Wall Street moved sharply higher for the fourth trading week of 2023. My "three stocks to avoid," which I thought were going to lose to the market in the past week -- Bed Bath & Beyond, D.R. Horton, and Tesla Motors -- plunged 24%, rose 2%, and soared 33%, respectively, averaging out to a 3.7% ascent.
The S&P 500 moved nicely higher, increasing 2.5% for the week. The market beat two of the three, but there was no stopping Tesla. I was wrong, but I have still been correct in 43 of the past 67 weeks, or 64% of the time.
Let's turn our attention to the week ahead. I see BuzzFeed (BZFD 4.52%), General Motors (GM -0.05%), and 1-800-Flowers.com (FLWS 1.50%) as stocks you might want to consider steering clear of this week. Let's go over my near-term concerns with all three investments.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. BuzzFeed
Last week's big gainer was BuzzFeed, up 310% on what seems to be a pair of overblown news stories. The first catalyst that helped the online content publisher quadruple was a report that CEO Jonah Peretti sent out an internal memo on Thursday morning. BuzzFeed's staff was told that the company would be turning to ChatGPT creator OpenAI to help enhance the platform's signature quizzes and personalize some of its content without the involvement of human writers and editors.
There's no denying that the rollout of ChatGPT late last year has the potential to shake up various industries, and written content creation will be an early test. However, it's not as if BuzzFeed wasn't already cutting corners. It announced last month that it was laying off 12% of its workforce. A longer-term concern here is that if it's just that easy to replace skilled writers with artificial intelligence, the barriers to entry have been demolished and BuzzFeed is going to have a lot of new competitors.
The other catalyst popping BuzzFeed higher was a report that BuzzFeed had expanded a partnership to drive creators to Meta's (META 1.54%) social platform. Brent Navon at BofA would try to clear that up on Friday morning, putting out an analyst note that points out that this does not appear to be a new deal. He also suggested that reports that this was a $10 million opportunity for BuzzFeed was likely more the value of the entire contract than just the incremental value of the extension.
In the end, the two stories don't merit a $407 million boost in the stock's market cap. BuzzFeed is in a bind, and not just because it announced a restructuring last month. It has posted a larger than expected loss in each of the past three quarters. As an ad-supported business it will feel the string of a weakening economy in 2023. Its debt-heavy balance sheet isn't a good luck in this climate of rising rates.
I can give you seven reasons BuzzFeed investors may be in for a rude awakening this week, but it's not my job. We may as well let a ChatGPT prompt scribe that listicle.
2. General Motors
General Motors reports quarterly results on Tuesday morning, and I know what you're thinking. Didn't I just get burned last week by singing out Tesla ahead of its earnings report? Hear me out.
Tesla shares raced higher with Elon Musk saying demand bounced back in January, but that was with massive price cuts across its best-selling cars. Tesla has the margin wiggle room to pull that off. It's another story with GM. Margins are tighter. Unlike Tesla's cash-rich balance sheet, GM is saddled with more than $115 billion in debt.
There's also a matter of growth. Analysts see Tesla revenue growing 31% this year, 10 times greater than GM's 3% projected ascent. More importantly, with demand for Tesla recovering from December's dry spell, Tesla's cheaper cars will be taking market share from the rest of the industry -- GM included.
3. 1-800-Flowers.com
It's not just GM reporting potentially problematic financial results. 1-800-Flowers.com will toss the bouquet announcing its fiscal second-quarter performance on Thursday morning.
This is expected to be a challenging year for the floral arrangements platform. Analysts see declining revenue for the quarter and the entire fiscal year. Profits should fall sharply. With discretionary income getting harder to come by in this environment it's easy to see why folks are sending fewer gifts, cookies, popcorn tins, chocolate-covered berries, and all of the delivered presents that the company delivers.
It's going to be a bumpy road for some of these investments. If you're looking for safe stocks, you aren't likely to find them in BuzzFeed, General Motors, and 1-800-Flowers.com this week.
