7 F-Rated Stocks to Sell in December
Life is short. Time relentlessly moves forward, transforming seconds and minutes into hours and days. Before you know it, it’s nearly the end of 2023 and another year is winding down. The lesson here? You can’t afford to waste time when you’re investing, especially if you’re holding F-rated stocks to sell.
F-rated stocks are a portfolio killer. Stocks with an F-rating decrease returns and put retirement security at risk. If you’re holding F-rated stocks to sell, it may be too late to salvage 2023, but it’s not too late to make some changes and get back on track toward achieving your investment goals.
We’ll use the Portfolio Grader to identify some of the most unworthy stocks on the market – those that are saddled with well-deserving “F” grades because of their weak earnings performance, poor growth, weak sentiment and bearish analyst sentiment.
After all, time is ticking away; it will be 2024 before you know it.
ChargePoint (CHPT)
ChargePoint (NYSE:CHPT) provides electric vehicle charging stations in Europe and North America. The company has delivered over 188 million charges to date, hoping to capitalize on the global shift to EVs.
But even with the Biden administration’s push for green energy and subsidies, ChargePoint remains an unprofitable venture. The company brought in $150.5 million in revenue in its fiscal second quarter of 2024 (ending July 31), up from $108.3 million a year ago. But losses grew from $92.7 million to $125.3 million.
And things were even worse in Q3. While ChargePoint projected revenue of $150 million to $165 million, it revised its estimates late in the quarter. On Dec. 6 it announced its third-quarter results with revenue of only $110.3 million.
And ChargePoint’s Q3 loss was $158.2 million, up from $84.5 million a year ago.
It’s no wonder that ChargePoint shook up its executive leadership team, naming Rick Wilmer as its new president and CEO. While former CEO Pasquale Romano stayed on as an advisor, ChargePoint also showed the door to CFO Rex Jackson. That change sent CHPT stock down 35% in a single day.
Three years ago, ChargePoint stock was more than $40 per share. Now it’s barely $2, having dropped 78% in 2023. CHPT stock has an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader, which makes it one of the stocks to sell while you can.
Mullen Automotive (MULN)
I have to confess that ChargePoint and Mullen Automotive (NASDAQ:MULN) seem to go hand in hand. One is an EV charging company, the other is a manufacturer of electric vehicles.
Both are losing money. Both have serious questions about their viability. And both deserve their “F” ratings.
Mullen stock is down 97% this year and trades at less than 20 cents per share, and that’s after completing a 1-for-25 reverse stock split in May and a 1-for-9 split in August. The stock dilution will surely continue, as Mullen has already said it would do another split before Jan. 22, 2024, in an effort to push shares back over $1 and keep its Nasdaq listing.
Mullen began production of its Mullen THREE EV in August and just announced deliveries of the vehicle, which has an estimated range of 125 miles and a maximum payload of just over 5,300 pounds, to its partner Randy Marion Automotive Group. But the company is only expecting to deliver 150 of the vehicles in the fourth quarter.
Mullen also hired a law firm to help it assess funding opportunities. The Basile Law Firm P.C., led by Mark R. Basile has worked with companies on issues related to stock performance and potential market manipulation, which seems appropriate for Mullen and definitely makes it one of the stocks to sell now.
MULN gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
Polestar Automotive (PSNY)
Polestar Automotive (NASDAQ:PSNY) is a Swedish EV company that sells autos in 27 markets in Asia, Europe and North America. The company aims to have a lineup of five EVs by 2026, including SUVs and a roadster.
But instead of scaling up, Polestar has trouble hitting its delivery targets, making it one of the stocks to sell before it’s too late. The company’s lowered its guidance for 2023 deliveries twice so far, and now says it will deliver 60,000 vehicles. At the beginning of the year, the guidance was at 80,000.
In addition, Polestar says that it will need to raise additional money just to stay solvent.
Revenue for the third quarter was up 25% from a year ago, reaching $1.84 billion. But the company also recorded an operating loss of $735 million, up from a loss of $709.3 million a year ago.
PSNY stock is down 59% this year and gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
Albemarle (ALB)
Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) is a North Carolina chemical manufacturing company. It deals in bromine specialties, catalysts and lithium.
And it’s the lithium market that’s a major drain on ALB stock right now. Piper Sandler analyst Charles Neivert downgraded his rating on the stock from “neutral” to “underweight” and dropped his price target from $140 to $128.
He cited poor market conditions for lithium that “will undermine any significant rebound in the pricing environment for at least the next few quarters.”
Revenue in the third quarter was $2.3 billion, up 10% from a year ago, thanks to higher volumes in the company’s energy storage unit. The outlook for the full year calls for adjusted EBITDA to be flat to be down 5%.
ALB stock is down 45% this year. It gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
Plug Power (PLUG)
Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) is a great example of why investors should review their portfolios and rebalance on a regular basis.
Less than three years ago, Plug Power was one of the best stocks on Wall Street, with a stock price of more than $65. PLUG stock was up 1,500% in just a year. The sky was the limit.
But the once-promising company fizzled. Plug Power makes hydrogen fuel cells to power forklifts, drones and material handling equipment. It is a potentially great technology because it uses hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and only leaves water vapor as a byproduct.
But Plug Power still isn’t profitable because it can’t figure out how to make money off of a process that’s not cost-effective.
Earnings for the third quarter were only $198.71 million when analysts were expecting $228.18 million. The company also posted a loss of 47 cents per share, which was worse than the 31-cent loss of EPS that analysts predicted.
PLUG stock is down 65% this year and gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
Pfizer (PFE)
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) is a global pharmaceutical company that’s perhaps best known for its success in developing one of the first Covid-19 vaccines that was approved by U.S. regulators.
The successful development of the coronavirus vaccine undoubtedly saved millions of lives and brought billions of dollars into Pfizer’s coffers. But Pfizer is off the radar now that the federal government stopped paying for Covid-19 vaccines.
The federal government estimates that only 14% of U.S. adults have received an updated Covid-19 vaccine. That means Pfizer (and other pharma companies with vaccines, as we’ll get to in a moment) are seeing their stocks drop and missing earnings targets.
Pfizer brought in $13.2 billion in revenue in the third quarter, which was down 41% from a year ago as sales of Pfizer’s Covid-19 drugs, Paxlovid and Comimaty, fell.
Sales of non-Covid treatments were up 10%, but that wasn’t nearly enough to offset the loss of coronavirus revenue. Overall, Pfizer posted a loss of $2.38 billion for the quarter or a loss of 42 cents per share.
PFE stock is down 41% in 2023 and it gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
Moderna (MRNA)
This is a case of rinse and repeat. You can look at the bearish case for Pfizer and say the same thing about Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA). Moderna handled the other commonly used Covid-19 vaccine that people relied on to exit coronavirus-related shutdowns and recover from the pandemic.
Like Pfizer, Moderna made billions from its Covid-19 vaccine, and like Pfizer, the stock today plummeted because people aren’t as prone to take the updated vaccines.
Revenue in the third quarter was $1.75 billion, but that was down sharply from a year ago when Moderna posted $3.12 billion in revenue. In the first nine months of the year, Moderna brought in $3.87 billion in revenue versus $13.56 billion a year ago.
Moderna posted a net loss for the quarter of $3.63 billion, or $9.53 per share, versus a profit of $1.04 billion and $2.67 per share a year ago. That’s one of the main things that makes it one of the stocks to sell and walk away.
MRNA stock is down 55% this year and gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
On the date of publication, neither Louis Navellier nor the InvestorPlace Research Staff member primarily responsible for this article held (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
