"A regime change, if you will, is taking place in the market, where small caps are going to do better," said Francis Gannon, co-chief investment officer at Royce Investment Partners, which focuses on small caps.
Now investors are pointing to the recent rally as proof that small caps are on the verge of a prolonged period of outperformance.
'Massively outperform' Michael Sesser, equity portfolio manager of the $558-million DWS Small Cap Core fund, believes small caps will "massively outperform" large caps over the next five to 10 years.
Cantaloupe , a retail service digital payments company with a $373 million market cap, and medical imaging provider RadNet ($1.2 billion market cap) are among Sesser's picks.
DWS Small Cap also owns metallurgical coal producers serving the steel industry, namely Alpha Metallurgical Resources ($2.7 billion market cap), Arch Resources ($2.6 billion market cap) and Peabody Energy ($4.2 billion market cap).