1 S&P 500 Stock with Promising Prospects and 2 We Turn Down

July 29, 2025 at 00:32 AM EDT

EXPE Cover Image

While the S&P 500 (^GSPC) includes industry leaders, not every stock in the index is a winner. Some companies are past their prime, weighed down by poor execution, weak financials, or structural headwinds.

Some large-cap stocks are past their peak, and StockStory is here to help you separate the winners from the laggards. Keeping that in mind, here is one S&P 500 stock that could deliver good returns and two best left off your watchlist.

Two Stocks to Sell:

Expedia (EXPE)

Market Cap: $23.79 billion

Originally founded as a part of Microsoft, Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) is one of the world’s leading online travel agencies.

Why Are We Cautious About EXPE?

Preference for prioritizing user growth over monetization has led to 1.8% annual drops in its average revenue per booking
Highly competitive market means it’s on the never-ending treadmill of sales and marketing spend
Free cash flow margin dropped by 23.4 percentage points over the last few years, implying the company became more capital intensive as competition picked up

Expedia’s stock price of $186.80 implies a valuation ratio of 7.6x forward EV/EBITDA. Read our free research report to see why you should think twice about including EXPE in your portfolio.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM)

Market Cap: $820.2 billion

Tracing its roots back to 1799 when its earliest predecessor was founded by Aaron Burr, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is a leading financial services company offering investment banking, consumer banking, commercial banking, and asset management services globally.

Why Do We Think Twice About JPM?

Estimated net interest income growth of 2.4% for the next 12 months implies demand will slow from its five-year trend
Net interest margin of 2.6% is well below other banks, signaling its loans aren’t very profitable
Efficiency ratio is expected to worsen by 2.6 percentage points over the next year

At $298.18 per share, JPMorgan Chase trades at 2.4x forward P/B. Check out our free in-depth research report to learn more about why JPM doesn’t pass our bar.

One Stock to Watch:

VeriSign (VRSN)

Market Cap: $28.58 billion

While the company is not a domain registrar and does not directly sell domain names to end users, Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) operates and maintains the infrastructure to support domain names such as .com and .net.

Why Should VRSN Be on Your Watchlist?

Billings growth has averaged 15.3% over the last year, indicating a healthy pipeline of new contracts that should drive future revenue increases
Superior software functionality and low servicing costs are reflected in its best-in-class gross margin of 87.9%
VRSN is a free cash flow machine with the flexibility to invest in growth initiatives or return capital to shareholders

VeriSign is trading at $286 per share, or 17.3x forward price-to-sales. Is now the right time to buy? Find out in our full research report, it’s free.

High-Quality Stocks for All Market Conditions

Trump’s April 2025 tariff bombshell triggered a massive market selloff, but stocks have since staged an impressive recovery, leaving those who panic sold on the sidelines.

Take advantage of the rebound by checking out our Top 9 Market-Beating Stocks. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 183% over the last five years (as of March 31st 2025).

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