“You get what you pay for” often applies to expensive stocks with best-in-class business models and execution. While their quality can sometimes justify the premium, they typically experience elevated volatility during market downturns when expectations change.
Finding the right balance between price and quality can challenge even the most skilled investors. Luckily for you, we started StockStory to help you identify the real opportunities. That said, here is one high-flying stock to hold for the long term and two with big downside risk.
Two High-Flying Stocks to Sell:
Live Nation (LYV)
Forward P/E Ratio: 124.6x
Owner of Ticketmaster and operator of music festival EDC, Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) is a company specializing in live event promotion, venue management, and ticketing services for concerts and shows.
Why Should You Sell LYV?
- Scale is a double-edged sword because it limits the company’s growth potential compared to its smaller competitors, as reflected in its below-average annual revenue increases of 5.1% for the last two years
- Poor expense management has led to an operating margin of 3.6% that is below the industry average
- Capital intensity will likely ramp up in the next year as its free cash flow margin is expected to contract by 1.7 percentage points
Live Nation’s stock price of $168.31 implies a valuation ratio of 124.6x forward P/E. Dive into our free research report to see why there are better opportunities than LYV.
Patterson-UTI (PTEN)
Forward P/E Ratio: 65.3x
Operating 135 Tier-1 super-spec rigs that can handle the industry's most demanding drilling projects, Patterson-UTI (NASDAQ: PTEN) provides contract drilling rigs, hydraulic fracturing, and drill bits to oil and gas operators.
Why Are We Cautious About PTEN?
- Costly operations and weak unit economics result in an inferior gross margin of 29.9% that must be offset through higher production volumes
- EBITDA margin didn’t move over the last five years, showing it couldn’t increase its efficiency
- Ability to fund investments or reward shareholders with increased buybacks or dividends is restricted by its weak free cash flow margin of 5.8% for the last five years
Patterson-UTI is trading at $11.42 per share, or 65.3x forward P/E. To fully understand why you should be careful with PTEN, check out our full research report (it’s free).
One High-Flying Stock to Buy:
JFrog (FROG)
Forward P/S Ratio: 17.7x
Named after the amphibian that continuously evolves from egg to tadpole to adult, JFrog (NASDAQ: FROG) provides a platform that helps organizations securely create, store, manage, and distribute software packages across any system.
Why Are We Bullish on FROG?
- Winning new contracts that can potentially increase in value as its billings growth has averaged 31.5% over the last year
- Software platform has product-market fit given the rapid recovery of its customer acquisition costs
- Strong free cash flow margin of 28.3% enables it to reinvest or return capital consistently
At $98.80 per share, JFrog trades at 17.7x forward price-to-sales. Is now the right time to buy? See for yourself in our full research report, it’s free.
Stocks We Like Even More
WHILE YOU’RE HERE: Top 9 Market-Beating Stocks. The best stocks don’t just beat the market once. They do it again. And again. Robust revenue growth, rising free cash flow, returns on capital that leave their competition in the dust. The market has already rewarded these businesses.
But our AI platform says the party isn’t over. Find out which 9 stocks made the cut this week — FREE. Get Our Top 9 Market-Beating Stocks for Free HERE.
Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,460% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-small-cap company Exlservice (+271% between June 2020 and June 2025). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.
