Investors who target growth may want to consider investing in the following small-cap stocks as they represent companies whose trailing 12-month pro forma earnings per share advanced significantly on a year-over-year basis.

Furthermore, Wall Street sell-side analysts are forecasting that these stocks will continue increasing their earnings over the next several years, which has encouraged them to issue optimistic recommendation ratings.

Mitek Systems

The first stock to consider is Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK), a San Diego-based developer and seller of mobile image capture and digital identity verification solutions in the U.S. and internationally. The stock has a market capitalization of

These companies may attract the interest of investors because they have increased their capital spending significantly over the past five years. Such spending suggests that these companies likely have expectations for higher demand for their products and/or services, which would in turn produce higher sales.

Thus, investors may want to consider the following stocks as they are expected to post higher-than-average earnings per share (EPS) over the next five years following years of massive allocation of funds to capital spending for business growth.

Alibaba Group Holding

The first company that meets the above-listed criteria is Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA),

U.S. stocks were in positive territory on Monday, leaving behind some fears regarding the U.S.-China trade dispute.The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.14% to 24,423, the S&P 500 index gained 0.18% to 2,637 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.74% to 7,020.

Shares of Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK) rose 8.7% on Monday after ASG Technologies Group increased its previous buyout offer to $11.50 per share in cash.

In a letter sent to the Mitek board of directors two weeks ago, ASG CEO Charles Sansbury said that the new offer price is a 73% premium the Oct. 9 price.

Further, the

According to [url=http://www.gurufocus.com/InsiderBuy.php]GuruFocus Insider Data[/url], these are the largest CEO sales during the past week: Five Prime Therapeutics Inc, Mitek Systems Inc, Zix Corp, and American Airlines Group Inc.

Five Prime Therapeutics Inc (FPRX): President and CEO Lewis T Williams sold 75,000 Shares

President and CEO of Five Prime Therapeutics Inc (FPRX) Lewis T Williams sold 75,000 shares on 06/22/2015 at an average price of $24.67. Five Prime Therapeutics Inc has a market cap of $630.481 million; its shares were traded at around $24.57 with and P/S ratio of 27.30.

Five Prime Therapeutics Inc. recognized revenues of $4.3 million and