Building a Foundation Like Home Depot Did

Are there some Home Depot-type stocks available in the marketplace today? You bet. Here are a couple of companies that I think have an excellent chance of bringing home multifold capital appreciation over the next decade or so.

First, though, here's the common thread that weaves through these business models: First, each model brings positive structural change to the playing field in which they operate. And second, each company is relatively small and has enormous expansion potential.

Commerce Bank

You can't find a company with an impressive long-term record of growth that sports a price-to-earnings ratio below 25. They don't exist. That is, with the exception of Commerce Bank(CBH Quote), a company with a 10-year track record of over 25% annual growth. It sells for the absurd valuation of 13 times next year's earnings.

Here's the kicker: All of the growth at Commerce is organic. There are scores of companies that grow by acquisition. It's a high-risk avenue of growth. Mistakes are made all too often. But the list of companies that have generated impressive organic-only growth is quite short -- Starbucks(SBUX Quote), Costco(COST Quote) and Bed Bath & Beyond(BBBY Quote) are examples.

Commerce's story is just getting started. It will be expanding into the greater Washington D.C. area, Boston and then Florida over the next several years. The bank has already harvested large chunks of market share by offering a vastly better product in New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York City.