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 is one mid-cap stock with massive growth potential and two that could be down big.
Two mid-cap stocks to sell:
F5 (FFIV)
Market cap: $18.73 billion
Originally named after the F5 tornado, the most powerful on the meteorological scale, F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) provides security and delivery solutions that protect applications across cloud, data center, and edge environments for large organizations.
Why Does FFIV Worry Us?
- Products, pricing, or go-to-market strategy may need some adjustments as its 10.9% average billings growth over the last year was weak
- Estimated sales growth of 8.4% for the next 12 months implies demand will slow from its two-year trend
- Operating margin was unchanged over the last year, suggesting it failed to gain leverage on its fixed costs
F5’s stock price of $330 implies a valuation ratio of 5.2x forward price-to-sales. If you’re considering FFIV for your portfolio, see our FREE research report to learn more.
Avantor (AVTR)
Market cap: $10.6 billion
With roots dating back to 1904 and embedded in virtually every stage of scientific research and production, Avantor (NYSE: AVTR) provides mission-critical products, materials, and services to customers in biopharma, healthcare, education, and advanced technology industries.
Why Are We Bearish on AVTR?
- Organic revenue growth fell short of our benchmarks over the past two years and implies it may need to improve its products, pricing, or go-to-market strategy
- Overall productivity fell over the last five years as its plummeting sales were accompanied by a decline in its adjusted operating margin
- Performance over the past five years shows each sale was less profitable as its earnings per share dropped by 9.4% annually, worse than its revenue
Avantor is trading at $15.64 per share, or 17.8x forward P/E. Dive into our free research report to see why there are better opportunities than AVTR.
One mid-cap stock to watch:
WESCO (WCC)
Market cap: $15.41 billion
Based in Pittsburgh, WESCO (NYSE: WCC) provides electrical, industrial, and communications products and augments them with services such as supply chain management.
Why Do We Like WCC?
- Existing business lines can expand without risky acquisitions as its organic revenue growth averaged 9.8% over the past two years
- Performance over the past two years was turbocharged by share buybacks, which enabled its earnings per share to grow faster than its revenue
- Free cash flow margin increased by 4.2 percentage points over the last five years, giving the company more capital to invest or return to shareholders
At $316.86 per share, WESCO trades at 17.2x forward P/E. Is now a good time to buy? See for yourself in our comprehensive research report, it’s free.
Stocks we like even more
WHILE YOU’RE HERE: Top 9 Market-Beating Stocks. The best stocks don’t just beat the market once. They do it again. And again. Robust revenue growth, rising free cash flow, returns on capital that leave their competition in the dust. The market has already rewarded these businesses.
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Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,460% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Tecnoglass (+1,552% between June 2020 and June 2025). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.
