A recent report (http://nnw.fm/K8iRV) on the global Healthcare IT (HIT) market from Technavio projects an attractive seven percent CAGR for the space over the next four years, when the U.S. sector alone will generate upwards of $75 billion annually. The analysts at MarketsandMarkets affirmed this outlook in their report on the sector late last year (http://nnw.fm/UO9j8), projecting that the global healthcare IT market will see a CAGR nearly twice the Technavio figure when all sources are accounted for, coming to represent a total market valued at somewhere in the neighborhood of $228 billion by 2020.

The biggest names in the industry today are looking to capitalize on this growth, with players such as Athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN), Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX), GE Healthcare (NYSE: GE), Mckesson (NYSE: MCK), Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), Philips Healthcare (NYSE: PHG), and Siemens Healthcare (OTC: SIEGY) all making sizable bets on the future of the space. Another important aspect of this growth story is the proliferation of mobile devices, as the EHR (electronic health records) landscape becomes increasingly saturated with mHealth features like mobile apps and digital personal health records. Consider the installed base of some 2.6 billion smartphone users worldwide (http://nnw.fm/xtM0G), a figure set to grow 134 percent by 2020, and you can start to understand why the mobile medical workplace is perhaps a foregone conclusion. North America, as the currently (and for the foreseeable future) largest regional segment of the HIT space, is no doubt where the majority of the global market’s action will be. So it makes sense to start looking at competent, multiple-threat operators in the healthcare IT market that are accessible to the average retail investor, and which have an established footprint in the states.

Trading under a dollar, with a rapidly growing portfolio of products and service offerings, Medical Transcription Billing (NASDAQ: MTBC) (NASDAQ: MTBCP) for instance has made some impressive headway in this sector since its IPO in 2014. The company has rapidly blossomed into one of the most compelling full-spectrum, cloud-based EHR (ChartsPro™), practice management (PracticePro™) and mHealth solutions providers around. MTBC packs a powerful one-two punch of products and services that collectively constitute a unified, database-driven and fully integrated WebEHR platform, spanning everything from billing, data management, transcription, chat scribing, and business intelligence, to value-added and consultancy services. This is exactly the kind of one-stop-shop healthcare customers in this market are looking for.

Founder, chairman and CEO Mahmud Haq, as well as president and Director Stephen Snyder and CFO Bill Korn, made quite a showing at the 2016 Marcum MicroCap Conference (http://nnw.fm/Tu5j4) back in June, just before the launch of the company’s hospital receivables management service via acquisition of New Jersey healthcare financial specialists WFS Services. The WFS Services acquisition superbly augmented the company’s already strong position in ambulatory (outpatient) services and enables MTBC to aggress the huge opportunity of underserved demand in patient balance collection and aged insurance accounts receivable. By exploiting its unique technological advantages and vast sums of expertise in order to serve the ominously compounding need for solutions to the nuanced and often arduously difficult challenges of collection and aged insurance accounts receivable, MTBC is setting itself up for long-term growth.

The company has had a laser-focus on strategic growth toward its 2016 objectives, scoring a spate of notably appropriate recent acquisitions, including Renaissance Physician Services (Tennessee), Gulf Coast Billing (Texas), and the WFS Services deal. And yet MTBC managed to wrap up Q2 with $6.6 million in cash on the balance sheet. This an extraordinarily visionary approach to this space for a relatively young company like Medical Transcription Billing, but management can read the handwriting on the wall: the healthcare IT market is only going to get hotter. Strengthening its already enviable position in the sector through shrewd acquisition is how the company set a new milestone for revenue growth from Q1 to Q2 this year, and the company hopes to continue this trajectory on the strength of things such as having already developed a comprehensive ICD-9 to ICD-10 mapping and transitioning solution.

And it is not just the increasing complexity of the space that will allow full-spectrum operators like MTBC to prosper amid all this demand growth. As new systems must be rapidly defined and rolled out to handle an ever more stringent regulatory environment, mounting demand for knowledgeable consultancy and expert services will likely continue to increase at a geometric rate. Medical Transcription Billing will prosper because its suite of offerings is able to deliver considerably enhanced efficiency and profitability metrics, something which is of paramount concern to everyone in the industry, as there exists a pressing requirement to bring down overall healthcare costs.

A set of common drivers behind all this demand growth are made strikingly clear in both of the aforementioned reports. Chief among these drivers is the rise-and-rise of EHR (electronic health records) solutions in general, spurred on by a concomitance of actors, such as the prevailing lack of in-house IT capabilities among most sector operators, the ease/robustness of cloud services, and the inherently complex regulatory environment that just gets more nebulous with each passing year. The MarketsandMarkets and Technavio reports mentioned earlier were both keen to acknowledge how everything in the industry is shifting toward external cloud and SaaS (software as a service) solutions. One of the fastest growing segments of the HIT market is healthcare provider solutions, where a projected 16.4 percent CAGR (MarketsandMarkets) shows just how hot the game truly is when it comes to solving the regulatory compliance/assurance woes that face today’s healthcare providers.

This is an area where something like MTBC’s fully integrated Meaningful Use Stage 2-certified and web-based EHR platform ChartsPro really shines. ChartsPro gives a practice everything required to easily execute a Meaningful Use Stage 2 implementation, including the necessary training, and the company even provides an MU expert to each of its clients as part of its regulatory compliance services package. Ranked among the best of the best by Utah-based health informatics research outfit and industry benchmark KLAS, and certified by the ONC (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology), ChartsPro can handle all the critical functions of a medical practice and is just the kind of highly intuitive, yet powerful framework that the clinical solutions segment of the healthcare IT market now demands. Notably, this segment has a projected 19.8 percent CAGR through 2020.

Whether it’s chart creation backed up by the company’s digital transcription technology, ChartScribe (a digital audio dictation to complete charts solution which is fully integrated into the ChartsPro architecture), or a host of other mission critical tasks, the web native ChartsPro platform is ideal for an increasingly work-anywhere digital environment full of tablets, smartphones, and other mobile devices. Correct and timely patient charts are essential at every practice and ChartsPro handles this key task beautifully, while delivering similarly excellent results when it comes to things like document management, claim creation, e-prescription, lab test ordering, PHR handling and scheduling.

The consistently emerging PM (precision medicine) model of healthcare, which is reinforced by a similarly emergent technical foundation and the need for tailored medicine in areas like cancer, will continue to be a substantial driver both for the HIT space, and for MTBC itself. This single market alone will likely grow to nearly $88 billion by 2023 according to a report by Global Market Insights (http://nnw.fm/Rb3vb), with factors such as genome sequencing ($8 billion last year), and new drug discovery playing major roles. The White House has dedicated $55 million toward a new PM initiative, the industry has responded, and now it will be up to operators in the healthcare IT sector to pick up the ball and run with it. The explosion of diagnostics alone could send a multiple-threat WebEHR outfit like MTBC into the stratosphere. It should be interesting to see how things shake out for this aggressive young cloud-savvy player.

For more information, visit www.MTBC.com

In recent months, the economy has seen a downturn in energy prices. With some energy companies filing bankruptcy, Lucas Energy, Inc. (NYSE MKT: LEI) has not only survived the recent downturn but positioned itself perfectly to benefit from the current market environment. Furthermore, the company plans to expand on its current national footprint.

Lucas Energy, Inc. is a growth-oriented, independent oil and gas company based in Houston. LEI has working interests in over 10,000 net acres in South Texas with reserves valued at approximately $112 million, as well as other reserves estimated to be worth $60 million. All of the company’s acreage is located in the Eagle Ford shale and the Austin Chalk producing formations.

In 2012, LEI appointed a new management team with a vast amount of experience that positioned the company for growth and opportunity. Since the appointment of this new expert team, the company has reduced overhead, improved balance sheets, made field operations more efficient, and resolved legacy legal issues.

Today, the company’s main goal is to develop its most valuable asset in the Eagle Ford shale. The aim is to increase production and generate positive cash flow. As part of these efforts, the company made public a purchase agreement to acquire a working interest in producing properties in the Mid-Continent region. This acquisition will play a key role in the growth strategy of the company.

With this transaction, the company aims to produce more energy on a daily basis. These changes have led Lucas Energy, Inc. to plan a name change to Camber Energy in the near future, a name that LEI believes is better suited to the vision of the company. Although the oil and gas industry has not been as strong in recent times, LEI has put together a three pronged strategy. This includes developing its current assets, capitalizing on the down cycle, and pursuing further material acquisitions.

For more information, visit www.LucasEnergy.com

The real estate industry is changing fast, with technology and enhanced interconnectivity set to mark a significant shift in the sector and alter realty professions significantly. Several industry-related jobs, most notably real estate brokers and sales agents, are actually likely to disappear and be replaced with artificial intelligence computer algorithms in the near future, according to Oxford University research (http://nnw.fm/k8ZZZ).

The question that naturally arises is how these jobs will transform if they are to remain relevant and still present on a fast-changing, dynamic market such as the real estate industry. How will the real estate broker’s role change to meet the demands of an industry governed by technological advances, where virtual communication or virtual modelling are changing the rules of the game and challenging the traditional way of doing business?

eXp World Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: EXPI) and its rather unique real estate brokerage division, eXp Realty LLC, might hold the answer to that question. With eXp Realty, The Agent-Owned Cloud Brokerage™, eXp World Holdings has tried and succeeded to stay ahead of the curve and create an innovative model of real estate brokerage that relies heavily on Internet and cloud technologies to build a strong online community of professionals and provide efficient services to consumers.

The concept at the base of eXp Realty is a cloud office environment, which offers its members, brokers and agents nonstop access to collaborative tools and systems, training features and socialization avenues so as to build a tight-knit community of real estate professionals that can share their experiences, strategize and innovate together.

This business model eliminates the traditional brick and mortar office, allowing brokers and agents to increase their profits, lower overhead and risk and provide a more effective service to consumers. In addition, eXp Realty’s platform offers members the opportunity to earn equity in exchange for their contribution to company growth. Brokers and agents also benefit from an innovative revenue sharing program that allows them to win a percentage of the commissions earned by other brokers they recruit into the company.

So far, it looks like this model is definitely paying off, as eXp World Holdings reported record revenue for the second quarter of 2016. The company reported revenues of $13,282,028 for Q2 2016, which is up a whopping 137% from $5,584,963 in Q2 2015. On June 30, 2016, eXp World Holdings had 207% more cash and cash equivalents than the same time last year, while its real estate division’s agent count was up 111% year-over-year to more than 1,400 agents.

These remarkable financial results were driven by EXPI’s realty division, particularly by its increased sales volume and growing agent base, according to the company’s CEO Glenn Sanford.

The realty division was also the driving force behind the company’s record figures last year, and the trend is likely to endure as eXp Realty continues to expand in terms of both sales agent base and coverage. It should be noted that since the end of the reporting period on June 30, eXp Realty has grown to more than 1,500 real estate professionals across 41 states, the District of Columbia and Alberta, Canada.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.eXpWorldHoldings.com

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In November 2015, 3Pea International (OTCQB: TPNL) showed promising results and potential for growth, as highlighted in an article published by Seeking Alpha, titled ‘3Pea International: A Rare Find Given The Deep Undervaluation And Potential For Further Top/Bottom Line Growth’ (http://nnw.fm/m7wgX). TPNL is an organization offering prepaid debit card payment programs and other processing services. The company offers its services for corporate, consumer, and government applications through its PaySign® brand. TPNL’s customers include Fortune 500 companies, large multinationals, prestigious universities, and social media firms.

The article summarizes the company as “stronger” and breaking into “a huge market that can cushion the seasonal lumpiness of revenues.” According to the article, the company’s revenues had increased, debts were low, and free cash flow was high. In addition, TPNL has broken into the automotive industry, an industry that should help provide the company with regular revenue.

The company offers a range of services pertaining to customer loyalty through incentive and rewards programs. These come in the form of PaySign cards with the aim of motivating and rewarding employees, fulfilling customer rebates, incentivizing channel partners, monitoring corporate spending, and offering automotive incentives.

But TPNL goes beyond this. The company has revolutionized product sample distribution and co-payment assistance for the pharmaceutical industry by introducing its prepaid solutions to increase new patient acquisition, retention, and adherence. The PaySign payment option also offers blood and plasma collection organizations a comprehensive solution that increases donor acquisition and retention.

Other industries served by TPNL include the legal and insurance industries, federal and local governments, educational institutions, and various public sector organizations. 3Pea International offers solutions for both businesses and freelancers to connect and collaborate remotely. TPNL believes in meeting the highest standards of corporate governance while adhering to changing regulations and best practices.

For more information, visit www.3pea.com

Laguna Blends, Inc. (CSE: LAG) (OTC: LAGBF) (FRANKFURT: LB6A.F) has seen a promising start to 2016. It started with the announcement of a partnership with Naturally Splendid (“NSE”) to do the research and development on all the Pro369 flavors. This was shortly followed by the potential introduction of CBD skin care products into the company’s line of merchandise.

A few months later, Laguna made public its affiliate benefits program, with two new competitions that involve giving away three 2017 Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) S’s and a luxurious Las Vegas Getaway. In addition, the company renewed Canadian Football League All Star Emmanuel Arceneaux as its brand ambassador. To top off this successful start to the year, the company announced that it generated $105,000 in unaudited sales in just 11 weeks following the launch of its affiliate marketing network.

Another change was the introduction of a new president: Ray Grimm Jr. Laguna also recently added another valuable member to its team. At the beginning of August, Laguna Blends made public the appointment of Bryan Loree as chief financial officer, corporate secretary, and a new member of its board of directors.

Loree will be replacing two members of staff: Stuart Gray, acting chief financial officer, and Negar Adam, corporate secretary and director. Loree has over 10 years of experience in the accounting, financing, and management fields. However, Laguna’s August news did not stop there. The next day, the company acquired exclusive distribution rights for Swiss-made CBD skin care products. Although the foundations were in place for Laguna to be tapping into the skincare market, this had not been fully confirmed. Laguna has now entered into an agreement with ISO International, LLC, through which it has acquired the exclusive rights to market, promote, and distribute seven different cannabidiol (CBD) products, produced by Cannaceuticals of California. The CBD products will be incorporated into Laguna’s established affiliate marketing network.

Last but not least for the month of August, Naturally Splendid gave a public update on Laguna Blends’ Pro369 hemp protein growth and pro athlete brand strategy. Laguna and NSE previously entered into a manufacturing agreement for Pro369 after Laguna declared that it had beaten its sales projections for the first 11 weeks of sales. Today, Laguna is negotiating with a collection of professional athletes in the U.S. and Canada who see the benefits of hemp protein.

For more information, visit www.lagunablends.com

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With over 29 million Americans living with diabetes, and more than 86 million with prediabetes, this disease is the seventh leading cause of death and swallows approximately 20% of nationwide healthcare spending, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics (http://nnw.fm/uUEx3). Healthcare officials, patients and doctors alike are always actively searching for new therapies or innovative yet affordable treatments to combat this disease.

This is where leading biopharmaceutical company MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ: MNKD) and its groundbreaking inhalable insulin product Afrezza® come in. Touted as the first successful insulin inhaler on the U.S. market, Afrezza is a fast-acting inhalable insulin powder designed to be used in conjunction with regular type 1 and 2 diabetes treatments to help lower post-meal blood sugar spikes.

Beginning in July, MannKind relaunched Afrezza Inhalation Powder on the domestic market under its own branding, and the treatment is now available with major wholesalers, as well as by prescription in any retail pharmacy.

Leveraging its two-year experience in patient selection and copayment, the company has also announced several programs to promote patients’ access to Afrezza therapy. These include:

• Enhanced copay assistance designed to lower insured patients’ out-of-pocket cost to $15 per month
• Patient reimbursement support program, MannKind Cares
• Bureau to educate and inform healthcare providers about the benefits of Afrezza
• New titration pack that allows patients new to Afrezza more flexibility in adjusting their daily dosage

The new programs will join MannKind’s national salesforce, all of whom have extensive experience with diabetes and Afrezza, in its efforts to help enhance and streamline patients’ and providers’ experience with this key therapy. The company is committed to ensuring the treatment remains available to all diabetes patients in the U.S., without any disruption in supply.

The July relaunch came after the company released six more analyses of the pre-meal treatment, demonstrating a faster onset and shorter duration of action than with mealtime fast-acting insulin treatments. The findings, presented at the 76th scientific session of the American Diabetes Association, show that, compared to Eli Lilly and Company’s (NYSE: LLY) insulin lispro injection, Afrezza has a 50% faster onset and a 2-3-hour shorter duration of action.

The data supports the use of this therapy for rapidly controlling high glucose levels, according to the chief medical officer of MannKind, Raymond W. Urbanski, MD, PhD. Unlike injectable insulin, which risks causing hypoglycemia after a meal if dosed incorrectly, Afrezza works in the body more rapidly and leaves the bloodstream faster, offering an ideal balance between glucose control and a lower risk of hypoglycemia.

To find out more about MannKind Corp. and its innovative Afrezza Inhalation Powder insulin, visit www.MannkindCorp.com

Earlier today, eXp World Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: EXPI) announced the commencement of real estate brokerage operations in Alaska. Following this announcement, the company’s real estate brokerage division, eXp Realty, is now operational in 41 states across the country, as well as Alberta, Canada, and the District of Columbia. To date, the Agent-Owned Cloud Brokerage™ has attracted more than 1,500 of North America’s leading agents and brokers by leveraging an aggressive revenue sharing program and a host of collaborative tools made available through a unique, fully-immersive cloud training environment. The company’s brokerage operations in Alaska will be overseen by Brandon Tatum and Frank Zellers.

“Frank and I are excited to have the opportunity to bring eXp Realty to Alaska,” Tatum stated in this morning’s news release. “We’re looking forward to introducing the concept of agent-ownership and the idea that you can work alongside with and build relationships with some of the best agents in the business on a daily basis without having to go to a physical office or travel by plane or boat.”

News of the Alaska launch builds on what has already been an incredibly eventful week for EXPI. On Monday, the company released its second quarter financial results, reporting a 137 percent year-over-year increase in revenues to more than $13.2 million for the three-month period. This financial growth coincided with a 111 percent year-over-year increase in agent count for the company’s real estate division. Likewise, EXPI’s cash and cash equivalents at June 30, 2016, were up 207 percent from the second quarter of 2015. With a continued commitment to agent ownership, support and engagement, the company is strategically positioned to build on this impressive growth in the months to come.

The foundation for this growth has already been set through eXp Realty’s entry into new markets. Since the end of Q2, the company has already launched operations in both Utah and New Jersey, as well as Alaska. EXPI has also made moves to bolster its leadership team, adding industry veterans Rick Miller and Randall Miles to its board of directors on July 20. In the news release announcing these additions, Glenn Sanford, CEO of EXPI, referred to the move as “tremendous,” adding that the new board members “bring deep and diverse expertise” to EXPI and “give greater independence to its composition as the Company progresses.”

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.eXpWorldHoldings.com

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The blockbuster success of Comcast’s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Universal Studios production, ‘The Secret Life of Pets’, which did a whopping $104 million plus in its first weekend at the box office and raked in over $254 million worldwide in just 11 days following its debut – is no surprise to the folks at OurPet’s Company (OTCQX: OPCO). The company’s OurPets® brand, in particular, which consists of high-end designs crafted to suit the ergonomics as well as psychology of our beloved animal friends, has become synonymous amongst “pet parent” consumers with the very best that they can give to their animals – animals who are increasingly treated as bonafide members of the family, complete with all the associated spending horizons.

This growing tendency among pet owners to treat animals as fully-fledged members of the family has several obvious market dynamic impacts, with consumers across all segments (but particularly the high-end consumers) spending markedly more on their beloved animals. Central Garden & Pet Company (NASDAQ: CENT) certainly has been feeling the juice, with long-term EPS growth projected around 10 percent.

Retailers are actively cashing in on the success of ‘The Secret Life of Pets’, and the collaboration with PetSmart to do a special collection of pet accoutrements branded to the film (which have been selling like hotcakes) speaks volumes about sector potential and marketing, especially for an ingenious design shop like OurPets, where the recent roll out of the company’s Intelligent Pet Care™ line of Bluetooth/Wi-Fi connected feeders, water fountains, waste systems, and usability devices, such as the SmartLink™ Tag for a pet’s collar, has been received by consumers and industry players alike with great enthusiasm.

A rock-solid IP war chest of over 170 issued and pending patents, which accounts for roughly 75 percent of the company’s revenues, was recently augmented by a shining example of why consumers have come to love OurPets as much as they love these animated films – as OPCO announced general licensing in early June of its bonded polymer material technology for pet bowl bottoms. The company has a variety of high quality polymer bonded stainless steel bowl designs available through its Durapet® brand (as well as via private label) and its fierce/successful defense of its proprietary polymer bonding on stainless steel technologies is a clear shot across the bow that investors would be wise to take note of.

This is a visionary company with elegant designs that speak directly to the most lucrative segment of the pet supply consumer space, and it is as militant about defending its IP portfolio, as it is shrewd about knowing when and how to do so.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.ourpets.com

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In his immortal treatise on the conduct of warfare, The Art of War, Sun Tzu Wu, commander of the Ch’i armies, stressed the importance of indirect tactics or doing things differently. The English military historian, B.H. Liddell Hart, in his The Strategy of Indirect Approach, published in 1941, later examined this point. Captain Liddell Hart analyzed important historic battles and came to a conclusion that validated Sun Tzu’s 2,500-year-old maxim that battles are won by those who attack their opponent’s weaknesses. This is a principle that the captains of Moxian, Inc. (OTCQB: MOXC) know all too well. In the company’s latest 10-Q, filed just a few days ago, this credo appears:

“Where we believe we are different from other companies is that our plan is to sign up merchants first and build our user base utilizing their customers. Many companies utilize a different strategy of building up a user base first and then signing up paying merchants and other clients to access that user base.”

That Moxian strategy is aimed at China’s mammoth Online-to-Offline (O2O) market. The company has built an online platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that already operate brick-and-mortar establishments, which will enable them to extend their marketing reach. The platform, named Moxian+, is one that will not only give SMEs an online presence but also create an ecosystem of merchant clients and shoppers through its social media features. Moxian+ consists of a User App for shoppers and a separate app, called the Moxian+ Business App, for merchant clients. Both versions of the App are currently available in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, where they can be downloaded free of charge.

The Moxian+ platform has five main components. The first is its ecommerce capability. Merchant clients can advertise and promote their products, on the one hand, while shoppers or users, as they are referred to in the Moxian universe, can order products for later delivery. The second component consists of MO-Points Rewards and the MO-Coins Virtual Currency. Users can obtain MO-Points when they shop online, which allow them to participate in activities sponsored by merchant clients. MO-Points can be redeemed at merchant clients’ online shops or can be redeemed for MO-Coins, which can be used at any merchant client’s physical store location.

Users can also play games on Moxian+. This third useful component is linked to the fourth, which is Moxian+ as a social media engine that allows users to connect with each other and with merchant clients. Users can also, naturally, make new friends, discuss interests with old ones, and share pictures and videos. The fifth component of the innovative Moxian+ platform is its data analytics capability. Merchant clients are able to receive regular reports on a variety of demographic and purchasing data generated by users, giving them insightful intelligence to construct effective marketing campaigns.

As its 10-Q states, Moxian’s strategy is to quickly add merchant clients with subscription accounts. Users will follow naturally, building on the base of existing customers that the online locations already have. The company has already signed up over 30,000 merchant clients in Shenzhen, China, for test versions of the platform. These provide a fertile base to be targeted for upgrade to subscription accounts on Moxian+.

The O2O industry has emerged rapidly as one of tremendous potential. An article in Inc. magazine explains ‘Why O2O Commerce Is a Trillion-Dollar Opportunity’ (http://nnw.fm/U1cPb). The most attractive features of such platforms appear to be their data analytics faculties. The Inc. piece enthuses that:

“Equipped with O2O tools and services, business owners would have an unprecedented level of accuracy in their online marketing and, for the first time ever, would be able to reliably determine ROI from online advertising. Until recently, that technological ability simply did not exist.”

The report went on to point out that Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) had invested about $3 billion in O2O technology and that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce shows that ‘over 93 percent of purchases still take place offline, which accounts for over $4 trillion each year’. In China, where Moxian is operating, the numbers are even larger.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Moxian.com

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Despite its more than five and a half decades at the forefront of the domestic precast concrete market, Smith-Midland’s (OTCQX: SMID) recent coverage gives the impression that the company has only recently sprung into existence, fully armored, like Athena being born from the forehead of Zeus. Currently enjoying a nice pop following the release of its Q2 financials on August 11, shares of this ceaselessly innovative precast concrete manufacturer are now trading around pre-2008 highs, with considerable tailwind in the form of numerous recent project successes.

Globally speaking, the precast concrete industry itself is seeing something of a rebound, after a tough recession period and ongoing adjustment to China’s growth slowing down. A recent study by DecisionDatabases (http://nnw.fm/0Uqia) even projects a CAGR of 3.2 percent moving forward through 2022, when the global precast concrete market is expected to reach upwards of $58.7 billion.

Subsequent to the post-2008 dip (http://nnw.fm/nKW0s) that was experienced by just about everyone, SMID has been a portrait of the old adage that, “slow and steady wins the race.” The company has quietly been advancing the state-of-the-art in precast concrete design, manufacturing, and delivery systems, while landing contract after contract. This constant innovation is readily exemplified by the company’s high-performance SlenderWall™ system, a lightweight (66 percent lighter than traditional precast) architectural cladding system, which is as robust as it is easy to install. Recently described by Rodney Smith, chairman and CEO of Smith-Midland, as the company’s most profitable product, the SlenderWall is a feature-rich and proven system that not only addresses the typical cost and logistical metrics of competing solutions beautifully, it actually offers superior structural advantages as well. This exterior cladding system is effectively isolated from wind loading, seismic shock, expansion/contraction, movement of the underlying steel frame, and other structural forces experienced by the primary structure.

Fully code compliant and available with a proprietary (optional) Lift-and-Release™ panel-landing system, which allows an already simplified installation to be done even faster, SlenderWall is also the only wall system in the industry today to fuse together the four key technologies required for an efficient solution that can easily be applied to either new construction, or renovations. By skillfully leveraging its architectural precast concrete manufacturing expertise, Smith-Midland has found a way to embed high-tech PVA fibers into its products, making the SlenderWall cheap to install, yet able to provide a long lifespan of maintenance-free use. And these beauties are secured with a combination of thermal coated anchors and heavy gauge galvanized steel (or stainless steel studs), making this lightweight solution far more sturdy and long-lasting than one might ever expect.

SlenderWall is the perfect economical and efficient choice for a variety of 20,000 square foot plus jobs, whether it is a renovation like the 2013 Johns Hopkins Medicine (Baltimore Campus nine-story Nelson Harvey inpatient facility) job (http://nnw.fm/7NmdW), or a massive new undertaking like the recently announced 2-mile-long Port Imperial redevelopment project in West New York, New Jersey. This sizable (42,000 square feet of SlenderWall) undertaking with New Jersey’s largest homebuilder, K. Hovnanian (NASDAQ: HOVNP), is a striking example of how prominent SMID has become as an east coast precast concrete manufacturer.

Smith-Midland primarily serves the construction, transportation and utilities markets, as well as the agricultural, beach restoration (via Beach Prisms, a shoreline erosion control barrier system) and small precast building markets (via wholly-owned subsidiary Easi-Set Industries), with a wide variety of brilliantly designed solutions that it sells, licenses, and/or rents to various customers. The company actually cut its teeth back in the 1960s as Smith-Cattleguard Company, which was founded by Rodney Smith and his father when the business was just about precast concrete farm products. This rich tradition is still carried on today in the form of an array of highly durable cattle guards and feed bunks, as well as waste storage and watering systems.

The market’s warm reception to SMID’s Q2 financials is not surprising given that the company’s long-term growth story (slightly hampered by an admittedly sluggish Q1) has been supercharged of late by increased opportunities in several of its primary end markets, due in large part to generally improving underlying economic conditions as well as the company’s own continually growing brand presence. Perhaps the most notable market here for the company is transportation, where SMID operates via its Concrete Safety Systems (CSS) subsidiary. CSS was founded in 1977 as the then nascent industry’s first and only entity focused specifically on leasing highway safety barriers to contractors and state highway departments. CSS is a full-service barrier rental company that delivers, installs and then carts away the company’s J-J Hooks positive connection barrier system, which is ideal for roadwork (freestanding, bolted or pinned), and also security functions (especially when configured with an optional fence top).

CSS is housed at the company’s primary 44,000 square foot facility in Virginia. Between this primary facility, the company’s Smith-Carolina 8,000 square foot facility and the soon to be 40,000 square foot Smith-Columbia facility, SMID will have an enviable 300 mile-wide striking distance up and down 800 miles of the East Coast. This is a considerable territory, stretching all the way from New York City, to the southern Georgia border. The new Columbia location shores up coverage of the Atlanta metropolitan area nicely for SMID, as well as nearly a dozen military bases throughout South Carolina and Georgia, putting Smith-Midland’s legendary ability to innovate front and center when it comes to aggressing a whole host of projects in the region.

In many ways, the precast industry is overshadowed by the looming predominance of government initiated infrastructure projects, but SMID has done a marvelous job diversifying into the rapidly growing residential and commercial construction arenas. At the same time, SMID has positioned itself perfectly to benefit from the $305 billion, five-year highway infrastructure bill passed late last year in December (http://nnw.fm/T70sk), and the company is likely already experiencing a boost because of the bill’s passing. With presidential candidate Trump talking about building a wall on the border between the U.S. and Mexico (a project that would require setting up localized construction facilities for regional manufacturing the way SMID has done for the East Coast), it is not unthinkable that a company such as Smith-Midland could experience considerable upside on sector momentum alone, even without landing any contracts.

But it’s not like the company even needs such a huge project, as even a cursory glance at this year’s news reveals a spate of sizable contracts. Contracts range from an Easi-Span Building used in Illinois as a township’s water supply aerator, to a set of two massive Virginia DOT road projects, which will utilize a whopping 300,000 square feet of the company’s proprietary SoftSound™ sound absorptive composite panels. In the last decade of official data alone, we have added some 6.5 percent more paved roadway to the U.S. nationwide, bringing the total number of miles of paved roads up to well over 2.744 million. Demand for outdoor noise barriers, primarily associated with stopping traffic noise from reaching residential communities, is slated to rise 3.7 percent per year through 2019 in the U.S. alone, according to a recent study by Freedonia (http://nnw.fm/N9mfF). That same study sees the overall U.S. market as growing to $191 million over the same interval, as a good chunk of that $305 billion highway infrastructure package looks like it could go directly toward state DOTs putting up more noise barriers alongside highways.

Smith-Midland is the portrait of an under bought niche leader and remains quite accessible to the average retail investor at around three bucks a share, especially when compared to other sector players such as CRH plc (NYSE: CRH), and that is despite SMID trading very near to its 52-week high. With many, many takers for its cutting-edge precast solutions, a perfect storm of potentials exists for the company. Smith-Midland also just so happens to have the unquestionable experience and leadership needed to truly capitalize on this storm of potentials for its shareholders.

For more information, visit www.SmithMidland.com