In This Article:
Large-cap stocks are known for their staying power and ability to weather market storms better than smaller competitors. However, their sheer size makes it more challenging to maintain high growth rates as they’ve already captured significant portions of their markets.
This is precisely where StockStory comes in - our job is to find you high-quality companies that can win regardless of the conditions. That said, here are two large-cap stocks whose competitive advantages create flywheel effects and one whose momentum may slow.
One Large-Cap Stock to Sell:
Vulcan Materials (VMC)
Market Cap: $31.06 billion
Founded in 1909, Vulcan Materials (NYSE:VMC) is a producer of construction aggregates, primarily crushed stone, sand, and gravel.
Why Does VMC Worry Us?
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Sales were flat over the last two years, indicating it’s failed to expand this cycle
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Sluggish trends in its tons shipped suggest customers aren’t adopting its solutions as quickly as the company hoped
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3.7 percentage point decline in its free cash flow margin over the last five years reflects the company’s increased investments to defend its market position
Vulcan Materials’s stock price of $233.57 implies a valuation ratio of 26.2x forward price-to-earnings. Dive into our free research report to see why there are better opportunities than VMC.
Two Large-Cap Stocks to Watch:
Veeva Systems (VEEV)
Market Cap: $38.47 billion
Built on top of Salesforce as one of the first vertical-focused cloud platforms, Veeva (NYSE:VEEV) provides data and customer relationship management (CRM) software for organizations in the life sciences industry.
Why Should VEEV Be on Your Watchlist?
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Software platform has product-market fit given the rapid recovery of its customer acquisition costs
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Healthy operating margin of 25.2% shows it’s a well-run company with efficient processes, and it turbocharged its profits by achieving some fixed cost leverage
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Impressive free cash flow profitability enables the company to fund new investments or reward investors with share buybacks/dividends
Veeva Systems is trading at $235.80 per share, or 12.9x forward price-to-sales. Is now the right time to buy? Find out in our full research report, it’s free.
Waste Connections (WCN)
Market Cap: $48.49 billion
Operating a network of municipal solid waste landfills in the U.S. and Canada, Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) is North America's third-largest waste management company providing collection, disposal, and recycling services.
Why Is WCN Interesting?
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Annual revenue growth of 13.1% over the past four years was outstanding, reflecting market share gains this cycle
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Highly efficient business model is illustrated by its impressive 16.4% operating margin
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Robust free cash flow margin of 14.5% gives it many options for capital deployment