In a rocky month for the stock market, the Nasdaq Composite index managed to finish in positive territory, overcoming concerns about a banking crisis and rising interest rates.
As you can see from the chart below, the Nasdaq finished the month with a surge as the banking crisis seemed to wane, and the personal consumption expenditure index showed inflation was decelerating.
Still, not every Nasdaq stock was a winner. Let's take a look at the three worst performers from the Nasdaq-100 to see whether any are worth buying.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Baker Hughes (down 5.7% in March)
Oilfield services company Baker Hughes (BKR 1.93%) doesn't fit the profile of your typical Nasdaq stock, hailing from the energy industry. In fact, the company may be best known among Nasdaq investors for its partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) specialist C3.ai.
However, Baker Hughes didn't benefit from any of the tailwinds supporting the AI stock in March and, instead, finished lower. Most of its decline came in the second week of the month as the banking crisis spiraled out of control, leading to a sharp decline in oil prices, which weighed on Baker Hughes.
Other than that, the news out on Baker Hughes was mixed in the month. Its weekly rig count fluctuated over March, finishing at 755, up from 753 at the end of February.
Additionally, the company won a subsea contract with Azule Energy off the coast of Angola and an order from Bechtel to supply liquefaction trains for Sempra Infrastructure's liquefied natural gas (LNG) project at Port Arthur, Texas.
Given the economic and energy sector volatility, Baker Hughes' stock price is likely to move with oil prices.
2. Zscaler (down 10.9% in March)
Last month, the second-worst-performing stock on the Nasdaq-100 was Zscaler (ZS -1.49%), the cybersecurity software-as-a-service provider (SaaS). Zscaler's decline came primarily following its earnings report at the beginning of the month, and it came despite the company beating analyst estimates.
Revenue for the quarter jumped 52% year over year to $387.6 million, topping the consensus at $364.9 million. Also, adjusted earnings per share jumped from $0.13 to $0.37, ahead of estimates at $0.29.
While the company beat estimates, the market seemed to sell the stock off on slowing growth and because it trades at a lofty valuation of a price-to-sales ratio of around 15 and a forward price-to-earnings ratio of nearly 100.
Like other SaaS stocks, Zscaler is facing stiff valuation headwinds, but investors should be encouraged by the performance of the underlying business.
3. Pinduoduo (down 13.5% in March)
Chinese e-commerce company Pinduoduo (PDD -1.38%) was the worst March performer on the Nasdaq-100. The stock fell in the second half of the month on a weak earnings report and news that Alphabet's Google Play had removed the app from its store over security concerns. The company missed estimates on the top line as revenue jumped 46% to $5.77 billion, just short of the consensus at $5.95 billion.
Pinduoduo also improved its profitability in recent quarters, posting an adjusted operating profit of $1.68 billion as the company shifted to value-added services like marketing and payments and further toward a marketplace model.
Later in March, the stock sold off again due to the Pinduoduo app's Google Play Store suspension. Pinduoduo denied that its app was malicious, though it will need to be restored on that platform.
Chinese stocks like Pinduoduo have faced a number of headwinds in recent months, but the end of the "zero-COVID" policy and the company's recent results seem to bode well for the stock.
If the Chinese market continues to bounce back, Pinduoduo could have a lot of upside.
