While most of Wall Street focuses on large-cap and mega-cap stocks, as they provide a degree of safety and liquidity, many investors are limited in the number of shares they can buy. Many of the biggest public companies, especially the technology giants, trade in the hundreds, all the way up to over $1,000 per share or more. At those steep prices, it is difficult to get any decent share count leverage.

Many investors, especially more aggressive traders, look at lower-priced stocks as a way to not only make some good money but to get a higher share count. That can really help the decision-making process, especially when you are on to a winner, as you can always sell half and keep half.

We screened our 24/7 Wall St. research database looking for smaller cap companies that could very well offer patient investors some huge returns the rest of 2021 and beyond. Many of the biggest companies in the world, including Apple and Amazon, traded in the single digits at one time.

While all five of the following stocks are rated Buy, it is important to remember that no single analyst report should be used as a sole basis for any buying or selling decision.

Akerna

This off-the radar company and has the potential to be a huge winner with the Senate signaling possible marijuana legalization. Akerna Corp. (NASDAQ: KERN) offers the MJ Platform, an enterprise resource planning system to the cannabis industry, and Leaf Data Systems, a tracking system designed for government agencies.

The company also provides consulting services to the cannabis industry. Its business intelligence infrastructure as a service tool delivers supply chain analytics for the cannabis, hemp and CBD industries. Last Call Analytics is a subscription analytics tool for alcohol brands to analyze their retail sales analytics. In addition, the company operates a seed-to-sale platform that allows cultivators to track and report various stages of their cannabis growing operations, production and sales processes.

Akerna also offers cannabis cultivation management and software to manage and optimize operational workflow in business analytics, as well as cannabis tracking technology that provides seed-to-sale-to-self data.

Lake Street just started coverage with an $8 target for the shares, the same as the Wall Street consensus target. The shares closed on Friday at $3.43.