The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

Flex is the largest global provider of electronic manufacturing services (EMS) and related competencies. In addition to its printed circuit board (PCB) assembly and systems assembly businesses, the company provides design, logistics, components, enclosures and PCB manufacturing. Flex has expanded its customer base from OEM companies in traditional electronics and technology to nontraditional niches, such as consumer, medical and instrumentation, aerospace-defense, and automotive.

Headlines remain the order of the day, with major stock indices lower on Thursday as investors awaited developments in the Middle East that overshadowed the barrage of corporate earnings reports. In this ever-changing environment, the current newsflow has aggression increasing between the U.S. and Iran but no major outbreak as of yet. Domestically, markets will need to parse on Friday the news that the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down new 10% global tariffs imposed by President Trump, ruling them illegal because they overstepped presidential authority.

Despite bursts of outperformance, small- and mid-cap stocks (SMID) have underperformed large-caps year to date -- as they have over the past six years. But they may be in a better position to generate market-beating returns going forward. SMID companies tend to focus on domestic markets, so their businesses might be less disrupted by the trade and tariff debate and fallout from the war with Iran. As well, the prices of SMID stocks generally are lower than the prices of large-caps, with the P/E ratio on the Russell 2000 SmallCap Index at 20, compared to a trailing P/E of 29 for the S&P 500. Finally, there are long stretches in the record books when SMID stocks have outperformed large-caps. SMID stocks do carry risk, but diversified investors look to have exposure to small- and mid-caps based on the long-term performance record. The following is a list of some of the BUY-rated stocks in Argus' recently updated Mid-Cap Model Portfolio.