Don’t overlook the importance of finding stocks to sell to clean up your investment mix. F-rated stocks are portfolio killers. They keep you from adding wealth, becoming richer and threaten your long-term goals to retire comfortably. And sadly, it doesn’t take many F-rated stocks to put a huge dent into your monthly and quarterly returns.
One of the best tools you can use to look for both stocks to buy and stocks to sell is the Portfolio Grader. This free tool evaluates based on earnings performance, growth, momentum, potential and analyst sentiment. Then it ranks them on an A through F scale, with the best stocks getting an “A” rating and the worst ones being F-rated stocks. Those are the stocks to sell.
Investors should take note of F-rated stocks to sell soon. If you’re holding these names in January 2024, it’s time to make a move for the better.
ChargePoint Holdings (CHPT)
A few years ago, electric vehicle stocks are nearly as popular as artificial intelligence stocks are today. There was a lot of interest in the relatively new technology, and many companies looked to take advantage.
But not everyone can be a winner and the EV craze has cooled somewhat. And that leaves ChargePoint Holdings (NYSE:CHPT) out in the cold and one of the EV stocks to sell.
Losses are mounting up quickly – the company lost $158.2 million in its fiscal third quarter of 2024, up from a loss of $84.5 million in the previous year.
Notably the company has only $397 million in cash on hand, and while it hasn’t touched its $150 million revolving credit line, ChargePoint can’t withstand losses like this forever.
CHPT stock is down 78% in the last 12 months and gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
Mullen Automotive (MULN)
Do not be fooled by Mullen Automotive (NASDAQ:MULN) and its stock price. Yes, it’s finally up over $1 per share and is coming in at a crisp $12.60 per share these days.
But that’s only because Mullen performed not one, not two, but three reverse stock splits in 2023 to shore up its sagging stock price.
First, there was a 1-for-25 split in May, followed by a 1-for-9 split in August. Finally, with the stock price down to close to a dime per share, Mullen split again in December, it performed a 1-for-100 stock split.
Mullen says the split was needed because it needs to raise capital and be on a major exchange to secure funding. CEO David Michery says Mullen’s true value isn’t reflected in the stock.
I would hope not, because Mullen stock is essentially worthless. It will be interesting to see if the stock can hold its price until the Jan. 21 Nasdaq deadline or how far it will drop. After all, this company measures deliveries by the dozens, not the thousands.
Even considering the reverse stock splits, MULN stock is down 99.7% in the last year. It gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader and a place on this list of stocks to sell.
Icahn Enterprises (IEP)
The investment company operated by activist investor Carl Icahn has had a tough run as of late. Icahn Enterprises (NASDAQ:IEP) was targeted by a short-seller report by Hindenburg Research, which accused Icahn’s company of taking on too much leverage and absorbing sustained losses.
It also said the company’s dividend of $2 per share was unsustainable. Icahn protested the report, but when the company’s earnings were a tremendous disappointment in the second quarter, he cut the dividend in half.
You can decide for yourself if Hindenburg was right about Icahn, or if the company’s short report was overly damaging. Either way, Icahn Enterprises isn’t a good investment right now.
Revenue for the third quarter was $3 billion, down from $3.4 billion a year ago. The company recorded a net loss of $6 million or 1 cent per share versus a loss of $123 million and 37 cents per share in the same quarter of 2022.
IEP stock is down 66% in the last year and gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA)
Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) is a large pharmacy chain boasting over 12,500 locations in the U.S., Latin America and Europe. Its brands include Walgreens, Boots, Duane Reade, the No7 Beauty Company and Benavides.
The company had a rough year, with the stock down over 30%. Sales are down as the demand for Covid-19 vaccinations and treatments dropped. Walgreens also faces more pressure from online retailers and a tough environment for brick-and-mortar stores.
Walgreens reduced its dividend by almost half, from 48 cents per share to 25 cents per share, on Jan. 4 because of headwinds. CEO Tim Wentworth stated Walgreens needed to strengthen its financial position, which led to the decision to cut the dividend.
That’s not good news for investors – particularly those who are looking to WBA stock as a solid source of income.
Earnings for the fiscal first quarter of 2024 included revenue of $36.7 billion, up 10% from a year ago. The company also posted a loss of $39 million for the quarter, which was a vast improvement from a year ago when losses hit $6.2 billion.
WBA stock gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
3M Company (MMM)
3M Company (NYSE:MMM) may not be the best-known company out there. But it makes a lot of products that are used daily, including home goods, roofing granules, medical supplies and protective equipment.
The company is undergoing a big change this year with the spinoff of its healthcare division into a new company to be called Solventum. They expect the spinoff to be completed in the first half of the year, taking with it a unit responsible for 25% of 3M’s sales last year.
I’m not convinced that’s a good idea for MMM shareholders.
I also think 3M’s revenue numbers are headed in the wrong direction. Q3 sales of $8.3 billion were down 3.6% YoY and 3M expects a 5% sales decline for the full year. Previously, it forecasted a drop in a range of 1% to 5%, so the actual numbers are coming in on the high side.
MMM stock is down 10% in the last year and gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
Penn Entertainment (PENN)
Penn Entertainment (NASDAQ:PENN) is where you would go if you wanted to have some fun. The company owns over 40 casinos and racetracks in North America and operates over 50,000 gaming machines.
But it’s not been fun to own PENN stock lately. The stock is down 11% over the last year, and management made some baffling decisions with its ill-fated handling of the Barstool Sports franchise.
It bought just more than a third of the company in 2020 and then purchased the rest of it nearly a year ago, investing $550 million hoping Barstool would help its growing sports wagering and in-game betting business.
But Barstool wasn’t a good fit after all, and later in 2023, Penn resold Barstool back to its founder, Dave Portnoy, for just $1.
On top of that, the sports betting business is starting to slow down. Thirty-eight states now have legalized sports gaming, but the biggest states in the country (California and Texas) do not. There are plenty of obstacles for the holdout states to overcome before they can pass those laws, according to the Washington Post.
Penn saw revenue in the third quarter drop from $1.62 billion to $1.61 billion, with a net loss of $725.1 million in the quarter.
PENN stock gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
Blink Charging (BLNK)
Blink Charging (NASDAQ:BLNK) is another company that wants to capitalize on the EV market. Blink designs, manufactures, owns and operates charging stations for electric vehicles.
Blink says it’s involved with nearly 78,000 charging ports, operating in a variety of ways. Some are owned by Blink, some are a partnership with a third party, and others are host-owned or operate in a Blink-as-a-service model.
The question here is whether Blink can scale up rapidly enough to compete with other major players in the market. It already has partnerships with Mitsubishi to operate charging stations at the company’s 320 dealerships in the U.S. And it has a contract with the U.S. Postal Service to provide up to 41,500 EV charging stations as the nation’s mail delivery fleet transitions to EVs.
Revenue in the third quarter was $43.3 million, a solid number that was a 152% increase from the previous year. But the company also posted a net loss of $112.7 million, or $1.74 per share, versus a loss of $25.6 million and 51 cents per share a year ago.
Blink is facing a deep hole and while it hopes to be profitable this year, it doesn’t appear to be a good investment today. BLNK stock is down 69% in the last year and gets an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
On the date of publication, neither Louis Navellier nor the InvestorPlace Research Staff member primarily responsible for this article held (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
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