Maybe not right now. With meltdowns at AIG (nyse: AIG - news - people ), Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news - people ) and Wachovia (nyse: WB - news - people ), the S&P 500 dropped 28% over the past 12 months while gross domestic product growth slowed to a crawl. The Russell 2000, made up of smaller fish, is down 18% over the same period.

With that in mind, we identified the strongest small public outfits in a very tough time for our list of the 200 Best Small Companies in America. To qualify, companies must have sales between $5 million and $750 million and a stock price of $5 as of Sept. 29. The ranking is based on return on equity, sales growth and profit growth over the past 12 months and also over five years. We also compare a company's stock performance with that of its industry peers.