Despite the doom and gloom that hovered over many juniors in 2014, a few companies saw their share prices climb this year and likely more will experience stellar gains during the final quarter and into 2015. The following four small or micro-cap stocks could be star performers in your portfolio sometime during the next 18 months.
It can be said that, so far, 2014 has been another challenging year for most small and micro-cap stocks. Despite the doom and gloom, though, a few companies saw their share prices climb this year and likely more will experience stellar gains during the final quarter and into 2015.
The following four small or micro-cap stocks could be star performers in your portfolio sometime during the next 18 months:
Catalyst Copper Corp. (TSXV: CCY): Even though its share price has risen about 160% so far in 2014 (to its current price of $0.47) and more than 300% since the end of June, the run in this company’s stock could be just getting started.
Catalyst Copper has a 60% stake in the La Verde porphyry copper deposit in Mexico. A January 2013 Preliminary Economic Assessment estimates La Verde as having annual copper production of 211 million pounds over a 20-year mine life, and a pre-tax Net Present Value of $617 million using an 8% discount rate.
As with any of these resource projects, it’s largely about the people involved. And this tiny miner has some big hitters behind it. Its Directors include billionaire financier Frank Giustra (who has a 13.92% interest in the company), and Goldcorp Chairman Ian Telfer (with a 19.99% stake). Catalyst Copper President and CEO Richard Warke, who ran both Augusta Resource as well as Ventana Gold before selling the two companies for a combined total of more than $2 billion, owns 18.04% of the company.
Catalyst Copper Corp. has just over 29 million shares outstanding, and thus it wouldn’t take much in the way of buying to move its stock.
Voip-Pal.com Inc. (OTC: VPLM): The company owns a portfolio of patents relating to Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology that it is currently looking to monetize. Voip-Pal’s Mobile Gateway patent, according the company, would allow every mobile smartphone sold to have an application in it that runs in the background (never has to be opened up or accessed like Skype) in which you can make any overseas call at the same cost as a local call.
This patent is significant in that any firm in the telecommunications industry is potentially infringing on Voip-Pal.com’s patent. It would likely be appealing to a larger technology company with a sizable legal team, such as Google, in which defending patents through corporate litigation has become a profitable part of the business.
The ‘Rockstar Consortium’ is a good example of this as Apple, Inc., Blackberry, Ericsson, Microsoft, and Sony teamed up to spend US$4.5 billion to purchase patents from a bankrupt Nortel in 2011, and are trying to sue companies such as Google and Samsung for infringing on Nortel’s patented technology.
Voip-Pal.com recently announced that it has hired Southbank Capital Pty Ltd. to assist in the sale of the company and has also received offers to monetize its telephony technology. Read more about the Voip-Pal.com story >>
Magellan Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: MNM): In the gold mining world, grade is king and this company certainly has the goods: it owns two projects in mining-friendly Brazil totaling 2.4 million ounces, one of which has a Measured and Indicated resource with a grade of about 10 grams per tonne. This same project also boasts a relatively modest CapEx of approximately $65 million.
Its current shareholders include Sprott, Newmont Mining Corporation, Kinross Gold Corporation, and Sandstorm Gold Ltd. If the gold price recovers at all in the next year and a half, this stock could really move.
Keek Inc. (TSXV: KEK): The mobile video social network company has about 69 million members worldwide. Keek allows its users interact with videos up to 36 seconds in length and 111 characters of accompanying text.
The company recently hired Jonathan Dillon as its VP of Business Development for China. Mr. Dillon held similar positions in the past at both Yahoo and Baidu.
According to a Forbes article from late 2013, each active social-media user is worth about $100, regardless of whether that person is on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Even if you discount that number significantly due Keek’s size, you will likely come up with a valuation far north of the company’s current $44 million market capitalization.
While there were many others that could have been included in this list, these four stocks cover both the old and new economies and might be interesting speculations for those who can tolerate a high level of risk.
