1 Unpopular Stock That Deserves Some Love and 2 We Ignore

Wall Street has issued downbeat forecasts for the stocks in this article. These predictions are rare - financial institutions typically hesitate to say bad things about a company because it can jeopardize their other revenue-generating business lines like M&A advisory.

Whatever the consensus opinion may be, our team at StockStory cuts through the noise by conducting independent analysis to determine a company’s long-term prospects. Keeping that in mind, here is one stock where you should be greedy instead of fearful and two where the outlook is warranted.

Two Stocks to Sell:

Mondelez (MDLZ)

Consensus Price Target: $66.92 (13.6% implied return)

Founded as Nabisco in 1903, Mondelez (NASDAQ:MDLZ) is a packaged snacks powerhouse best known for its Oreo, Cadbury, Toblerone, Ritz, and Trident brands.

Why Are We Cautious About MDLZ?

1. Shrinking unit sales over the past two years show it’s struggled to move its products and had to rely on price increases
2. Expenses have increased as a percentage of revenue over the last year as its operating margin fell by 8.2 percentage points
3. Earnings per share were flat over the last three years while its revenue grew, showing its incremental sales were less profitable

Mondelez is trading at $58.91 per share, or 19.3x forward P/E. Dive into our free research report to see why there are better opportunities than MDLZ.

Scholastic (SCHL)

Consensus Price Target: $36 (11% implied return)

Creator of the legendary Scholastic Book Fair, Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) is an international company specializing in children's publishing, education, and media services.

Why Is SCHL Risky?

1. Annual revenue growth of 4.9% over the last five years was below our standards for the consumer discretionary sector
2. Poor free cash flow margin of 1% for the last two years limits its freedom to invest in growth initiatives, execute share buybacks, or pay dividends
3. Waning returns on capital from an already weak starting point displays the inefficacy of management’s past and current investment decisions

Scholastic’s stock price of $32.44 implies a valuation ratio of 22.1x forward P/E. To fully understand why you should be careful with SCHL, check out our full research report (it’s free).

One Stock to Watch:

Confluent (CFLT)

Consensus Price Target: $30.89 (0.6% implied return)

Built by the original creators of Apache Kafka, the popular open-source messaging system, Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) provides a data infrastructure platform that enables organizations to connect their applications, systems, and data layers around real-time data streams.

Why Could CFLT Be a Winner?

1. Billings have averaged 24.2% growth over the last year, showing it’s securing new contracts that could potentially increase in value over time
2. Estimated revenue growth of 17.2% for the next 12 months implies its momentum over the last two years will continue
3. Gross margin of 74.3% provides the financial cushion needed to invest in marketing and develop new products

At $30.71 per share, Confluent trades at 7.9x forward price-to-sales. Is now a good time to buy? Find out in our full research report, it’s free.

High-Quality Stocks for All Market Conditions

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Don’t wait for the next volatility shock. Check out 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.