It’s been a horrific year so far for equities, and yet the market remains littered with stocks to sell in anticipation of even deeper losses.
True, one of the worst starts to a year in market history has surely created a smorgasbord of bargains. But it hardly follows that every stock is worth buying on the dip.
Although being greedy when others are fearful is a generally fine first principle, remember that some stocks go down for good reasons. Such stocks to sell have plenty of room to decline even further.
Given that negative ratings on equities are exceedingly rare on Wall Street, it seemed like a good time to see which names analysts collectively single out as stocks to sell now. To that end, we used data from YCharts and S&P Global Market Intelligence to screen the Russell 1000 index for the stocks with the highest-conviction consensus Sell recommendations by industry analysts.
Here’s how the ratings system works: S&P surveys analysts’ stock calls and scores them on a five-point scale, where 1.0 equals a Strong Buy and 5.0 is a Strong Sell. Any score equal to or below 3.5 means that analysts, on average, rate the stock at Sell. The closer a score gets to 5.0, the stronger the consensus Sell recommendation.
After running the screen we were left with a very short list of names. (As we said above, Sell calls are rare.) And although they come from sectors as diverse as retail, insurance and utilities, they all have one thing in common: The Street expects them to underperform the broader market handily over the next 12 months or so.
Read on for more information about Wall Street’s top five stocks to sell now.
Share prices, price targets, analysts’ recommendations and other market data are as of March 9, courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence and YCharts, unless otherwise noted. Stocks are listed by conviction of analysts’ Sell calls, from weakest to strongest.
Hawaiian Electric Industries
- Market value: $4.6 billion
- Analysts’ consensus recommendation: 3.6 (Sell)
Hawaiian Electric Industries (HE, $41.99) stock is holding up pretty well so far in 2022. It’s essentially flat for the year-to-date vs. a drop of 16% for the S&P 500.
The Street, however, says that outperformance is set to come to an end in a big way.
The five analysts covering this utility stock collectively view it a hair on the negative side. The average price target of $41.60 implies that the stock is a little overvalued, and …….
Source: https://www.kiplinger.com/investing/stocks/stocks-to-sell/604659/stocks-to-sell-or-avoid-now