National days are a chance to reflect proudly on your country. The Americans are no different and today it’s their turn. In the spirit of July the 4th, Stockhead has looked at how US-based ASX small caps have performed in 2019.

The US is the world’s largest economy, stock exchange and technology hub. But some American companies choose to list down under – the most recent being Life360 (ASX:360).

Here’s how they’ve performed in recent months.

What’s hot (and what’s not)

US-based tech and health small caps are up 4 per cent overall in 2019. Ironically, the best performer is trying to solve one of America’s biggest problems — university affordability.

Loan marketplace Credible Labs (ASX:CD1) is up 138 per cent this year. Its growth can be attributed to its diversification beyond college students and into the mortgage and personal loan space.

Moelis wrote a report in April, tipping the company to grow further.

Leading the rest of the pack is obesity fighter GI Dynamics (ASX:GID). While commercialisation is still some way off, testing results have looked promising.

One of the disappointments has been Life360 (ASX:360), which fell around 30 per cent post IPO. It has begun to recover in recent weeks but still sits 17 per cent lower than its IPO price.

Since listing, the ASX has utilised them as an unofficial brand ambassador when luring more US tech firms to list here. CFO Wendell Laidley sat on the ASX’s expert panel at the bourse’s San Francisco networking evening last month.

Semiconductor acquisition spree?

In May we observed a semi conductor acquisition spree in America and wondered whether it would hit our small caps. Earlier this week there was another one: Kokusai Electric is being bought by Intel-supplier Applied Mineral.

But one common acquirer, Broadcom, is currently looking to acquire cyber-security play Symantec in a potential sign it is moving away from semiconductors, at least for now.

This year has been a poor year for the industry and Revasum (ASX:RVS) appears to be suffering from this, down 28 per cent this year.

Semi CEO Ajit Manocha argues the industry will rebound next year irrespective of what happens in the trade war. He noted that semiconductors are the “next oxygen” for the technology sector.

Code Name Price (I) Market Cap YTD Return
CRD CREDIBLE LABS 1.85 $454,843,072.00 138
GID GI DYNAMICS 0.03 $42,524,616.00 58
FLC FLUENCE CORP 0.445 $233,788,320.00 41
BIQ BUILDINGIQ 0.051 $12,631,853.00 34
GMA GENWORTH MORTGAGE INSURANCE 2.84 $1,170,867,456.00 33
BLY BOART LONGYEAR 0.005 $131,481,080.00 25
OMN ONEMARKET 0.685 $70,152,168.00 18
ASW ADVANCED SHARE REGISTRY 0.7 $29,922,550.00 9
IMF IMF BENTHAM 3.03 $615,872,640.00 2
UBI UNIVERSAL BIOSENSORS 0.225 $39,014,316.00 0
SNS SENSEN NETWORKS 0.09 $40,181,224.00 0
CCA CHANGE FINANCIAL 0.05 $4,843,338.00 -14
PVS PIVOTAL SYSTEMS CORP 1.3 $144,868,928.00 -16
RWC RELIANCE WORLDWIDE CORP 3.64 $2,883,845,888.00 -20
RVS REVASUM 1.3 $103,337,344.00 -28
PIN PINCHME.COM 0.1 $13,978,232.00 -35
OSP OSPREY MEDICAL 0.075 $32,384,802.00 -37
PGR THE PAS GROUP 0.14 $17,086,358.00 -42
VTI VISIONEERING TECH 0.058 $17,775,756.00 -63
360 LIFE360 4.01 $577,002,176.00 -17
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