Market volatility is throwing stocks around, and that means a lot of former market darlings are starting to buckle. Nearly 500 exchange-listed stocks hit new 52-week lows last week, and some of the names will surprise you.
Uber Technologies (UBER -2.94%), Upwork (UPWK -0.89%), and Baidu (BIDU -0.56%) are some of the names hitting fresh lows. Let's dive in to see what's keeping these three once-promising investments in check.
Image source: Uber Technologies.
Uber
The leading ride-hailing company has only been public for six trading days, but it's still surprising to see one of the market's most hyped debutantes stumble out of the gate. Uber hit the market at the end of the prior week at $45, and it has never traded above that mark.
Uber may not remain a broken IPO forever, but with growth slowing and losses mounting, investors aren't taking a chance on the stock that was supposed to breathe new life to the market. However, with Uber on pace to enable more than 6 billion rides on its platform in 2019, it's hard to ignore its growing presence.
Upwork
Uber is living proof that we've living in a gig economy, and no one brings that point home better than Upwork. There are more than 110,000 core clients on Upwork's platform, allowing them to find freelance contractors for a wide spectrum of work.
Growth is slowing at Upwork. Revenue rose just 16% in the first quarter, which it announced earlier this month. After seeing top-line growth accelerate to 25% in 2018 and rising 23% the year before, we're starting to see business slow again. The good news is that Upwork's guidance calls for 18% to 20% growth for all of 2019, so it expects revenue to accelerate from its current pace.
Baidu
Uber and Upwork have gone public over the past year -- so their new lows are also their all-time lows -- but Baidu's been publicly traded since 2005. The stock hit its lowest level since the summer of 2015 on Friday, after Baidu posted disappointing financial results.
Baidu surprised the market with its first quarterly loss as a public company, and its guidance for the current quarter is calling for flattish revenue growth on a reported basis and a modest 1% to 6% advance adjusted for recent divestitures. Wall Street wasn't impressed.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank, CLSA, and Daiwa all downgraded the stock following Thursday's earnings release. Baidu is beefing up its buyback efforts at these levels, but it's buying here mostly because no one else is following suit.
