We recently published a list of the 10 Best Rising Penny Stocks to Buy According to Analysts. In this article, we are going to take a look at where HF Foods Group Inc. (NASDAQ:HFFG) stands against other best rising penny stocks to buy according to analysts.

Small-Cap Performance in Q1 2025

The start of 2025 was characterized by a series of challenges for the US equities across the board. Tariffs, inflationary concerns, the risk of recession, and loss of consumer confidence, all led to the small-cap Russell 2000 Index falling 9.5% and the large-cap Russell 1000 Index falling 4.5%. On April 1, Royce Investment released its fiscal first quarter outlook for small-cap stocks. Francis Gannon, who is the Co-Chief Investment Officer, and Managing Director, noted that while the large-cap outperformed the small-caps, however, this performance was not concentrated among the Magnificent Seven, which has dominated the market previously. This is evident from the fact that the Russell Top 50 Index fell 7.6%, whereas the NASDAQ Composite was down more than 10.3%. Gannon highlighted that while the small-cap stocks underperformed the large caps, however, the divergence from the Mag Seven is a positive trend for the small-cap stocks. He noted that historically speaking the broadening of the market away from the top few stocks has meant good things for the small caps in the long term. Moreover, while dissecting the performance of small-cap equities during the downturn, Gannon noted that the Russell 2000 Value Index held better as compared to the Russell 2000 Growth Index. The small-cap value stocks have outperformed the growth counterparts over 1 and 5-year comparisons. However, when looked up from a 10-year standpoint the performance for both categories remains the same. Gannon further pointed out that during the first quarter of 2025, the biggest detractors of the Index were Information Technology, Industrials, Health Care, and Consumer Discretionary, while Utilities was the only positive contributor. Lasty, Gannon shared his experience of being a small-cap investment strategist for over 50 years. He highlighted it is still too early to tell if the first quarter drop for small-cap stocks was only short-term or indicates a long-term period of falling, however, he noted that corrections are common for the small-cap investors. Gannon advised investors to learn to be greedy when others are fearful and vice versa if they are interested in small caps. Moreover, looking at the stocks from a valuation standpoint, small caps remain largely undervalued as compared to large caps and Gannon advised the key to tackling periods of uncertainty is to remain invested.

Our Methodology

To compile the list of the 10 best-rising penny stocks to buy according to analysts, we used the Finviz stock screener and CNN. Using the screener, we aggregated the list of penny stocks (trading between $1 and $5) with more than 30% share price appreciation over the past month, and more than 30% average upside potential. Lastly, we sorted the list by market capitalization and ranked the stocks in ascending order of the number of hedge funds sourced from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 database. Please note that the data was collected on April 17, 2025. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points ( see more details here). An aerial view of a large warehouse full of food storage containers.

HF Foods Group Inc. (NASDAQ:HFFG)

Price: $3.99 1-Month Performance: 63.52% Analyst Upside Potential: 75.44% Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 2 HF Foods Group Inc. (NASDAQ:) is a Chinese marketer and distributor of fresh, frozen, and dry food. It primarily serves Asian and Chinese restaurants as well as some customers across the United States. The company made significant progress in fiscal 2024. HF Foods Group Inc. (NASDAQ:HFFG) has been working to capitalize on the growth opportunities in the Asian food services market. During the fiscal fourth quarter of 2024, the company generated $305.3 million in revenue up 8.7% year-over-year. This growth was driven by the volume growth with new wholesale accounts and improved pricing for some categories. In addition, the management of HF Foods Group Inc. (NASDAQ:HFFG) has been able to reduce its distribution, selling, and administrative expenses as a percentage of net revenue, which helped take revenue higher. Moreover, the company is expanding intHFFGo high-growth channels including the specialty grocery and e-commerce to reduce its reliance on the restaurant segment which has been facing pressure due to inflation. It is one of the best-rising penny stocks to buy according to analysts. Overall, HFFG ranks 6th on our list of best rising penny stocks to buy according to analysts. While we acknowledge the potential of HFFG to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than HFFG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now  and  30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at  Insider Monkey .