Today's LikeFolio spotlight post comes from an extremely bright LikeFolio intern, Ian Dewey.

Ian is a rising sophomore at Miami University studying computer science. He is involved in performing arts and enoys music in his free time.

You should hear him play the piano and guitar.

This Summer, Ian has been highly involved in opportunity spotting and in-depth research -- penning a handful of articles over the last month.

Here is his top pick looking ahead -- we hope you enjoy!

Intern Spotlight: Semrush (SEMR)

When I first inquired about the world of investing, long before I could ever open a brokerage account of my own, my grandfather introduced me to a friend of his who was an avid investor.

We met over lunch and I berated him with my curiosity and in return he gave me all sorts of advice that he'd learned over his years as an active investor.

One such bit of advice was that the stock market is a voting machine in the short term, but a weighing machine over the long run, advice I later learned as the conviction of financial analyst Benjamin Graham.

So when doing research on companies, I tend to enjoy the small-cap finds, whose coverage is seldom compared to the flurry around mega-caps, allowing the companies performance to speak for itself.

LikeFolio data also excels in finding the winners among the small-caps, giving us an edge.

With the growing number of internet users, digital media consumption, and increased marketing budgets, the digital advertising market is undergoing a significant amount of growth. So I started my search there.

Looking at the small-cap opportunities, a key player in this market emerged, which leverages its technology to provide insights into the online presence and marketing success of companies.

This small-cap powerhouse, trusted by 30% of all Fortune 500 companies as their go-to marketing tool, offers a robust suite of tools setting itself apart with an all-in-one platform that integrates data from websites and social media.

Enter Semrush Holdings, Inc. (SEMR), the company leading this charge.

Semrush Capabilities

Semrush offers a plethora of features including including search engine optimization (SEO), market research, and website audits.

These tools are available to it's customers through various plans and add-ons that fit a wide range of needs from small business to huge enterprises. These plans allow Semrush to operate on an annual recurring revenue (ARR) model.

Semrush was an early adopter of AI, and has incorporated the technology throughout its platform. This has boosted the personalization, automation, and efficiency of its platform with features like ContentShake AI, which generates location specific content.

Semrush has also adapted to the rise in AI by being one of the first to monitor search results from Google's AI overview.

This past quarter saw Semrush acquire two other SaaS platforms, Brand24 and Ryte. Both acquisitions boosted Semrush's capabilities with Brand24 improving data insights and Ryte offering elevated client solutions.

Financial Growth

In it's relatively short history as a public company, Semrush has had strong financial growth with recorded revenue that has gone in the same direction: up and to the right.

Semrush reported Q2 earnings at the start of this week with quarterly revenue posted at $91 Million, a 22% YoY growth, beating expectations.

Semrush's bottom line is not as strong, as the company has only recently become profitable, with this past quarter marking its first full year outside the red. Semrush is also debt free.

It's EPS for Q2 was $0.01, a miss from the expected $0.03. However, this is largely due to the company reinvesting in itself with rising R&D expenses and the aforementioned acquisitions.

Nearly 65% of the company is held by insiders and in the last 6 months, insider buying has led to 1.1 million net shares purchased by insiders, showing strong confidence from the companies executives.

Consumer Metrics

Total paying customer count for Semrush sits at 116,000, a 4% increase from the previous quarter. The company also has an additional 1,125,000 registered free active customers.

Semrush executives have highlighted their up-sell and cross-sell strategies to increase the average revenue per customer, and with a large consumer base, there is plenty of room for growth.

The success of this strategy is evident in the companies net revenue retention, which sits at 107%

According to LikeFolio consumer happiness data, Semrush hosts at a very healthy 81%, significantly higher than some of its SEO and marketing software competitors.

Web traffic is also strong for Semrush, with visits at a higher volume than its alternatives.

Here is how investors could play this moving forward...

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