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  • Professor Andrea M. Armani, University of Southern California
  • Ruti Ben-Shlomi, Ph.D., LightSolver
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  • Professor Stefan Witte, Delft University of Technology

1 Mid-Cap Stock on Our Buy List and 2 to Steer Clear Of

MNDY Cover Image

Many investors pay attention to mid-cap stocks because they have established business models and expansive market opportunities. However, their paths to becoming $100 billion corporations are ripe with competition, ranging from giants with vast resources to agile upstarts eager to disrupt the status quo.

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 is one mid-cap stock with huge upside potential and two best left ignored.

Two Mid-Cap Stocks to Sell:

Pool (POOL)

Market Cap: $11.79 billion

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Louisiana, Pool (NASDAQ: POOL) is one of the largest wholesale distributors of swimming pool supplies, equipment, and related leisure products.

Why Are We Hesitant About POOL?

  1. Absence of organic revenue growth over the past two years suggests it may have to lean into acquisitions to drive its expansion
  2. Demand will likely be soft over the next 12 months as Wall Street’s estimates imply tepid growth of 1.9%
  3. Waning returns on capital imply its previous profit engines are losing steam

Pool’s stock price of $326.91 implies a valuation ratio of 27.4x forward P/E. Dive into our free research report to see why there are better opportunities than POOL.

Expeditors (EXPD)

Market Cap: $15.75 billion

Expeditors (NYSE: EXPD) offers air and ocean freight as well as brokerage services.

Why Are We Out on EXPD?

  1. Annual sales declines of 14.1% for the past two years show its products and services struggled to connect with the market during this cycle
  2. Earnings per share have contracted by 11.2% annually over the last two years, a headwind for returns as stock prices often echo long-term EPS performance
  3. Diminishing returns on capital suggest its earlier profit pools are drying up

At $115 per share, Expeditors trades at 21.2x forward P/E. If you’re considering EXPD for your portfolio, see our FREE research report to learn more.

One Mid-Cap Stock to Buy:

Monday.com (MNDY)

Market Cap: $14.88 billion

Founded in 2014 and named after the dreaded first day of the work week, Monday.com (NASDAQ: MNDY) is a software-as-a-service platform that helps organizations plan and track work efficiently.

Why Are We Backing MNDY?

  1. ARR trends over the last year show it’s maintaining a steady flow of long-term contracts that contribute positively to its revenue predictability
  2. Software is difficult to replicate at scale and leads to a best-in-class gross margin of 89.5%
  3. Impressive free cash flow profitability enables the company to fund new investments or reward investors with share buybacks/dividends

Monday.com is trading at $290 per share, or 12x forward price-to-sales. Is now the right time to buy? See for yourself in our full research report, it’s free.

Stocks We Like Even More

Market indices reached historic highs following Donald Trump’s presidential victory in November 2024, but the outlook for 2025 is clouded by new trade policies that could impact business confidence and growth.

While this has caused many investors to adopt a "fearful" wait-and-see approach, we’re leaning into our best ideas that can grow regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate. Take advantage of Mr. Market by checking out our Top 5 Strong Momentum Stocks for this week. 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-small-cap company Exlservice (+354% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today for free.

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