When it comes to top-performing UK penny shares in 2025, Agronomics (LSE: ANIC) looks hard to beat with its 79% gain so far this year.
But Carclo (LSE: CAR) is beating it in style, with a cracking 197% rise year to date. Let’s take a closer look.
Time for growth?
Both these stocks have seen better times in the past. But as with penny shares in general, a low valuation usually tends to be the result of a previously popular stock going through a tough spell. And for each of these two, I see a good case for a renewed growth phase in the next few years.
Agronomics is a venture capital firm that invests in environmentally-friendly alternatives to current food production methods. Fermentation, cell culture growth… those are the kinds of things we’re talking about.
That business has been in the news recently after shares in US-based Beyond Meat soared 450% in a week. At one stage, they were up more than 1,000% before falling back. In that case, it was triggered by ‘meme-stock’ investors who were pumped by traders on a Reddit forum.
A meme-stock spike like that doesn’t usually last long. But it does highlight an underlying interest in alternative food technology.
Profits on the menu?
Agronomics posted a loss in 2024. But the company had £141m in invested assets at the interim stage this year — more than twice the current market cap. And there was £10m in cash and equivalents on the books.
Chair James Mellon spoke of “significant technological and commercial progress, with many of our more mature assets achieving some of the largest financing rounds in the sector“.
I can’t find any earnings forecasts for the company right now. But there’s one analyst recommending the stock with a 14.9p price target — more than double the 7p at the time of writing.
Plastic, fantastic
Carclo, meanwhile, makes plastics — but they’re no ordinary plastics. No, we’re talking about materials used in medical devices, telecoms, aerospace, and for other high-tech needs.
So what happened in 2025? The company turned a reported loss of £3.4m last year into a profit. At £0.9m it’s still only a small profit. But it came from £16.4m in underlying EBITDA. And the results included £19.1m in operational cash generation.
Looking forward, the board said it expects “to continue this positive trajectory through FY26 with continued margin expansion and positive cash generation“.
This sounds like it might be quite exciting, but I see one clear caution. This is a small company in a niche market. And I’m really not sure what the risks from competition are like. It makes me want to dig a bit deeper into whatever defensive characteristics the business might have.
Two for the portfolio?
Investing in very small, high-tech companies at penny-share prices is always a risk. And there’s extra danger when we really haven’t seen a reliable long-term income stream developing.
But I can see attractions for growth investors here who expect some risk. As a small part of a diversified growth portfolio, I think both of these are worth seriously considering.
