Every investor wants to avoid stocks that could damage a portfolio. In a bull market, it's easy to own growth stocks and watch them rise, but bear markets are much more difficult to invest in, and the risk of a blowup is much higher.
Now, with a recession looming, some high-risk stocks look poised to keep falling. Here are three stocks that could sabotage your portfolio.
1. Peloton: Is the connected fitness stock beyond repair?
Peloton Interactive (PTON -2.24%) was a darling of the pandemic, but the growth story has quickly unraveled over the past year. Almost everything that can go wrong with a company has with Peloton, it seems.
The company badly misread consumer demand and overproduced its exercise equipment. It was also forced to abandon plans for a factory, its CEO was forced out, and the brand has deteriorated as sales have flagged and the buzz around the company has faded. Meanwhile, the company has been forced into several rounds of layoffs, weighing on morale.
Its recent results show how badly the company is struggling with its turnaround. In its most recent quarter, Peloton reported an operating loss of $1.2 billion due to a number of one-time write-downs and expenses. Adjusting for those one-time costs, the company still reported a loss in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $289 million, and its free-cash-flow loss was $412 million.
Its membership base also seems to be plateauing as quarter-over-quarter growth was flat in its most recent quarter. The at-home exercise boom is not going to return, and the business model seems broken. Though the stock has fallen 95% from its peak, it could still slide from here, especially if it continues to rack up wide losses.
2. Stitch Fix: An industry disruptor gets derailed
For years, Stitch Fix (SFIX 3.69%) delivered solid growth with a disruptive model. Stylists picked out clothes for customers, generally sending them a box of five at a time. Customers kept what they wanted and returned the rest.
Stitch Fix was even profitable for a period, but several execution errors and headwinds from the pandemic have badly damaged the company. Stitch Fix has shifted more of its styling onto computer algorithms and away from human stylists, with mixed results at best, and founder Katrina Lake's resignation as CEO last year also surprised investors.
The company's launch of Freestyle, a platform that allows users to shop directly for clothes with Stitch Fix's recommendations, has also fizzled.
Meanwhile, the lockdown era made apparel sales difficult, and the remote-work trend has also been a challenge for the company because office wear is a prime purpose for its customers.
Like Peloton, Stitch Fix is both unprofitable and seeing revenue decline, a deadly combination. In its most recent quarter, revenue fell 16% to $481 million, and its active client base declined by 9% to 3.8 million. It also reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $31.8 million.
Stitch Fix could get back on track, but a lot needs to change for the company to become successful, and a potential recession will likely only add to its problems. The stock is down more than 95% from its pandemic peak, showing it has already sabotaged a lot of portfolios.
3. Coinbase: Crypto becomes a heavy anchor
Coinbase Global (COIN -5.10%) went public during the pandemic and, like Peloton, was momentarily a stock market darling as shares soared on the broad boom in cryptocurrencies. But prices for nearly every cryptocurrency have since plunged, and that's crushed both Coinbase's performance and the stock price.
In the second quarter, revenue fell 60% to $805.2 million as trading volume and active users declined sharply. Meanwhile, the company failed to anticipate the decline in crypto prices and invested heavily just as demand was declining. As a result, its adjusted EBITDA loss in the quarter was $151 million, and it posted a net loss of $647 million.
Coinbase continues to invest in new services, arguing that crypto is cyclical. But it will take a lot for crypto interest to return to the heights it reached when people around the world were largely confined to their homes, helping to drive what turned out to be a bubble in cryptocurrency.
If the recovery in the crypto market doesn't live up to Coinbase's expectations, the stock is likely to continue spiraling.
