Wall Street moved lower again last week. I thought my three stocks to avoid for that week -- Altria, Southwest, and Charter Communications -- were going to lose to the market. They fell 8%, 8%, and 13%, respectively, for an average decline of 9.7% for the week.
The S&P 500 moved 2.5% lower, but I was still right. I have been correct in 67 of the past 105 weeks, or 64% of the time.
Let's turn our attention to the new week. I see Booking Holdings (BKNG 0.53%), Camping World (CWH 1.90%), and Cedar Fair (FUN 1.11%) as stocks you might want to consider steering clear of this week. Let's go over my near-term concerns with all three investments.
1. Booking Holdings
There are plenty of companies checking in with their latest quarterly results this week, including all three stocks on this list. Booking Holdings is the global juggernaut in online travel behind Priceline.com, Kayak, and its namesake booking portal. It reports its financials for the third quarter shortly after Thursday's market close.
The quarter itself should be solid. Analysts see a 13% revenue increase with an even healthier 20% jump on the bottom line. The stateside travel industry may be hitting a wall now that the country got "revenge travel" out of its system, but this is a global juggernaut making the most of pandemic-related travel restrictions finally easing up overseas in the last year.
Image source: Getty Images.
The potential turbulence for Booking Holdings would come in the guidance it provides this week. Wall Street's been paring back its revenue and profit forecasts for the new quarter and all of 2024 in recent weeks. Expectations are now for decelerating growth on both ends of the income statement for the fourth quarter.
Why are growth projections cooling on Booking Holdings? Geopolitical instability is probably canceling a lot of near-term travel plans, and rising costs are making it more expensive to go on a getaway these days. It's also not a good look that Booking Holdings' CEO and CFO each sold a substantial chunk of shares earlier this month, each one cutting back on the stock in seven-figure revenue transactions.
2. Camping World
Camping World is one of my larger investments, so obviously I remain a long-term bull on the leading retailer of new and used recreational vehicles. However, Camping World will report its fiscal third-quarter results on Wednesday afternoon, and things could get bumpy.
This is a challenging time to be selling big-ticket gas guzzlers, with financing rates high, fuel prices on the rise, and the economy potentially stalling. Camping World thrived in 2021 and 2022, when demand outstripped supply, but now business is going the other way. Analysts see revenue declining by 5% on a more painful 81% plunge in earnings.
Camping World recently slashed its once bountiful dividend, bracing for this lull. It has also fallen short of Wall Street profit targets in three of the past four quarters. There are some encouraging long-term tailwinds for the RV industry, but momentum isn't going Camping World's way this week.
3. Cedar Fair
Another potentially problematic report this earnings season is Cedar Fair. The operator of regional amusement parks hit a new 52-week low on Friday, but things can always get worse.
Cedar Fair is a class act among fans of gated attractions. You can't consider yourself a coaster enthusiast if you haven't visited Cedar Point in Ohio, the country's most popular amusement park outside of Florida and California. Knott's Berry Farm historically draws even larger crowds, cultivating a steady audience of fans in its highly competitive Southern California market.
The investment hasn't been a fun ride lately. Revenue has declined in back-to-back quarters, and Wall Street pros are bracing for more of the same when it loads up fresh financials on Thursday morning. With both ends of the income statement retreating, it's hard to see Cedar Fair increasing its distributions, which are a third of what they were before the pandemic.
The stock market is always on the move. If you're looking for safe stocks, you aren't likely to find them in Booking Holdings, Camping World, and Cedar Fair this week.
