Mid-cap stocks often strike the right balance between having proven business models and market opportunities that can support $100 billion corporations. However, they face intense competition from scaled industry giants and can be disrupted by new innovative players vying for a slice of the pie.
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 a long growth runway and two that could be down big.
Two Mid-Cap Stocks to Sell:
Burlington (BURL)
Market Cap: $18.05 billion
Founded in 1972 as a discount coat and outerwear retailer, Burlington Stores (NYSE: BURL) is now an off-price retailer that has broadened into general apparel, footwear, and home goods.
Why Does BURL Give Us Pause?
- Annual sales growth of 9.3% over the last three years lagged behind its consumer retail peers as its large revenue base made it difficult to generate incremental demand
- Free cash flow margin dropped by 5.1 percentage points over the last year, implying the company became more capital intensive as competition picked up
- Underwhelming 9% return on capital reflects management’s difficulties in finding profitable growth opportunities
Burlington is trading at $290.34 per share, or 27.6x forward P/E. Dive into our free research report to see why there are better opportunities than BURL.
MasTec (MTZ)
Market Cap: $17.42 billion
Involved in the 1996 Olympic Games MasTec (NYSE: MTZ) is an infrastructure construction company that specializes in the telecommunications, energy, and utility industries.
Why Is MTZ Not Exciting?
- High input costs result in an inferior gross margin of 12.9% that must be offset through higher volumes
- Operating margin of 3.1% decreased from an already low base, demonstrating the tradeoff between growth and profitability
- Free cash flow margin shrank by 4.2 percentage points over the last five years, suggesting the company is consuming more capital to stay competitive
MasTec’s stock price of $224.31 implies a valuation ratio of 29.4x forward P/E. Check out our free in-depth research report to learn more about why MTZ doesn’t pass our bar.
One Mid-Cap Stock to Buy:
Instacart (CART)
Market Cap: $12.04 billion
Powering more than one billion grocery orders since its founding, Instacart (NASDAQ: CART) is an online grocery shopping and delivery platform that partners with retailers to help customers shop from local stores through its app or website.
Why Are We Backing CART?
- Solid 17% annual revenue growth over the last three years underscores its platform’s appeal to consumers
- Healthy EBITDA margin of 27% shows it’s a well-run company with efficient processes, and its profits increased over the last few years as it scaled
- Free cash flow margin expanded by 16.8 percentage points over the last few years, providing additional flexibility for investments and share buybacks/dividends
At $44.53 per share, Instacart trades at 9.5x forward EV/EBITDA. Is now the time to initiate a position? Find out in our full research report, it’s free for active Edge members.
High-Quality Stocks for All Market Conditions
The market’s up big this year - but there’s a catch. Just 4 stocks account for half the S&P 500’s entire gain. That kind of concentration makes investors nervous, and for good reason. While everyone piles into the same crowded names, smart investors are hunting quality where no one’s looking - and paying a fraction of the price. Check out the high-quality names we’ve flagged in 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 244% over the last five years (as of June 30, 2025).
Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,326% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Tecnoglass (+1,754% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today for free. Find your next big winner with StockStory today. Find your next big winner with StockStory today.
