This small-cap stock strategy shines by riding the beat-and-raise trend
Brandon Nelson of Calamos Investments identifies companies primed for sustainable growth and improving profit margins.

Based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Mama's Creations, Inc., established in 2010, specializes in the production and distribution of various chilled, ready-to-eat ...
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Est. EPS $0.06 · Revenue $56.81M · 4 analysts
Est. EPS $0.08 · Revenue $60.79M · 1 analysts
Est. EPS $0.23 · Revenue $223.23M · 5 analysts
Est. EPS $0.07 · Revenue $58.71M · 1 analysts
| Metric | Latest | YoYYoY means Year-over-Year. It compares the latest annual value with the previous annual value to show long-term trend strength. | QoQQoQ means Quarter-over-Quarter. It compares the latest quarter with the immediately previous quarter to show short-term momentum changes. |
|---|---|---|---|
| RevenueThe total money that came through the front door from selling things, before paying a single bill. Think of it as the grand total of every credit card swipe from customers. (YoY compares this year to last year's performance, while QoQ compares the current three months to the previous three). | $171.7M | +39.2% | +3.4% |
| Net IncomeThe absolute bottom line. If the company paid every single supplier, employee, banker, and tax collector, this is the actual money left in their pocket at the end of the day. | $5.3M | +42.4% | +24.7% |
| Gross MarginThe basic markup. If they sell a $100 pair of sneakers, this percentage tells you how much of that price tag is profit right after paying for the rubber and shoelaces, but before paying for things like store rent or TV commercials. | +25.1% | +1.3% | +1.7% |
| Operating MarginThe 'day job' efficiency score. Out of every dollar a customer spends, this shows how many cents the company keeps after making the product AND paying for all the everyday corporate overhead (like salaries, marketing, and keeping the lights on). | +4.9% | +23.9% | +8.6% |
| Net MarginThe final take-home percentage. When you strip away every conceivable cost, tax, and interest payment, this is the exact number of cents the company truly gets to keep from every dollar in sales. | +3.1% | +2.3% | +20.5% |
| Free Cash FlowThe holy grail of corporate cash. It's the spendable, physical money left over after the business pays for its daily operations AND buys the big, expensive upgrades (like new factories or servers) it needs to survive. This is the 'free' money they can use to pay dividends or buy back stock. | $9.8M | +11811.0% | +23.6% |
| FCF MarginThe ultimate cash conversion rate. It shows how good the company is at turning regular sales directly into cold, hard, spendable cash. A high percentage means the business is an absolute cash-printing machine. | +5.7% | +8454.7% | +19.5% |
| Debt / EquityThe financial risk gauge. It compares how much of the company's empire was built using borrowed money (loans) versus the owners' own money (shareholders). A high number means they are heavily leveraged and playing a riskier game; a low number means they are playing it safe. | 27.5% | -32.3% | -82.9% |
| Current RatioThe 12-month survival check. It simply compares the cash they have right now (plus things they can quickly turn into cash) against the immediate bills they absolutely must pay this year. A score above 1 means they have enough in the wallet to cover the upcoming bills without panicking. | 2.17x | +68.9% | +198.2% |
| Total AssetsThe absolute size of the company's empire. It bundles together absolutely everything of value they own—from the cash in the register and the inventory in the warehouse, to the software patents in the vault and the factories on the ground. | $85.7M | +82.1% | +130.1% |
| Metric | Annual (A vs E) | Annual Surprise | Quarter (A vs E) | Quarter Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPS Surprise | 0.13 vs 0.11 | +21.9% | 0.06 vs 0.05 | +26.3% |
| Revenue Surprise | $171.7M vs $170.4M | +0.8% | $54.6M vs $52.9M | +3.3% |
| Date | Executive | Title | Security | Side | Shares | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 8, 2026 | Tappan Moore III | officer: Chief Operating Officer | Common Stock | D | 472 | $18.65 |
| Jul 6, 2026 | Janeway Dean | director | Common Stock | A | 2,200 | — |
| Jul 6, 2026 | HALVIN FRED | director | Common Stock | A | 2,200 | — |
| Jul 6, 2026 | Blake Lynn Larson | director | Common Stock | A | 2,200 | — |
| Jul 6, 2026 | Henson Meghan | director | Common Stock | A | 2,200 | — |
Operator: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Mama's Creations, Inc. Second Quarter Fiscal 2027 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This conference is being recorded today, Thursday, September 3, 2026, and the earnings press release accompanying this conference call was issued after the market closed today. On our call today is Mama's Creations Chairman and CEO, Adam L. Michaels, and CFO, Anthony Gruber. Before we get started, I'd like to note that some of the statements on this call will be forward-looking statements that reflect management's current expectations about future operating and financial results. Although management believes their expectations and assumptions are reasonable, they remain subject to significant risks and uncertainty, and actual results for future periods may differ materially from what is stated or implied during today's call. For more information, please refer to the forward-looking statement section in today's press release and the risk factors disclosed in the company's most recent Form 10-K and any subsequent reports it files with the SEC. Please also note that today's call will include a discussion of adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Important information, including required disclosures containing a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, is also detailed in today's press release. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Chairman and CEO, Adam L. Michaels. Adam, the floor is yours. Adam Michaels: Thank you, Luke, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. I'd like to welcome you to our second quarter fiscal '27 financial results conference call. The second quarter was another step change quarter for Mama's. Thanks to the creativity of our sales team, the resilience of our operations team, and the increased capacity from the acquisition of Bay Shore, we grew revenue 55% to $54.6 million and expanded adjusted EBITDA 69% to $5.5 million. Though the real story of this quarter is not the impressive growth rate, but the shape of it. Every single bottom line metric grew faster than revenue. Income from operations, adjusted EBITDA, and net income, which more than doubled. Overheads did not grow with the business. It shrank as a share of it, and gross margin turned back up sequentially as the items we launched in Q1 settled into steady-state production, with room still to run. Anthony will take you through the detail, but what I want you to hear is the sequence, because it is exactly the one we laid out three months ago. Invest into the launch, then harvest the leverage. And this team delivered without skipping even a beat on new distribution gains. Looking forward to potential future M&A, we also fundamentally changed the kind of transaction this company is capable of pursuing. Following our recent offering, we closed the quarter with over $138 million cash war chest and virtually no debt, supported by the strong …
| Name | Title | Compensation | Gender | Year Born | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adam L. Michaels | Chief Executive Officer & Chairman | USD 880,000 | Male | 1977 | Active |
Moore Tappan | Chief Operating Officer | USD 477,500 | Male | 1967 | Active |
Anthony J. Gruber | Chief Financial Officer | USD 450,000 | Male | 1969 | Active |
Luke Zimmerman | Managing Director of Investor Relations | — | — | — | Active |
Chris Darling | Chief Commercial Officer | — | Male | — | Active |
Scott Shaffer | Senior Vice President of Sales | — | Male | — | Active |
Daniel Dougherty Mancini | Co-Founder | — | — | — | Active |
Joselina Peralta | Chief Procurement Officer & Senior Vice President of End to End Supply Chain | — | Female | — | Active |
Lauren Sella | Chief Marketing Officer | — | Female | — | Active |
Anthony Morello | President of T&L Creative Salads and The Olive Branch | — | Male | — | Active |
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