It may be telling us something about changing market conditions, but this week there were a lot fewer stocks below $5 making major up moves, and the ones that did had a smaller overall percentage of advancement than seen in previous weeks.
Also, energy and technology stocks seem to be taking over the small stock leadership, as small-cap biotechs were in correction mode this week.
Here’s a look at this week’s best of the little guys:
Best Stocks Under $5: B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd (BOSC)
5/1/15 Closing Price: $ 3.05 (+33%)
B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:BOSC ) is an Israeli company that provides automatic identification and data capture for the aircraft and defense industries, as well as electronic components to those same industries.
This week BOSC filed its 2014 annual report containing audited financials to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Street obviously liked what was in that report, because BOSC was the leading small stock this week.
BOSC also recently won a tender to supply electronic components to a leading Israeli manufacturer of defense systems.
BOSC stock has been in a downtrend since touching $9 at the beginning of 2014, and was recently below $2. This week’s enormous rise took out more than four months of price decline.
Best Stocks Under $5: Civeo Corp (CVEO)
5/1/15 Closing Price: $4.50 (+32%)
Civeo Corp (NYSE:CVEO) blasted higher this week after reporting first-quarter earnings that were flat, but 2 cents ahead of Street estimates. Revenue of $171 million also beat analysts’ expectations of $162.7 million.
CVEO is a subsidiary of Oil States International, Inc. (NYSE:OIS) and provides accommodations and other services to employees of oil, natural gas and mining companies in remote areas of the world.
CVEO stock had been cut in half after reducing its 2015 guidance and suspending its dividend back in December, largely as a result of falling oil prices. CVEO was mentioned in this space a few weeks ago as well.
Best Stocks Under $5: InterCloud Systems Inc (ICLD)
5/1/15 Closing Price: $2.69 (+56.4%)
InterCloud Systems Inc (NASDAQ:ICLD ) provides information technology and solutions to telecommunications service providers through its cloud platforms.
This week ICLD announced a new $3 million contract with an unnamed global telephone company to perform network upgrades in its central offices in California. The work will begin immediately and take place throughout the remainder of 2015.
In addition, this morning ICLD announced it has a new business backlog of more than $36 million, mostly with Fortune 100 companies. This is the largest backlog of orders ICLD has ever had.
ICLD stock has fallen from $17 in 2014 to a recent low near $1.50, but the news this week may just be the jump-start ICLD needs to turn its fortunes around.
Best Stocks Under $5: Aehr Test Systems (AEHR)
5/1/15 Closing Price: $2.58 (+24%)
Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ:AEHR) manufactures and sells systems that reduce testing costs and perform reliability of screening for electronic semiconductor parts. Earlier this week, AEHR announced it had received a contract for more than $6 million from an unidentified company.
AEHR stock has been trading sideways between $2 and $2.80 for the past seven months, and resistance may be fairly strong between $2.80 and $2.90. A breakout above that level may confirm another leg up for AEHR stock.
Best Stocks Under $5: GrafTech International Ltd (GTI)
5/1/15 Closing Price: $4.84 (+16.8%)
It’s been a busy week for GrafTech International Ltd (NYSE:GTI), a company that manufactures graphite electrodes and other products for electric arc furnace steel and other metals.
On Thursday, GTI reported first-quarter adjusted earnings with a loss of 10 cents per share on revenue of $207.2 million. Although analysts were expecting a loss of only 5 cents per share, the stock pushed much higher.
That’s because GTI also reported a $150 million agreement with Brookfield Capital Partners, which will buy 150,000 shares of GTI preferred stock. It said that Brookfield plans to annnounce a tender offer for the stock at $5.05 per share.
GTI stock has been somewhat volatile, but has been in an uptrend since February of this year.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts does not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
