CFO Kevin P. March sold 318,750 shares
On 11/03/2014, Sr. Vice President and CFO Kevin P. March sold 318,750 shares at an average price of $50.01. The price of the stock has increased by 1.78% since. Texas Instruments Inc. has a market cap of $53.77 billion and its shares were traded at around $50.90. The company has a P/E ratio of 22.30 and P/S ratio of 4.33 with a dividend yield of 2.44%. Over the past 10 years, Texas Instruments Inc had an annual average earnings growth of 4.50%. GuruFocus rated Texas Instruments Inc the business predictability rank of 3-star.
Top 10 Small Cap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Panera Bread Company(PNRA)
Panera Bread Company, together with its subsidiaries, owns, operates, and franchises retail bakery-cafes in the United States and Canada. Its bakery-cafes offer fresh baked goods, sandwiches, soups, salads, custom roasted coffees, and other complementary products, as well as provide catering services. The company also manufactures and supplies dough and other products to company-owned and franchise-operated bakery-cafes. As of March 29, 2011, it owned and franchised 1,467 bakery-cafes under the Panera Bread, Saint Louis Bread Co., and Paradise Bakery & Cafe names. The company was founded in 1981 and is based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Adrian Campos]
The attractive combination of high margins and aggressive revenue expansion has caused Starbucks' value to increase enormously. How did Starbucks manage to create a strong coffee empire despite increasing competition from traditional players such as Dunkin' Brands (NASDAQ: DNKN ) , and the emergence of challengers like Panera Bread (NASDAQ: PNRA ) ? More importantly, how long will Starbucks' dominance in the coffee world last?
- [By James O'Toole]
Panera Bread (PNRA) is the latest chain to introduce automated service, announcing last month that it plans to bring self-service ordering kiosks as well as a mobile ordering option to all its locations within the next three years. The news follows moves from Chili's and Applebee's to place tablets on their tables, allowing diners to order and pay without interacting with human wait staff at all.
- [By Steve Symington]
Meanwhile, same-store sales increased 1.4% at Buffalo Wild Wings' company-owned restaurants and 2.2% at franchised locations. While that still fell short of fast-casual competitor Panera Bread (NASDAQ: PNRA ) , which posted company-owned same-store sales growth of 3.3%, CEO Sally Smith reminded investors that her company still outpaced the negative same-store sales trend prominent in the casual-dining category as a whole. What's more, remember that in February, B-Wild management had said same-store sales for the first six weeks of Q1 were�down 2.8%, so ending Q1 in positive territory reflected a huge improvement for the chain.
Top 10 Small Cap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: bebe stores inc.(BEBE)
bebe stores, inc. engages in the design, development, and production of women?s apparel and accessories. Its products include a range of separates, tops, dresses, active wear, and accessories in career, evening, casual, and active lifestyle categories. The company markets its products under the bebe, BEBE SPORT, bbsp, and 2b bebe brand names targeting 21 to 34-year-old woman. As of July 2, 2011, it operated 252 retail stores, and an online store at bebe.com in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Japan, and Canada, as well as 60 international licensee operated stores in south east Asia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Russia, Mexico, and Turkey. The company was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Brisbane, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Duprey]
Women's fashion leader bebe (NASDAQ: BEBE ) has a new face on its board of directors. The specialty retailer announced Monday it has named Narry Singh to join the board, noting his contributions in the world of digital entertainment.
- [By Monica Gerson]
Bebe Stores (NASDAQ: BEBE) is estimated to post a Q4 loss at $0.17 per share on revenue of $104.79 million.
UTi Worldwide (NASDAQ: UTIW) is expected to report its Q2 earnings at $0.01 per share on revenue of $1.14 billion.
- [By Maria Armental and Anna Prior]
Bebe Stores Inc.(BEBE) said Chief Executive Steve Birkhold resigned and the board named Jim Wiggett, who has been advising the struggling retailer, as interim CEO. The women’s apparel and accessories retailer plans to begin the search for a permanent successor.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Bebe Stores (BEBE) reported a loss of 14 cents a share, more than the 13 cent loss forecast by analysts, and said it would experience a loss in the low- to mid-teens during the current quarter.
Top 10 Small Cap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: EZchip Semiconductor Limited(EZCH)
EZchip, a fabless semiconductor company, engages in the development and marketing of Ethernet network processors for networking equipment. Its products include network processor chips, evaluation boards and network-processor based systems, and development software toolkits. The company offers network processors for use in forming the silicon core of networking equipment, such as switches and routers; and for voice, video and data integration in various applications. Its network processors are single-chip solutions, which enable its customers to design multi-port line cards, such as processing and classification engines, traffic managers, media access controllers, as well as a range of specialized hardware blocks that accelerate various functions. The company offers Evaluation systems which enable customers to test NPU-based systems; and toolkits that assist customers in creating, verifying, and implementing solutions based on its network processors. It provides a library f eaturing data plane code for a range of applications, which include Metro Ethernet protocols, Multi-Protocol Label Switching, IPv4 and IPv6 routing, Access Control Lists, GPON/EPON OLT functionality, Network Address Translation, and Server Load Balancing. The company sells its products directly, and through contract manufacturers and distributors to network equipment vendors. It markets its products in Israel, China, Hong Kong, the Far East, Canada, the United States, and Europe. The company was formerly known as LanOptics Ltd. and changed its name to EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. in July 2008. EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. was founded in 1989 and is based in Yokneam, Israel.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Paul McWilliams]
Paul McWilliams: Oh, absolutely. Another company that most investors probably have never heard of is a tiny little Israeli semiconductor company named EZChip (EZCH).
- [By Evan Niu, CFA]
What: Shares of EZchip (NASDAQ: EZCH ) have jumped today by as much as 13% after the company reported first-quarter earnings.
So what: Revenue in the first quarter totaled $15.3 million, topping the Street's forecast of $15.1 million. Non-GAAP net income per share came in at $0.23, which was right on target with expectations.
- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
EZchip Semiconductor (NASDAQ: EZCH) was also up, gaining 7.16 percent to $24.11 after a Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) announced a new product that would not threaten the company as previously thought. Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Cypress Semiconductor (NASDAQ: CY) were down 16.05 percent to $9.91 after the company lowered its Q3 forecast.
Top 10 Small Cap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Hot Topic Inc.(HOTT)
Hot Topic, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a mall- and Web-based specialty retailer in the United States. The company operates Hot Topic and Torrid store concepts, as well as an e-space music discovery concept, ShockHound. Its Hot Topic stores sell music/pop culture-licensed merchandise, including tee shirts, hats, posters, stickers, patches, postcards, books, novelty accessories, CDs, and DVDs; and music/pop culture-influenced merchandise comprising women?s and men?s apparel and accessories, such as woven and knit tops, skirts, pants, shorts, jackets, shoes, costume jewelry, body jewelry, sunglasses, cosmetics, leather accessories, and gift items for young men and women primarily between the ages of 12 and 22. The company?s Torrid stores sells casual and dressy jeans and pants, fashion and novelty tops, sweaters, skirts, jackets, dresses, hosiery, shoes, intimate apparel, and fashion accessories for various lifestyles for plus-size females primarily betw een the ages of 15 and 29. As of July 30, 2011, it operated 636 Hot Topic stores in 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Canada; 145 Torrid stores; and Internet stores, hottopic.com and torrid.com. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in City of Industry, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Marshall Hargrave]
In May True Religion (TRGL) announced a buyout offer from TowerBrook Capital for $826 million. Also in May, Rue21 decided to sell itself to Apax Partners for $2.2 billion. Before that, in March, Hot Topic (HOTT) announced that Sycamore Partners was buying out it out for $600 million.
Top 10 Small Cap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: ATA Inc.(ATAI)
ATA Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides computer-based testing services in the People?s Republic of China. It offers services for the creation and delivery of computer-based tests utilizing its test delivery platform, proprietary testing technologies, and testing services; and provides logistical support services relating to test administration. The company?s computer-based testing services are used for professional licensure and certification tests in various industries, including information technology (IT) services, banking, securities, teaching, and insurance. Its e-testing platform integrates various aspects of the test delivery process for computer-based tests ranging from test form compilation to test scoring, and results analysis. ATA also provides career-oriented educational services, such as single course programs, degree major course programs, and pre-occupational training programs focusing on preparing students to pass IT and other vocational certification tests; test preparation and training programs and services to test candidates preparing to take professional certification tests in securities, futures, banking, insurance and teaching industries; online test preparation and training platform for the securities and banking industries; and test preparation software for the teaching industry. In addition, the company offers HR select employee assessment solution, an online system that utilizes its proprietary software and an inventory of test titles to help employers improve the efficiency and accuracy of their employee recruitment process. As of March 31, 2010, it had contractual relationships with 1,988 ATA authorized test centers. The company serves Chinese governmental agencies, professional associations, IT vendors, and Chinese educational institutions, as well as individual test preparation services. ATA Inc. was founded in 1999 and is based in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Industrials stocks gained Friday, with ATA (NASDAQ: ATAI) leading advancers. Meanwhile, gainers in the sector included Plug Power (NASDAQ: PLUG), with shares up 22 percent, and Korn/Ferry International (KFY), with shares up 12 percent. In trading on Friday, basic materials shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 1.36 percent. - [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Industrials stocks gained Friday, with ATA (NASDAQ: ATAI) leading advancers. Meanwhile, gainers in the sector included Plug Power (NASDAQ: PLUG), with shares up 22 percent, and Korn/Ferry International (KFY), with shares up 12 percent. In trading on Friday, basic materials shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 1.36 percent.
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