These Were The Best-Performing Stocks On The OTCQX Market In 2018

Toronto-based mining company Largo Resources Ltd. LGORF was the top-performing company on the OTCQX Best Market (the highest tier of OTC Markets) in 2018.

Largo shares finished 2018 up 93 percent with an 8,449 percent year-over-year increase in average daily dollar volume. That was good enough to make it the No. 1 stock on the 2019 OTCQX Best 50, OTC Markets’ annual ranking, based on an equal weighting of one-year total return and average daily dollar volume growth, of the best-performing stocks of the 410 that trade on the market.

The stock got a big boost on July 24, after famed investor Leon Cooperman mentioned the company as a new long idea in an interview on CNBC. That headline kickstarted a nearly 160 percent rise in the stock’s price to $3.56 on November 9, a seven-year high.

Overall, the 2019 OTCQX Best 50 companies delivered an average total return of 21 percent and traded $19.3 billion in dollar volume in 2018. Twenty-six of the companies are cross-traded on foreign exchanges, with 11 coming from Canada alone.

Here are some other highlights:

Local Banks Dominate

There are 16 regional and community banks included in the 2019 OTCQX Best 50 list, including Lyons Bancorp, Inc. LYBC (up 15.7 percent), Marquette National Corp. MNAT (up 11.8 percent), and Fentura Financial, Inc. FETM (up 11.2 percent). This strong stock performance, coupled with a rising rate environment, is partly why so many regional and community banks have IPO’d in the last year.

Familiar Names

Fourteen companies on the list have market caps of over $1 billion, including some names investors will likely be familiar with.

Credit information company Experian plc EXPGY came in at No. 34 on the list after closing 2018 up 10.2 percent. adidas AG ADDYY closed up 4.5 percent on the year, good for 41, while Roche Holding Ltd RHHBY and Deutsche Telekom AG DTEGY came in at 43 and 46 respectively.

In a trend that highlights the relative infancy of the industry, only three cannabis names— CannaRoyalty Corp. ORHOF, iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. ITHUF, and Organigram Holdings, Inc. OGRMF—made this year’s list.

While the STATES Act is likely to keep cannabis in the headlines through 2019, the low showing among the industry’s many public companies over 2018 reveals that many of them are just getting going in the public markets.

2018 Repeats

Three companies from the 2018 OTCQX Best 50 remained on this year's list: Corvus Gold, Inc. CORVF (up 53 percent in 2018) Repro Med Systems, Inc. REPR (up 32 percent) and Smith-Midland Corp. SMID (9.2 percent). Those stocks finished 11, 12, and 50 respectively.

"The diversity of the 2019 OTCQX Best 50 demonstrates the value of the premium OTCQX Market to provide tangible benefits and drive value to the broadest array of companies spanning all sizes, industries and geographic regions, from well-capitalized US community banks to Mega-Cap foreign exchange-listed Global brands,” said Jason Paltrowitz, director, OTC Markets Group International Ltd. and EVP, Corporate Services in a release.

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