The Value Road’s Exclusive June Stock Report
Every month at The Value Road, I publish a deep-dive overview highlighting the most compelling nano-cap and micro-cap stocks I've researched—opportunities you’re unlikely to hear about on CNBC or from mainstream analysts. These stocks are often illiquid, misunderstood, or completely off the radar, which is exactly where patient value investors can find asymmetric payoffs. This monthly roundup gives readers a full look at where I’m digging, what I’m passing on, and what might be on the verge of a breakout.
Paid subscribers get instant access to these write-ups as soon as they’re released—well before they hit the broader market conversation. Whether it’s a cash-rich net-net, a fallen angel emerging from bankruptcy, or an obscure business trading for less than its real estate, this newsletter is about finding overlooked value where others aren’t even looking. Below, I’ve summarized the sixteen names I’ve spent the most time on this month
IEH Corporation ($IEHC)
The first stock I dug into this month was IEH Corporation $IEHC. IEH is a niche electronic components manufacturer that’s been around since 1941 and is currently run by the founder’s great-grandson. They specialize in hyperboloid connectors—durable, high-reliability components used in defense, aerospace, and space applications. The company has a market cap of $21.9 million and an enterprise value of just $12.9 million, making it a classic deep value setup. After a rough few years caused by Boeing’s 737Max delays, COVID-19, and a disastrous ERP software switch that led to SEC filing issues, IEH has caught up on its financials, installed a new CFO, and returned to profitability in fiscal 2025.
IEH looks like a company that’s quietly turning the corner. Revenues are growing again, most of which come from U.S. defense contracts—a sector where domestic sourcing is often required, and IEH is the only independent U.S. supplier of its kind. On top of that, demand from commercial spaceflight and medical devices is starting to ramp up. Shares were once over $23 but fell below $6 during the turmoil; they’ve recently rebounded into the $8–$9 range. If they close the year with a profitable 10-K, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more upside. With a clean balance sheet and exposure to some of the fastest-growing end markets in the country, this is one I’m keeping a close eye on.
Keweenaw Land Association $KEWL
The second stock I looked into this month was Keweenaw Land Association $KEWL. KEWL has a $36 million market cap and owns over 1 million acres of mineral rights—mostly across Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas, with some stretching into Wisconsin. The company transitioned away from its historical timber business and is now positioning itself as a pure-play mineral royalties firm. If they were to sell their mineral rights at just $100 per acre (a price achieved in a recent land sale), the assets alone could be worth over $100 million—nearly 3x the current market cap. But the real catalyst is the Copperwood Project, a copper mine being developed on KEWL’s land by Highland Copper ($HDRSF). The mine is expected to extract $3.4 billion worth of critical minerals and begin commercial operations within a couple of years. Based on typical royalty agreements (12–20%), KEWL could collect between $408 million and $680 million in royalties over the mine’s 10.7-year life—transforming the company’s earnings profile overnight.
KEWL has been cutting costs aggressively and saw a 438% jump in gross profit last year despite minimal revenue. If Copperwood comes online, the company would essentially just collect checks with very little overhead. KEWL is also exploring other potential mineral opportunities, including a hydrogen lease with Hybrid Hydrogen Inc., and they’ve begun marketing other exploration-ready sites. That said, the Copperwood mine still faces environmental opposition and funding uncertainty—so if it stalls, investors may be stuck waiting for the next catalyst. But with massive mineral holdings in a geopolitically favorable region and a balance sheet that’s clean and lean, KEWL is a high-risk, high-reward bet on America’s push for domestic resource development.
Winmill & Co. $WNMLA
The third stock I looked into this month was Winmill & Co. $WNMLA—a deep value holding company trading at just 47 cents on the dollar. With a $5.4 million market cap, the company has $1.5 million in cash and $11.1 million in publicly traded investment securities. That alone implies a 135% upside if it re-rates to asset value. But here’s where it gets more interesting: most of those underlying holdings (like Bexil Corp and Foxby Corp) are trading at steep discounts to their own NAVs—so you're effectively buying undervalued assets inside of an already undervalued wrapper. One fund, in particular, has exposure to junior gold miners and is up 78% YTD, while WNMLA itself is down 9.5%. It's a classic “value within value” setup, and one that aligns well with a bullish view on physical metals and hard assets in an inflationary environment.
But the catch here is the structure—WNMLA is tightly controlled by the Winmill family, who hold super-voting shares and take salaries from nearly every affiliated entity. There are significant related-party transactions, high mutual fund expense ratios, and cross-holdings that make it hard to fully untangle the ownership web. The biggest red flag is a recent 1-for-1000 reverse split at Bexil, which could be a signal of a future “going dark” strategy. That said, there’s no substantial debt, minimal cash burn, and you're still buying hard assets at a steep discount. If management leaves things alone, the valuation gap could eventually close on its own. If they don’t, there’s real downside. High risk, high reward—but for patient deep value investors, this might be worth the headache.
Highland Copper Company $HDRSF
The fourth stock I looked into this month was Highland Copper Company $HDRSF, a Canadian micro-cap miner with two big copper projects in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The more near-term and exciting of the two is the Copperwood Project, which sits on land owned by Keweenaw Land Association ($KEWL). HDRSF holds the mining rights and will owe KEWL a royalty (likely 12–20%) once production begins. The mine is fully permitted, construction-ready, and expected to extract $3.4 billion worth of critical minerals over its 10.7-year life. With copper prices hovering around $4.88/lb and the U.S. facing a supply deficit, Copperwood is in a strong position to attract financing. HDRSF is wrapping up final sitework and environmental commitments now, with a construction decision expected later in 2025. Once greenlit, it’s expected to take 25 months to bring online and reach profitability after just two years of operation.
The company’s second project, White Pine North, is a joint venture with Kinterra Copper, where HDRSF retains a 34% stake. It’s a legacy mine that previously produced over 4.5 billion pounds of copper, but it’s much farther from production—likely a decade or more. HDRSF sold a majority stake in White Pine to focus on Copperwood. If Copperwood moves forward, HDRSF could see a major rerating, especially since it’s one of the few fully permitted copper mines in the U.S. However, the path forward requires ~$425 million in funding—likely through debt or potentially dilutive equity. There’s strong local political support and the possibility of a $50 million state infrastructure grant, but investors should be aware that progress will be lumpy and funding risk is real. If the project is derailed, HDRSF’s upside vanishes. But if it proceeds as planned, this could be one of the few scalable copper pure plays in North America with major upside in a metal the U.S. desperately needs.
Crown Crafts CRWS 0.00%↑
The fifth stock I looked into this month was Crown Crafts $CRWS, a $30.9 million market cap company trading at just $2.98 per share—less than half its $6.68 GAAP NAV. Even under a very conservative DCF model using just 3% revenue growth and a 15% discount rate, I came up with a $6.09 price target, which is still over 100% upside from today’s price. On top of that, the company pays a forward dividend yield of 10.85%. While net income has declined in recent years, it’s largely due to two recent acquisitions—Manhattan Toy and NoJo Baby & Kids—which should eventually drive higher revenues and create operating efficiencies. Once those synergies kick in, margins should expand again. The company owns valuable licensing agreements with powerhouse franchises like Disney, Star Wars, Bluey, and Lego—brands that kids obsess over and parents are more than happy to pay for.
CRWS has a clean balance sheet with manageable debt, $21.75 million in receivables, and nearly $99 million in total assets. Even though it doesn’t own its facilities, the company’s licensing rights and brand equity are uniquely valuable in the baby and toddler category. Sales hit their highest levels since 2015 in fiscal 2024, and with 40% of those sales tied to licensed products, the company has strong brand-driven pricing power. The one big risk? Most of CRWS’s manufacturing is in China, making it vulnerable to tariffs and trade disruptions. That said, any impact would hit competitors equally, leveling the playing field. If tariff pressure eases or CRWS relocates even a portion of its supply chain, there’s a clear path to rerating. With high cash flow potential, a generous dividend, and strong brand assets, this is a small-cap name worth a closer look.
EACO Corporation $EACO
The sixth stock I looked into this month was EACO Corporation $EACO, a quiet but incredibly consistent compounder in the industrial distribution space. With a $41.50 share price and just 4.86 million shares outstanding, this little-known company has grown revenues at an average rate of 17% since 2015 by simply doing one thing very well: supplying tens of thousands of OEMs and manufacturers with the small components they need to operate. EACO, through its subsidiary Bisco Industries, acts as a logistics middleman—sourcing, kitting, packaging, and delivering highly specific, low-cost parts that would be inefficient for manufacturers to procure on their own. They now serve over 10,000 customers across the U.S. and Canada, and they’ve figured out that scaling the sales force is the fastest way to grow profits. In the first half of 2025 alone, they added 31 new sales reps and grew net income by 87.6% year-over-year.
I ran a discounted cash flow analysis using conservative assumptions—13% revenue growth, 8.6% operating margins, and a 12% discount rate—and still landed on a fair value of $88.27 per share, a 112% upside from today’s price. The business is essentially run by one man, Glen Ceiley, who owns 96% of the company’s shares. Normally that kind of control would be a red flag, but in this case, Ceiley’s stewardship has been exceptional. Since 2010, EACO’s stock is up over 500%, and its track record of steady profitability is hard to ignore. While it may not be the flashiest name on a screener, EACO has a straightforward business model, strong operating leverage, and decades of growth ahead if it simply keeps doing what it’s doing—hiring good salespeople and letting compounding work its magic.
Alico Inc. ALCO 0.00%↑
The seventh stock I looked into this month was Alico Inc. $ALCO, a Florida-based landholder that just got a massive revaluation catalyst—quietly. Earlier this June, a private developer paid $92.8 million for 2,700 acres of land directly adjacent to Alico’s Corkscrew Grove, valuing the property at $34,370 per acre or roughly $83,000 per entitled lot. That deal didn’t make headlines, but it should have: Alico owns 4,662 acres next door, and its development plans are significantly more ambitious—allowing for 9,000 residential units, 560k square feet of commercial space, and 140k square feet of civic space. Using the Kingston comp alone implies Corkscrew could be worth $160 million, but if you value it on a per-lot basis like Kingston, the number could hit $747 million. That’s compared to Alico’s current enterprise value of just $313 million.
And that’s just for one property. Alico also owns another 50,000+ acres of land throughout Florida—mostly farmland and ranchland—that could carry hidden value as development creeps inland. There’s no sell-side coverage, no media buzz, and almost no investor attention on this. But if the market catches on—or if Alico sells or spins off Corkscrew—this sleepy ag company could rerate fast. This is a classic hard-asset, deep-value play with asymmetric upside. I’m long ALCO, and I think we’re just beginning to see the story unfold.
Eight Hidden Nano-Caps
For the eighth article I highlighted eight different hidden nano-caps that deserve further research.
Here is a quick blurb on each company I wrote up in this article.
$QIND – Utility SaaS in the UAE
Thesis: Owns 51% of Al Shola Gas, the UAE’s largest independent LPG utility. The business is converting engineering backlogs into high-margin, recurring metered gas revenue.
Catalysts:
Acquisition of remaining 49% of Al Shola
Conversion of $6M+ in backlogs to annuity contracts
Uplist/share swap with parent $HTOO
Valuation: Trades at ~0.2× sales and <6× EBITDA. Re-rating to 1–1.5× sales = 4–6x upside.
$FORD – Turnaround in Motion
Thesis: Shifted to high-margin design-engineering after exiting low-margin segments. Cleaned up governance, brought in turnaround leadership, and fixed the balance sheet.
Catalysts:
“Hospital-at-Home” consortium wins
Use of $35M ATM equity line
Strategic take-out
Valuation: <0.25× sales; 3–6x upside if it rerates to 1× sales or gets acquired.
$CTX.TO – Crescita Therapeutics
Thesis: Canadian derm company trading near net cash, with upside from new product launches and underutilized capacity.
Catalysts:
Aquafolia® brand scale-up
MicronJet™ 600 aesthetics launch
Pliaglis® global licensing deals
Valuation: C$9.6M market cap with C$9.3M in cash. 2×+ upside if base case sales materialize.
$AWX – Avalon Holdings
Thesis: Micro-cap with hidden hard assets—600-acre resort and waste management ops. Benefiting from regulatory tailwinds.
Catalysts:
EPA e-Manifest mandate
Approval of two saltwater disposal wells
Active insider accumulation
Valuation: Trades at <3× FY-26 EBITDA; 150–200% upside with limited downside risk.
$IDW – IP Library with Streaming Upside
Thesis: Turnaround in progress under new CEO (who sold Straight Path for $3B). Operating cash flow turned positive, expenses cut.
Catalysts:
Monster High deal with Mattel
Upcoming relisting (1-for-100 reverse split)
Valuation: 0.3× sales; re-rating or a streaming hit could deliver 2–5x upside.
$VASO – Undervalued Health IT Platform
Thesis: Three-segment health IT company with $25M in cash and no debt—effectively negative EV. Large deferred commissions and scalable SaaS upside.
Catalysts:
SaaS (ARCS Cloud) growth
Backlog conversion
Insider buying & no dilution
Valuation: 0.5× sales would double the stock; further upside if SaaS takes off.
$TREP – Afinida Payroll Engine
Thesis: Profitable, recurring-revenue payroll SaaS platform trading at just 0.1× sales and 1.6× earnings.
Catalysts:
June 2025 rebrand and governance refresh
OTCQB uplisting
Cross-sell & M&A optionality
Valuation: Peer comps imply 3–4x upside. Some past governance risk, but improving.
$FDCT – Fintech Roll-Up
Thesis: Acquiring global brokers and folding them into a proprietary trading/tech stack. Revenue doubled in 2024; strong margins.
Catalysts:
Condor platform expansion
Investing app launch (late 2025)
More license approvals across EU/UK/AU
Valuation: Trades at steep discount; roll-up + tech stack = ideal small-cap compounder.
IDW Media Holdings $IDWM
The ninth stock I looked into this month was IDW Media Holdings $IDWM, a tiny media and publishing company that looks like it’s finally hitting an inflection point. After years of failed bets on original content, IDW is pivoting hard into established, high-value intellectual properties like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Trek, and My Little Pony. The company has cleaned house under Executive Chairman Davidi Jonas—who previously sold Straight Path to Verizon for $3.1 billion—cutting SG&A by $2.3 million, reducing net losses by 71%, and turning operating cash flow positive. Despite all this progress, the stock still trades at just a $17.2 million market cap with $8.5 million in cash and no debt, giving it an enterprise value of under $9 million. A 100:1 reverse stock split was recently completed, setting the stage for a potential uplisting to OTCQX or NASDAQ.
That said, it’s not without risk. The bankruptcy of longtime distributor Diamond Comic Distributors—who accounted for up to 20% of IDW’s sales—creates near-term uncertainty. But IDW could come out stronger if it can reroute those customers through its main distributor, Penguin Random House, and capture better margins. In the meantime, it’s already striking new deals like a Monster High comic series with Mattel to rebuild revenue. If Jonas can keep the turnaround on track and get the company relisted or back to profitability, IDW could easily double or more. But it won’t be a smooth ride—this is a volatile, battleground stock that requires patience and a strong stomach.
Conclusion
This month’s research reinforces what I’ve believed for years: the best opportunities in the market are often hiding in plain sight—among overlooked nano-caps, illiquid value traps with hidden catalysts, and misunderstood businesses sitting on real assets or recurring cash flow. From legacy manufacturers like IEH and Crown Crafts to land-rich plays like Alico and Keweenaw, and distressed media turnarounds like IDW, each idea on this list has something unique going for it. Some are profitable, others are on the brink, and a few require more patience than most investors are willing to give—but in every case, the risk/reward skew remains compelling. These are the kinds of setups where one or two successful outcomes can drive massive outperformance across a concentrated portfolio.
At The Value Road, the goal isn’t to chase what’s hot—it’s to find what’s ignored. And this batch of names highlights just how much alpha is left behind when Wall Street isn’t paying attention. If you're willing to dig through filings, think long term, and tolerate the volatility that comes with small, thinly traded stocks, these are exactly the kinds of businesses that can go from forgotten to five-baggers. As always, do your own research—and stay curious. The next big opportunity probably isn’t trending on Twitter. It’s buried in a footnote.
I’d say most of these names are where they are for a reason
Any VASO catalysts in sight? Been dead money since that failed SPAC.