5 Stocks That No One Knows About

Everybody’s looking for the next big thing, and the stock market has plenty of ignored stocks to choose from. Stocks that no one knows about can be hidden opportunities for savvy investors.

They’re not new businesses – we just tend to fixate on big name companies like Apple and Netflix, as well as indices like the Dow and S&P 500 so much that it’s easy to forget there’s never a shortage of businesses in this world.

NASDAQ and other markets have plenty of publicly traded companies that aren’t well known. That doesn’t mean they aren’t generating profits or offer great upside potential for investors though.

This list only includes established businesses that have been operating and trading for at least five years, although it doesn’t need to be on NASDAQ. Some are trading on OTC markets but still disrupting their respective industries in 2020.

Silicon Motion Technology (SIMO) Isn’t Sexy But…

Solid state storage is everything these days, from solid-state drives (SSD) to memory cards and USB flash.

Silicon Motion is the company responsible for creating storage controllers for these solutions, embedded GPUs, and more.

They may not be as flashy as Intel’s CPUs or Nvidia’s GPUs, but these are essential components of modern computer motherboards, and the company is the industry leader in NAND logic gate controllers (one of two logic gates utilized in flash memory).

Silicon Motion’s stock performed well in the 2010s, starting the decade at around $3 and ending above $50. For comparison, Intel started 2010 at $20 and ended 2019 at $60, while Nvidia was priced at around $17 at the beginning of the 2010s and over $230 by 2020.

This places it just right in the middle as the “Goldilocks” investment for those who were lucky enough to be in on the ground floor of that decade.

Moving forward, its success hinges on its ability to maintain and expand on an already saturated market. Solid-state storage isn’t going away anytime soon, but it’ll surely continue to innovate.

Trimble (TRMB) Vs Garmin Price Is Surprising

Trimble is a software company specializing in global enterprise, government, and a host of other applications. It provides much of the software framework necessary for global navigation systems, positioning, and unmanned aerial vehicles among other areas.

It was founded in 1978 by a handful of Hewlett Packard engineers, and it has major B2B contracts that can generate revenue without the need for consumer marketing.

Despite its longevity, Trimble still represents a great deal when compared to a company like Garmin which also focuses on navigational technologies.

Garmin was approaching a $100 share price prior to the coronavirus pandemic, whereas Trimble was comfortably in the low- to mid-$40 range. Although it’s not well publicized in the media, Trimble still makes a lot of business moves.

The company spent the 2010s acquiring a range of companies and projects to expand its capabilities, including SketchUp, Tekla, Sefaira, and Viewpoint.

With its solid grasp of enterprise technology and a proven Software as a Service (SaaS) model, Trimble is a company to watch coming out of the COVID-19 crisis.

Will CytoDyn (CYDY) Create HIV Treatment?

As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the world, the need for and interest in antiviral treatments rose with it.

Gilead Sciences [GILD] and its broad-spectrum Remdesivir treatment took the spotlight because it was already holding clinical trials at the onset of the outbreak.

It’s not the only company specializing in viral treatments though. CytoDyn is a leading biotechnology company working on an HIV treatment, among others.

In fact, it created several innovative treatments based on a novel humanized CCR5 antibody called leronlimab.

This positions the company well in an economy where viruses and public health are a main focal point and concern among the public.

Although it doesn’t trade on NASDAQ yet, CytoDyn could be one of the next companies to be taken public with an IPO in the next year.

Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company (BHVN)

Biohaven Pharmaceutical is another company whose share price jumped in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s not developing any cures either – instead, it gained approval from the Food & Drug Administration to sell Nurtec ODT, its anti-migraine drug, at the end of February.

By the end of March, it had $1.2 million worth revenues generated by the drug. That’s just one piece of how it’s turning its revenue estimates around and making better moves to drive profits and shareholder dividends.

There are several other late-stage drugs in the works, including troriluzole, which is being used to treat Alzheimer’s, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and more, and vazegepant, another migraine treatment option.

It’s also in phase 3 clinical trials for verdiperstat, which treats a rare neurodegenerative disorder called multiple system atrophy. Each of these drugs joins the company’s already-deep archive of money-generating IP.

Cardlytics Reaches 140 Million Bank Customers

Long before we needed smartphones to track people, you could always follow the money to learn what you need to know.

Cardlytics is partnered with some of the biggest banks in the country (Wells Fargo & Bank of America) to help push marketing and loyalty initiatives for cardholders.

It’s essentially a digital ad platform targeting banking apps, and it reaches over 140 million bank customers spending $3 trillion every year. The deep analytics it provides based on this spending is invaluable to businesses.

This is why retailers like Lowe’s, grocery stores like Albertsons, ecommerce like Shutterfly, and more rely on Cardlytics.

The company of course got hit with the COVID-19 lockdowns alongside the restaurant and retail industries, but it’s also one of the factors helping some of these businesses recover from the fallout. That makes it a fascinating stock to watch moving forward, whether you invest or not.

This is just a small sampling – there’s no end to the investment options you can find by digging into lesser known companies on stock exchanges. Sometimes the next big thing is a little known company that no one knows about.

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The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Financhill has a disclosure policy. This post may contain affiliate links or links from our sponsors.