Laser Focus World is an industry bedrock—first published in 1965 and still going strong. We publish original articles about cutting-edge advances in lasers, optics, photonics, sensors, and quantum technologies, as well as test and measurement, and the shift currently underway to usher in the photonic integrated circuits, optical interconnects, and copackaged electronics and photonics to deliver the speed and efficiency essential for data centers of the future.

Our 80,000 qualified print subscribers—and 130,000 12-month engaged online audience—trust us to dive in and provide original journalism you won’t find elsewhere covering key emerging areas such as laser-driven inertial confinement fusion, lasers in space, integrated photonics, chipscale lasers, LiDAR, metasurfaces, high-energy laser weaponry, photonic crystals, and quantum computing/sensors/communications. We cover the innovations driving these markets.

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Editorial Advisory Board

  • Professor Andrea M. Armani, University of Southern California
  • Ruti Ben-Shlomi, Ph.D., LightSolver
  • James Butler, Ph.D., Hamamatsu
  • Natalie Fardian-Melamed, Ph.D., Columbia University
  • Justin Sigley, Ph.D., AmeriCOM
  • Professor Birgit Stiller, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, and Leibniz University of Hannover
  • Professor Stephen Sweeney, University of Glasgow
  • Mohan Wang, Ph.D., University of Oxford
  • Professor Xuchen Wang, Harbin Engineering University
  • Professor Stefan Witte, Delft University of Technology

3 Mid-Cap Stocks Skating on Thin Ice

TWLO Cover Image

Mid-cap stocks have the best odds of scaling into $100 billion corporations thanks to their tested business models and large addressable markets. But the many opportunities in front of them attract significant competition, spanning from industry behemoths with seemingly infinite resources to small, nimble players with chips on their shoulders.

Luckily for you, our mission at StockStory is to help you make money and avoid losses by sorting the winners from the losers. Keeping that in mind, here are three mid-cap stocks to swipe left on and some alternatives you should look into instead.

Twilio (TWLO)

Market Cap: $16.98 billion

Founded in 2008 by Jeff Lawson, a former engineer at Amazon, Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) is a software as a service platform that makes it really easy for software developers to use text messaging, voice calls and other forms of communication in their apps.

Why Does TWLO Worry Us?

  1. Products, pricing, or go-to-market strategy may need some adjustments as its 9.4% average billings growth over the last year was weak
  2. Estimated sales growth of 7.1% for the next 12 months implies demand will slow from its three-year trend
  3. Gross margin of 50.6% reflects its high servicing costs

Twilio is trading at $110.90 per share, or 3.7x forward price-to-sales. Check out our free in-depth research report to learn more about why TWLO doesn’t pass our bar.

Akamai (AKAM)

Market Cap: $11.52 billion

Founded in 1999 by two engineers from MIT, Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM) provides software for organizations to efficiently deliver web content to their customers.

Why Should You Sell AKAM?

  1. Annual revenue growth of 4.5% over the last three years was well below our standards for the software sector
  2. Bad unit economics and steep infrastructure costs are reflected in its gross margin of 59.1%, one of the worst among software companies
  3. Competitive market means the company must spend more on sales and marketing to stand out even if the return on investment is low

At $78.90 per share, Akamai trades at 2.8x forward price-to-sales. To fully understand why you should be careful with AKAM, check out our full research report (it’s free).

Amdocs (DOX)

Market Cap: $10.35 billion

Powering the digital experiences of approximately 400 communications companies worldwide, Amdocs (NASDAQ: DOX) provides software and services that help telecommunications and media companies manage customer relationships, monetize services, and automate network operations.

Why Should You Dump DOX?

  1. Backlog growth averaged a weak 1.6% over the past two years, suggesting it may need to tweak its product roadmap or go-to-market strategy
  2. Estimated sales decline of 3.5% for the next 12 months implies an even more challenging demand environment
  3. Free cash flow margin shrank by 4.6 percentage points over the last five years, suggesting the company is consuming more capital to stay competitive

Amdocs’s stock price of $92.30 implies a valuation ratio of 12.6x forward P/E. Read our free research report to see why you should think twice about including DOX in your portfolio.

High-Quality Stocks for All Market Conditions

Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election sent major indices to all-time highs, but stocks have retraced as investors debate the health of the economy and the potential impact of tariffs.

While this leaves much uncertainty around 2025, a few companies are poised for long-term gains regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate, like our Top 5 Growth Stocks for this month. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 176% over the last five years.

Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,545% between March 2020 and March 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Kadant (+351% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today for free.

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