It’s shaping up to be a growth year for Newport Beach investment bank Roth Capital Partners LLC’s yearly growth stock conference.
Roth’s 17th annual confab is set for Feb. 21 to 23 at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa in Dana Point. After hitting a slow patch amid the dot-com meltdown a few years ago, the conference featuring small capitalization companies is set for another good yyear.
About 230 companies are expected to make presentations to investors at the invite-only show, up a bit from the 225 companies that presented last year, said Gordon McBean, head of Roth’s research department.
The conference is expected to draw about 2,000 people this year, up from 1,600 a year earlier, McBean said.
The conference spotlights growth companies. Technology companies dominate, but there are plenty of healthcare, consumer products and financial companies, too.
Orange County-based technology companies expected to present include Epicor Software Corp., Lantronix Inc. and Autobytel Inc., all of Irvine.
Other presenters include the likes of Boca Raton-based Hollywood Media Corp., Yonkers, N.Y.-based EVCI Career Colleges Holding Corp. and Carlsbad-based Rubio’s Restaurants Inc., among others.
“We try and split it up between tech and non-tech,” McBean said. “This year is fairly well-balanced between industrial, defense and other areas.”
The Roth conference has built a reputation among small and micro-cap companies.
“Typically it’s a strong conference and we attend a lot of these things,” said Valerie Brodie, an Epicor spokeswoman. “It draws the kind of attendees we want to communicate with.”
Roth conference companies typically have market values of $250 million to $300 million. But there are several with valuations of more than $1 billion. Like last year, Roth didn’t invite privately held companies.
One of the best-known features of Roth’s conferences is intact this year,the evening entertainment. This year, it’s the Black Eyed Peas, a hip-hop band with a funk vibe.
The entertainment, which has included go-go dancers and an open bar in the past, has been scaled back from last year, which featured two nights of entertainment, instead of one.
The conference, which has been shortened by a day, comes after a second-straight strong year for small cap stocks.
Small cap stocks tracked by the Russell 2000 iShares index fund posted a 13% return last year, though slower than 2003’s 44% jump.
Even with the gains, McBean insists that there still is a lot of room left for small cap stocks to gain.
“Everyone says the small caps will underperform,” McBean said. “But we just see another good year.”
Small companies’ “fundamentals”,income, revenue, management and debt structure,still are strong, McBean said.
Roth boosted its research department in the past year to 35 from 30 a year earlier.
