I've been looking at some interesting plays in the OTC markets lately, and honestly, a lot of people sleep on these. Most think OTC means penny stocks on the verge of collapse, but that's not always the case. Some of the best OTC stocks actually come from established companies that just chose not to list on major exchanges for their own reasons.

Let me break down a few that caught my attention:

BAE Systems (BAESY) is a solid defensive play. The UK's largest defense contractor pulls 75% of its revenue from outside the UK, which is pretty interesting. With everything heating up geopolitically, defense spending tends to follow. The stock's been range-bound since 2015, but if European defense spending picks up, this could move. What I like here is the dividend hitting around 4.5% - you're getting paid while you wait. The forward P/E is sitting around 15, which is way below the 5-year average of 31.5.

Sberbank (SBRCY) is the kind of name that makes people nervous because Russia. But if you can get past the noise, there's something there. It's the largest bank in Russia, holding more assets than the next six competitors combined. The valuation is dirt cheap - P/E around 5 - despite revenues growing nearly 19% annually over five years. Dividends have been climbing too, now around 4.65%. Yeah, there's geopolitical risk, but that's already priced in.

SoftBank (SFTBY) is basically a tech mutual fund. You're getting exposure to Yahoo Japan, Uber, WeWork, plus their massive 28% stake in Alibaba and 83% of Sprint. They reported 49% earnings growth recently, driven by WeWork and Flipkart investments. The stock's trading less than 10% off its all-time high. These are the kinds of best OTC stocks that act like a portfolio rather than a single company.

Tencent (TCEHY) is the heavyweight here - $423 billion market cap makes it the largest OTC stock out there. It's everywhere in China: gaming, social networks, payments, ecommerce. The forward P/E sits at 31, which sounds high until you remember Amazon trades at way more. For 20% less growth, you're getting a sixth of the valuation on a company dominating the Chinese market.

The thing about OTC stocks is they're not all risky. Some of these are just foreign companies that wanted to test the US market without jumping through all the regulatory hoops. If you're willing to dig past the surface, there are some genuinely solid opportunities here.