1 Surging Stock for Long-Term Investors and 2 Facing Headwinds

Each stock in this article is trading near its 52-week high. These elevated prices usually indicate some degree of investor confidence, business improvements, or favorable market conditions.

However, not all companies with momentum are long-term winners, and many investors have lost money by following short-term trends. Keeping that in mind, here is one stock with lasting competitive advantages and two best left ignored.

Two Stocks to Sell:

Valley National Bank (VLY)

One-Month Return: +4.5%

Tracing its roots back to 1927 during the economic boom before the Great Depression, Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQGS:VLY) operates Valley National Bank, providing commercial, consumer, and wealth management banking services across several states.

Why Should You Dump VLY?

1. Sales stagnated over the last two years and signal the need for new growth strategies
2. Net interest income trends were unexciting over the last five years as its 10% annual growth was below the typical banking firm
3. Incremental sales over the last five years were much less profitable as its earnings per share fell by 2.5% annually while its revenue grew

At $12 per share, Valley National Bank trades at 0.9x forward P/B. Dive into our free research report to see why there are better opportunities than VLY.

Trustmark (TRMK)

One-Month Return: +3.4%

Tracing its roots back to 1889 in Mississippi, Trustmark (NASDAQ:TRMK) is a financial services organization providing banking, wealth management, insurance, and mortgage services across five southeastern states.

Why Does TRMK Give Us Pause?

1. Annual net interest income growth of 8.6% over the last five years was below our standards for the banking sector
2. Anticipated 1.7 percentage point rise in its efficiency ratio suggests its expenses will increase as a percentage of revenue
3. ROE of 7.2% reflects management’s challenges in identifying attractive investment opportunities

Trustmark is trading at $40.14 per share, or 1.1x forward P/B. To fully understand why you should be careful with TRMK, check out our full research report (it’s free for active Edge members).

One Stock to Watch:

Parker-Hannifin (PH)

One-Month Return: +3.6%

Founded in 1917, Parker Hannifin (NYSE:PH) is a manufacturer of motion and control systems for a wide variety of mobile, industrial and aerospace markets.

Why Do We Watch PH?

1. Highly efficient business model is illustrated by its impressive 18.2% operating margin, and its profits increased over the last five years as it scaled
2. Share repurchases over the last five years enabled its annual earnings per share growth of 20.7% to outpace its revenue gains
3. PH is a free cash flow machine with the flexibility to invest in growth initiatives or return capital to shareholders, and its growing cash flow gives it even more resources to deploy

Parker-Hannifin’s stock price of $886.77 implies a valuation ratio of 28.8x forward P/E. 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

Your portfolio can’t afford to be based on yesterday’s story. The risk in a handful of heavily crowded stocks is rising daily.

The names generating the next wave of massive growth are right here in 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 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 Kadant (+351% 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.