Conestoga Capital 13F (2026 Q1): A Small-Cap Growth Specialist

A specialist in small companies most investors never see

Conestoga Capital Advisors does something increasingly rare: it focuses on small-cap growth, the niche, under-followed companies that sit well below the megacaps dominating most portfolios. From its base outside Philadelphia, the firm runs a low-turnover strategy hunting for high-quality small businesses with durable growth, the kind of names that can compound quietly for years before the broader market notices them. Its 2026Q1 13F, about $5.01 billion across 114 positions, is a window into a corner of the market that index funds and large managers largely cannot reach.

The holdings reflect that specialization. The largest position is RBC Bearings at 4.66%, followed by waste-management operator Casella Waste Systems, specialty-ingredients maker Balchem, newly added FirstService, and Construction Partners, with Novanta, LeMaitre Vascular, ESCO Technologies, Descartes Systems, and CSW Industrials filling out the top. These are not household names; they are specialized industrials, healthcare-device makers, niche software, and services businesses, exactly the kind of quality small-caps Conestoga is built to find.

Evenly weighted, by discipline

The book is notably even, with the largest position under 5% and the top ten clustered between 3% and 4.7%. In small-cap investing, that spread is partly a risk-management necessity, individual small companies are more volatile and less liquid than large caps, so sizing them similarly limits the damage any one disappointment can do, and partly a reflection of a research process that builds positions across many vetted names rather than betting heavily on a few. The result is diversified exposure to the small-cap growth factor through a curated list of quality businesses.

Trimming broadly as assets decline

Reported value fell about 16% on the quarter and has eased from roughly $7.5 billion to $5 billion over the past two years, a sustained decline. The share-count activity is consistent with that pressure: Conestoga trimmed several positions meaningfully, RBC Bearings by 27%, ESCO Technologies by 30%, Construction Partners by 18%, and Descartes by 16%, while establishing a new position in FirstService. When a low-turnover manager reduces many names at once, the most likely explanation is portfolio-level outflows requiring it to raise cash across the book, rather than souring on each business individually, with the new FirstService stake showing the team still finds fresh ideas worth backing even as assets shrink.

How to read a small-cap growth book

A filing like Conestoga's is valuable precisely because of where it hunts. The small-cap names it holds are far less covered than large caps, so a specialist's vetted list can be a genuine source of ideas an investor might not encounter otherwise, with the caveat that small caps carry more volatility and liquidity risk and demand individual scrutiny. The even weighting and the broad, flow-driven trimming tell you this is a diversified, disciplined approach to a risky asset class rather than a set of high-conviction single bets. For investors looking to fish in less-efficient waters, Conestoga's book is an expert's map of quality small-cap growth. You can explore the full holdings, the position changes, and the longer history on the Conestoga Capital filer page.