Been noticing something interesting as we head deeper into 2026. The big banks just wrapped up earnings season, and Wall Street's pretty optimistic about the year ahead. That's got a lot of people looking to add quality positions to their portfolios right now.

One thing I've been paying attention to is the opportunity in cheaper stocks—specifically the ones trading under $10 a share. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but hear me out. There's actually a solid difference between the speculative penny stocks (under $5) and the more stable low stocks to buy in that $5-$10 range. The latter tends to get less attention but can offer real value if you're selective.

The thing is, most investors overlook this segment because they assume cheap automatically means risky. But if you apply some basic filters—looking for solid trading volume, improving analyst estimates, and strong fundamental ratings—you can actually find some gems. I'm talking stocks with real earnings growth and multiple analyst coverage, not just random tickers.

I actually screened through a bunch of these low-priced stocks to buy recently and one that caught my eye was GROY, a gold royalty company. Here's why it stood out: their earnings estimates have been climbing hard since Q3, especially as the whole gold rush intensified globally. They're positioned to grow revenue like crazy—we're talking 66% growth this year and potentially 133% next year if projections hold.

What makes this interesting is how gold royalties work. GROY essentially gets a cut of mining revenue without bearing all the operational risk. As gold prices stay elevated (central banks are still buying, geopolitical tensions persist, all that stuff), these royalty plays convert that into higher margins. The company's expected to swing from losses to profitability, which is the kind of inflection point that tends to get institutional attention.

The stock's already had an impressive run—up 285% over the past year—but analysts still see upside from current levels. Plus the whole mining-gold sector is performing well relative to the broader market.

Look, I'm not saying throw all your money at cheap stocks under $10. But if you're strategic about it, applying real screening criteria instead of just picking random tickers, there's definitely opportunity in this space right now. The key is finding the ones with improving fundamentals and analyst support, not just the ones with the lowest price tag.