Every cycle produces its set of glamour stocks—the names everyone models, trades, and debates. But for every market darling, there are dozens of companies sitting quietly in the corner, overlooked and under-analyzed. These are the orphan stocks—businesses ignored by Wall Street, lightly covered by analysts, and often mispriced as a result.
They don't fit the dominant narratives of the day. They're too small for institutions to bother with, too messy to screen cleanly, or simply too boring to attract attention. And that is precisely why they can be so rewarding for patient investors.
Companies become orphaned for structural and behavioral reasons. Many are simply too small for big funds to own without moving the price. Others operate in unfashionable industries—like greenhouses, restaurant franchises, or crafting hardware—that don't spark institutional excitement. Some fall through the cracks after spin-offs, restructurings, or bankruptcies, when index funds and legacy shareholders dump the stock because it no longer fits their mandate. Thin trading volumes, limited media coverage, and scarce research coverage reinforce this neglect.
The lack of attention creates pricing inefficiencies. Benjamin Graham observed that "even a mere lack of interest or enthusiasm may impel a price decline to absurdly low levels." Joel Greenblatt built an entire special situations strategy around that idea, buying shares in spin-offs, post-bankruptcy equities, and restructurings that others ignored.
Academic research confirms this intuition. The neglected firm effect and investor recognition hypothesis both suggest that companies with little investor attention tend to trade at lower valuations, offering higher expected returns until that attention gap closes. When recognition eventually arrives—whether through earnings strength, strategic interest, or simply time—the re-rating can be swift and powerful.
Three Underfollowed Candidates
To make this concrete, let's look at three companies that fit the orphan stock profile: Village Farms International (NASDAQ:VFF), Cricut (NASDAQ:CRCT), and Rave Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:RAVE). Each sits in a neglected corner of the market. None are mainstream names, but each has tangible assets, real operations, and valuations that don't reflect their full potential.
Village Farms International (VFF)
Village Farms began as a greenhouse produce grower, supplying fresh vegetables across North America. Over the past decade, it has leveraged its large greenhouse footprint and power infrastructure to pivot toward cannabis and cannabinoid products through its Pure Sunfarms subsidiary in Canada and Balanced Health operations in the U.S. It has also begun exporting to Europe, particularly the Netherlands, positioning itself as a low-cost, high-efficiency grower in a market that is steadily liberalizing.
The company generated roughly $59.9 million in quarterly revenue and close to $20 million in net income in its most recent quarter. It is systematically pruning its lower-margin legacy produce business and reallocating capital toward higher-margin verticals. Beneath the surface, the company owns valuable greenhouse and power assets that are not fully reflected in its current share price.
From a valuation perspective, VFF trades at less than 1x book value, even though it has profitable operations, real assets, and positive free cash flow. It sits in the market's penalty box due to its small size, cannabis exposure, and a legacy produce segment that clouds the story. But those are precisely the conditions that produce mispricing in orphan stocks.
Cricut (CRCT)
Cricut makes computer-controlled cutting machines and software that allow home crafters to design and cut materials ranging from paper to leather. Its proprietary Cricut Design Space software powers a growing ecosystem of accessories and consumables, creating a razor-and-blade model in a niche but loyal market.
The company went public in 2021, and after an initial wave of enthusiasm, investor attention disappeared. Crafting doesn't fit neatly into growth or value buckets, so coverage is limited. Yet Cricut has a strong community, recurring consumables revenue, and an installed hardware base that drives repeat spending.
The stock currently trades at roughly 12x EV/EBIT, a discount to many branded consumer hardware and platform peers despite its attractive recurring revenue component. While growth has slowed post-pandemic, Cricut continues to generate consistent cash flow and maintains a strong balance sheet. It's a quintessential orphan: a profitable, niche business with limited Wall Street coverage and a valuation that reflects indifference rather than deterioration.
Rave Restaurant Group (RAVE)
Rave is the smallest of the three and perhaps the most "classic" orphan. It operates Pizza Inn and Pie Five Pizza Co. through a mix of franchised and company-owned stores. Annual revenue sits around $12 million, with net income of roughly $2.7 million.
Rave combines low-capital franchise fees and royalties with operating leverage in company-owned units, giving it two distinct earnings streams. Incremental improvements in unit economics or modest franchising growth can move the valuation meaningfully at this scale.
The market values the entire company at only about 7–8x EV/EBIT, a low multiple for a franchisor with even modest profitability. Its small size and unfashionable positioning keep institutions away, but if management can continue to execute and modestly expand, the upside from multiple expansion alone could be meaningful.
Orphan stocks are not momentum stories. They're not bets on a single quarter or headline. They're businesses operating in the shadows, often priced cheaply because no one is paying attention. Village Farms, Cricut, and Rave each sit outside the market spotlight, but all three combine real businesses with valuations that reflect neglect, not doom.
Joel Greenblatt once described companies as being "on a little journey towards fair value over time." For orphan stocks, that journey starts in obscurity and ends with recognition. The patient investor willing to buy when no one cares, do the work, and wait for the market to catch up can often earn outsized returns—not by taking extraordinary risks, but by looking where others refuse to.
