But several companies have fared even worse today, with these four falling more than 5%. Here's our take…

Atlas Pearls and Perfumes Ltd (ASX: ATP) dropped 12.5% to 10.5 cents, but is still up 69% over the past six months. A producer of pearls and perfumes, Atlas farms pearls in Indonesia and a processing facility in Tasmania. In late August, Atlas announced a 56% increase in revenues for the 2014 financial year, thanks to growing and sustainable demand for pearls globally.

TZ Limited (ASX: TZL) fell 11.1% to 12 cents. Year-to-date, shares are flat, despite a rise above 20 cents in late January. The company which supplies locking solutions to data centres, automated parcel centres and the e-commerce market, recently announced a strategic purchase order from a major European multinational banking and financial services company for the Singapore market.

iProperty Group Ltd (ASX: IPP) closed down 8% lower at $2.66. The company that operates real estate portals in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong as well as other Asian countries, has seen its share price slump 21% in the past month. Two months' ago, REA Group Limited (ASX: REA) bought a 17% stake in the company – perhaps hoping to emulate its outstanding success in Australia, and iProperty's shares went on a tear at the time.

SAI Global Limited (ASX: SAI) lost 5.6% to finish at $4.18, after the company reported that one of its potential bidders has not submitted a final offer for the company, claiming uncertainty in relation to one part of SAI Global's business. As such, the board has decided not to proceed further with this bidder, and will instead evaluate the proposals it has received.

Luckily, investors have alternatives, such as this one we rank as the top dividend stock over the next 12 months…

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One speculative company that has good form in that regard is eServGlobal Limited (ASX: ESV), which provides mobile payment and finance solutions. While the company has not had positive operating cashflow since 2008, it does have a history of returning cash to shareholders when it can. For example, when it sold a business in 2011, it paid out a whopping 29c to shareholders. The company is advancing its newer HomeSend product by forming a joint venture with Mastercard and telecommunications company BICS. This will result in an one-off accounting profit of over $33 million in the current financial year, but the real cashflows might still be a while away.

One of the most impressive growing microcaps on the ASX is mobile payments and digital advertising company Mobile Embrace Limited (ASX: MBE). The company has seen its shares rocket over 970% in the past year as it transitions from speculative micro-cap to growing small-cap. Some people I know have made a ten-bagger out of Mobile Embrace. At just over 20c per share, Mobile Embrace trades at around 20 times my (very) approximate estimate of FY 2014 free cashflow. Should it drop about 25%, I would be sorely tempted to buy, because although it operates in a rapidly changing and hard to predict industry, it has a strong tailwind since mobile advertising (and commerce) is becoming more important.

Redflow Limited (ASX: RFX) is exciting conscious capitalists with its battery technology that is increasingly useful in the renewable energy era for obvious reasons. Because the electricity grid is so expensive it will, in my opinion, be slowly supplemented with solar and battery storage. I would also imagine Redflow's batteries have value as a backup power source for data-centres and in remote locations (with solar). However, it's essential to realise that the company is not cashflow positive and is currently raising cash at 11c per share – it last traded at 16c.

One growing small cap that is no longer speculative is RXP Services Ltd (ASX: RXP), which provides technology consulting services. The company is a collection of smaller businesses, and is making acquisitions quite rapidly. This makes it very difficult to discern organic growth and the underlying performance of the businesses. Nonetheless, directors have made share purchases on market at above current prices, and I was heartened to see that the company provided a conference presentation to the ASX the day before it was made in April. While it does look a tad too expensive at 68c, shares recently dropped under 60c, which is a tempting price for me. The company says that, "the momentum we built up in the first half combined with a number of new client wins will see strong second-half FY 2014 results."

This contrasts with the speculative pearl producer Atlas Pearls and Perfumes Ltd (ASX: ATP), which provided to the ASX a presentation that was apparently out of date, quoting the share price before it rose over 40% in less than a week. An investor relations firm representing Atlas Pearls focussed my attention on the company by pointing out that it is well positioned to profit from an increase in pearl prices. However, I'd need a hefty discount to net tangible assets to be buying Atlas Pearls shares – I feel far more comfortable with the attitude demonstrated by RXP Services.

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