As 2024 shifts into full swing and 2023 moves firmly into the rear-view mirror, we've seen lots of roundups of the best-performing stocks or the best stocks of a particular sector. However, what we haven't seen is a roundup of the most attention-grabbing stocks of 2023.
Publicly traded companies attract attention for lots of different reasons, and in many cases, public relations and investor relations played important roles in capturing the spotlight in 2023. Now as we look ahead to the rest of 2024, we can learn some lessons from the strategies that helped companies capture the public spotlight in 2023.
Why certain stocks attract attention
Before sharing the list of the most attention-grabbing stocks of 2023, let's discuss why some companies attract more attention than others. Of course, extreme performance — either to the upside or downside — has always been a catalyst for attracting attention.
However, performance isn't always enough. In fact, a review of the highest-performing stocks on any given day or week reveals many names that have outperformed their peers and the market dramatically, but a search for headlines about them doesn't turn up any.
Small-cap companies in particular need a story to share with investors, and if that story isn't told, they may not see any time in the sun, even if they happen to outperform on a single day or week.
Aside from stock-price performance, companies can also attract attention through:
- Exciting partnerships or M&A
- Pipeline or product updates
- Earnings
- Growth
- Participation in a trending industry
- Other interesting or exciting narratives driven by IR and PR efforts
The top attention-grabbing stocks of 2023
Of course, grabbing Wall Street's attention can be a real challenge, especially for smaller companies. However, with some thoughtful, intentional narratives around their big news focus, virtually any company can capture some headlines — and the interest needed to attract analyst coverage and investor due diligence.
Now without further ado, let's take some time to celebrate some of the big PR and IR wins of 2023. To be clear, these are not stocks I'm actually recommending, but rather, stocks with interesting narratives that drove their stories in 2023. They've been broken down into several themes.
Impact stock diversification
One of the most interesting themes of 2023 was impact investing, but not in a general way. We actually started to see companies in some sectors that are not traditionally considered impact sectors begin to adopt the impact narrative for themselves.
For example, biotech companies like Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR), BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics (BCLI) and Fate Therapeutics (FATE) all have interesting impact-oriented narratives. As a result, biotech can offer ways to diversify your impact portfolio, although it may take some extra digging to uncover impact-oriented biotech names.
In fact, virtually any sector could offer some names with impact narratives, providing even greater potential for diversification beyond the traditional impact sectors like electric vehicles and green energy.
Names like the metals company (TMC), which is building up a repository of metals for use and reuse in EVs and low-carbon energy, can provide alternative ways to tap into the green-energy market. TMC is unique as it addresses both the metals and mining sector and green energy.
Health tech
One other area of interest is health technology. The introduction of wearables like the Apple Watch caused interest in health tech to spike a few years ago, but innovation in this space has not died down even if some of the hype has.
For example, Zynex (ZYXI) addresses one of the most critical and growing areas of unmet need within healthcare: chronic pain. The company has developed several medical devices to help improve the quality of life of patients with intractable pain or functional disability.
Zynex has also developed an interesting neurological re-learning tool that teaches healthy parts of the brain how to take over functions that were lost due to a stroke.
Psychedelics
Speaking of pain, a growing number of companies are developing psychedelic treatments, mostly for emotional pain and mental health issues, although there may be one or two in development for physical pain as well. In fact, President Joe Biden recently signed a defense bill funding research into psychedelics like psilocybin.
Additionally, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears set to pave the way for the first MDMA-assisted therapy. The non-profit MAPS Public Benefit Corporation recently became the first to submit a new drug application to the FDA for such a therapy. Several biotech firms now look poised to seek approval for other psychedelic treatments in the near future.
The number of biotech companies developing psychedelic treatments is growing rapidly, as is the number of conditions those treatments are targeting. Some companies that addressing the growing psychedelic trend include GH Research (GHRS), Bright Minds Biosciences (DRUG) and Seelos Therapeutics (SEEL).
Climate tech
Climate-related technologies have been an area of focus for years, but what makes this space so especially interesting is the growing number of different ways to tap into it. In the past, companies that make electric vehicles or solar panels captured the lion's share of the attention to climate tech.
However, in 2023, we began to see growing interest in a more diversified climate-tech portfolio that spans the entire breadth of the energy transition. For example, Ascent Solar Technologies (ASTI) develops flexible, thin-film solar panels for use cases in which traditional rigid solar panels don't work. In fact, the company's photovoltaic modules have already been deployed on space missions and in many other non-traditional use cases.
Ideal Power (IPWR) offers an even broader reach across the green-energy transition. The company's bidirectional, bipolar junction transistor, or B-TRAN™, is a bidirectional switch that can replace four conventional devices in a variety of different applications. As a result, this bidirectional power semiconductor can find a wide variety of different use cases within the green-energy transition.
Meanwhile, TPI Composites (TPIC) taps into the wind segment of the transition by manufacturing blades for wind turbines.
Interesting partnerships and M&A
One other avenue PR teams can focus on to capture attention for companies is when they announce interesting partnerships. For example, Renovaro Biosciences (RENB) announced an interesting merger opportunity with artificial-intelligence firm GEDiCube in 2023.
If it completes, the merger will enable Renovaro to utilize GEDiCube's AI technology to improve patient outcomes by detecting diseases sooner and more precisely matching effective treatments to patients.
Another interesting combination was GigaCloud Technology (GCT)'s acquisition of furniture maker Noble House. On the surface, it might seem like an e-commerce solutions provider wouldn't be a strategic match with a furniture maker. However, GigaCloud expects its marketplace to grow even faster with the Noble House integration by enabling it to expand into Canada and increase diversity within its supply chain.
In the area of interesting partnerships, Ocuphire Pharma (OCUP) has a strategic collaboration with Viatris (VTRS) to develop and commercialize its Nyxol eye drops.
How PR and IR use company news to capture attention
No two companies have exactly the same public relations or investor relations needs, so flexibility and creativity are important areas of expertise for PR and IR teams. In fact, some companies have very specialized needs.
For example, firms that are redomiciling, like Incannex Healthcare (IXHL), which is moving from Australia to the U.S., have very specific coverage needs that, if handled correctly, will serve as a platform to launch the company into the spotlight of the market they are relocating to.
Finally, PR and IR are both delicate functions requiring a steady, controlled narrative with a soft touch rather than a heavy-handed approach. It's never good for a company to become overly promotional, issuing an endless stream of what are essentially nuisance press releases that either announce nothing of importance or — in the worst-case scenario — attempt to promote the company's stock.
Ultimately, the key to capturing and holding attention is to steadily share interesting news that captures the attention of editors, something that requires a special touch from your PR or IR team.
Ari Zoldan is CEO of Quantum Media Group, LLC, and Ideal Power, Ascent Solar, Renovaro BioSciences, and Incannex are clients of Quantum Media Group.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Ari Zoldan
Ari Zoldan is the CEO of New York-based Quantum Media Group, LLC. The company provides investor relations, public relations and equity research services to publicly traded companies. As an on-air media personality, Ari can be seen regularly on major media outlets and is frequently quoted in mainstream news outlets covering business, innovation and emerging trends.
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