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.

These dynamics can rattle even the most seasoned professionals, which is why we started StockStory - to help you separate the good companies from the bad. That said, here are two mid-cap stocks with huge upside potential and one that may have trouble.

One Mid-Cap Stock to Sell:

Williams-Sonoma (WSM)

Market Cap: $18.67 billion

Started in 1956 as a store specializing in French cookware, Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) is a specialty retailer of higher-end kitchenware, home goods, and furniture.

Why Does WSM Fall Short?

1. Store closures and disappointing same-store sales suggest demand is sluggish and it’s rightsizing its operations
2. Poor same-store sales performance over the past two years indicates it’s having trouble bringing new shoppers into its brick-and-mortar locations
3. 4.8 percentage point decline in its free cash flow margin over the last year reflects the company’s increased investments to defend its market position

Williams-Sonoma is trading at $152 per share, or 17.7x forward price-to-earnings. Dive into our free research report to see why there are better opportunities than WSM.

Two Mid-Cap Stocks to Watch:

VeriSign (VRSN)

Market Cap: $25.68 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?

1. Billings have averaged 15.6% growth over the last year, showing it’s securing new contracts that could potentially increase in value over time
2. Prominent and differentiated software leads to a best-in-class gross margin of 87.8%
3. Robust free cash flow margin of 57.5% gives it many options for capital deployment

At $272.79 per share, VeriSign trades at 15.8x forward price-to-sales. Is now a good time to buy? See for yourself in our full research report, it’s free.

Super Micro (SMCI)

Market Cap: $21.64 billion

Founded in Silicon Valley in 1993 and known for its modular "building block" approach to server design, Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI) designs and manufactures high-performance, energy-efficient server and storage systems for data centers, cloud computing, AI, and edge computing applications.

Why Should You Buy SMCI?

1. Annual revenue growth of 77% over the past two years was outstanding, reflecting market share gains this cycle
2. Earnings per share grew by 42.5% annually over the last five years and trumped its peers
3. Returns on capital are climbing as management makes more lucrative bets

Super Micro’s stock price of $36.65 implies a valuation ratio of 12.7x forward price-to-earnings. Is now the right time to buy? Find out 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 Growth Stocks for this month. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 175% over the last five years.

Stocks that made our list in 2019 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+2,183% between December 2019 and December 2024) as well as under-the-radar businesses like Sterling Infrastructure (+1,096% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today for free.