Web Weaklings Flex Muscle

Now even the lesser names are starting to get noticed. Avondale Partners analyst Frank Gristina says he was one of a few analysts covering Nutri/System (NSI Quote) and online pet-medicine distributor PetMed Express (PETS Quote) a year ago. Now, there are seven firms covering the pair. This year, shares of Nutri/Systems are up 33% and PetMed is solidly in the plus column, though its shares have been hammered in the last week after a strong start to the year.

"These companies have outperformed expectations consistently in the past 12 months," says Gristina, who owns shares of PedMed personally. He rates PetMed neutral and Nutri/Systems as outperform. Avondale makes a market in both stocks and comanaged a public offering for Nutri/System.

To be sure, everything hasn't gone right with these companies. Shares of PetMed have fallen 20% in the past week after Avondale's Gristina downgraded the stock to market perform from market outperform, saying the company could face a price war from vets in the upcoming flea-and-tick season.

Autobytel(ABTL Quote), which operates automotive Web sites, and digital-music company Napster(NAPS Quote) are among the favorites of Jacob Asset's Chervitz. They're both trading down this year for what he calls company-specific reasons.

Gaining popularity isn't always a good thing for a midsize Internet company, says David Liu, The Knot's chief executive and co-founder, in an interview.

"It's a double-edged sword," he says. "We have benefited from flying under the radar screen and not being under the harsh scrutiny of the Street's glare."

Those days may not last for too much longer as Wall Street renews interest in stocks that surged in the first quarter.

"Long-forgotten friends have all reappeared," Liu says.