We are in the middle of one of the largest bull market runs in the history of stock markets. The S&P 500, an indicator of the broader markets, is up 11% this year, 59% in the last three years and 90% in the last five years.
There will also be stocks that under-perform the market. This might be due to weak fundamentals (such as rising debt levels), obsolete tech or rising competition.
Let’s have a look at the five stocks that have tanked this year and burned investor money.
1. Flex is down 28%
Flex [FLEX] provides design, engineering, and logistics services to companies. The company’s share price has declined close to 30% in 2018.
Flex missed analyst revenue estimates in Q2 2018 and also posted earnings 7% below estimates in Q1 2018, two factors that caused the stock to plummet this year.
Market Cap:Â $6.9B
Change:Â -28.6%
Total Loss in 2018:Â $2.7B
2. Western Digital
Shares of storage company Western Digital [WDC] is down 27.5% in 2018. Analysts have expressed concerns over declining memory chip prices. Lower prices are set to pressurize profit margins for WDC and peers.
These concerns coupled with declining revenue estimates in fiscal 2019 have led to a slew of analyst downgrades for WDC and driven the stock lower.
Market Cap:Â $17B
Change:Â -25%
Total Loss in 2018:Â $5.7B
3. Windstream Holdings
Shares of telecom company Windstream Holdings [WIN] has been declining over the last two years. The stock fell 75% in 2017 and has declined 48% this year. The decline would have been far worse but for the 12% gain for Windstream on Sept. 14.
There have seen serious concerns about Windstream’s mounting debt levels and lackluster revenue. At the end of Q2 2018, Windstream’s total debt stood at $11B with operating cash flow of $4.2B.
In July, Citigroup (C) analyst Michael Rollins downgraded Windstream and reduced the company’s price target from $7 to $1 driven by the precarious financial position of the firm.
Market Cap:Â $210M
Change:Â -47.2%
Total Loss in 2018:Â $190M
4. JD.com
JD.com [JD] is known as China’s Amazon [AMZN] and has seen a significant rise in share value over the last two years. The stock’s rise more than doubled from $20.1 in June 2016 to over $50 early this year.
Shares have however declined 35% this year primarily due to the on-going tariff war between the United States and China. However, this seems to be more of an overreaction as JD.com generates 100% of its revenue from the domestic market with no exposure to the US.
More recently, corporate governance risks dragged the stock lower this month.
Market Cap:Â $30.25B
Change:Â -39.3%
Total Loss in 2018:Â $21.4B
5. Symantec
Shares of Symantec [SYMC] have nosedived 28% this year. This cyber security stock is grappling with declining revenue in a high growth market.
However, competition from tech giants like Cisco [CSCO] and nice companies such as Palo Alto Networks [PANW], Fortinet [FTNT] and Checkpoint [CHKP] have impacted revenue growth for Symantec.
Market Cap:Â $12.86B
Change:Â -25.5%
Total Loss in 2018:Â $4.4B
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