16 small-cap stocks that could get a boost from ETF buying

Andrea Riquier

The Russell family of indexes will add several newly-public companies in March, at which point exchange-traded funds that track the indexes will need to buy shares in those companies. That buying activity could provide a boost to share prices, according to an analysis from Jefferies.

“A number of names could see decent tailwind,” the Jefferies analysts wrote. Those 16 stocks are in the table below, along with the number of days over which Jefferies calculates they will see buying pressure.

There are some caveats.

“We are adding to the growing list of concerns regarding small-cap performance moving too far, too fast,” the analysts explain.

As of Friday’s open, the Russell 2000 /zigman2/quotes/210598147/delayed RUT +1.88% is up 8.7% in the year to date, compared to a flat showing for the S&P 500 /zigman2/quotes/210599714/realtime SPX +1.30% and a negative one for the Nasdaq /zigman2/quotes/210598365/realtime COMP +1.58% .

What’s more, companies have been rushing to go public at a pace not seen since 1997 — eclipsing even the 1999-2000 dot-com bubble.

“When the IPO calendar has been this hot in the past, performance has cooled,” Jefferies wrote. “We don’t see negative performance but Small does tend to lag over the subsequent 6 and 12 months as investors digest the new names.”

Jefferies explains that they calculated “days to buy” like so: “We took the weight of each name across the Russell indexes, multiplied that by our best guess as to how many passive assets are pegged to each index to come up with dollars to buy. We then divide the dollars by its price to come up with shares to buy. We then took the average last 10-days of trading volume to determine the days to buy.”

Read next: These ‘sweet sixteen’ recovery stocks still have upside, according to Raymond James

/zigman2/quotes/210598147/delayed

Add to watchlist RUT

Russell 2000 Index

US : US Composite

1,777.74

+32.75 +1.88%

Volume: 2.25M

March 21, 2023 5:52p

/zigman2/quotes/210599714/realtime

Add to watchlist SPX

S&P 500 Index

US : S&P US

4,002.87

+51.30 +1.30%

Volume: 0.00

March 21, 2023 5:04p

/zigman2/quotes/210598365/realtime

Add to watchlist COMP

NASDAQ Composite Index

US : Nasdaq

11,860.11

+184.57 +1.58%

Volume: 4.87B

March 21, 2023 5:16p

/zigman2/quotes/202264452/composite

Add to watchlist MDWT

Midwest Holding Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 17.22

-0.09 -0.52%

Volume: 319.00

March 21, 2023 9:30a

P/E Ratio

6.59

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$64.53 million

Rev. per Employee

$514,141

/zigman2/quotes/222642382/composite

Add to watchlist OLMA

Olema Pharmaceuticals Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 3.64

+0.03 +0.83%

Volume: 113,115

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$146.68 million

Rev. per Employee

N/A

/zigman2/quotes/222974115/composite

Add to watchlist KNTE

Kinnate Biopharma Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 5.76

+0.25 +4.54%

Volume: 83,545

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$256.60 million

Rev. per Employee

N/A

/zigman2/quotes/222990720/composite

Add to watchlist SGTX

Sigilon Therapeutics Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 1.12

+0.14 +14.27%

Volume: 181,520

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$31.82 million

Rev. per Employee

$208,774

/zigman2/quotes/223129200/composite

Add to watchlist FDMT

4D Molecular Therapeutics Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 17.68

+0.18 +1.03%

Volume: 329,920

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$581.60 million

Rev. per Employee

$22,350

/zigman2/quotes/224427812/composite

Add to watchlist TERN

Terns Pharmaceuticals Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 9.03

-0.85 -8.60%

Volume: 199,990

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$473.88 million

Rev. per Employee

$24,390

/zigman2/quotes/223716065/composite

Add to watchlist CGEM

Cullinan Oncology Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 10.92

+0.04 +0.37%

Volume: 227,000

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

4.61

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$427.88 million

Rev. per Employee

N/A

/zigman2/quotes/224427785/composite

Add to watchlist BOLT

Bolt Biotherapeutics Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 1.46

+0.03 +2.10%

Volume: 172,476

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$53.86 million

Rev. per Employee

$53,033

/zigman2/quotes/224427790/composite

Add to watchlist VOR

Vor Biopharma Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 5.57

+0.36 +6.91%

Volume: 141,336

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$342.03 million

Rev. per Employee

N/A

/zigman2/quotes/224555595/composite

Add to watchlist NEXI

NexImmune Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 0.41

+0.0012 +0.29%

Volume: 25,779

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$10.77 million

Rev. per Employee

N/A

/zigman2/quotes/223233925/composite

Add to watchlist MASS

908 Devices Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 6.95

+0.34 +5.14%

Volume: 912,286

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$211.83 million

Rev. per Employee

$689,000

/zigman2/quotes/223233580/composite

Add to watchlist BCAB

BioAtla Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 2.50

+0.05 +1.84%

Volume: 197,921

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$115.94 million

Rev. per Employee

N/A

/zigman2/quotes/224555603/composite

Add to watchlist TLIS

Talis Biomedical Corp.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 0.53

+0.0063 +1.21%

Volume: 25,117

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$29.46 million

Rev. per Employee

$13,531

/zigman2/quotes/224580750/composite

Add to watchlist DBTX

Decibel Therapeutics Inc.

US : U.S.: Nasdaq

$ 2.96

-0.23 -7.21%

Volume: 63,496

March 21, 2023 4:00p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

N/A

Market Cap

$79.80 million

Rev. per Employee

N/A