7 F-Rated Stocks to Sell Sooner Than Later

When I look at this list of dog-eared stocks to sell, I can only shake my head.

I like to believe that I’m an optimist when it comes to the stock market – in any market, there are opportunities to buy and add to your portfolio, but some of the names on this list are really well-known companies.

Some are leaders in their fields. Others were (at one time) highly thought of competitors who seemed destined to change the world. Many investors were bullish beyond measure at some of the names on this list of stocks to sell.

What happened?

If anything, this list stands as a lesson that all companies are vulnerable to either bad market conditions, bad marketing, bad leadership or bad decisions.

No matter how bullish you are on a company, it’s always important to occasionally review your portfolio, to keep up with the market news and to follow what’s happening with the companies in your portfolio.

Because when the market turns and the bears come to run – nobody is really safe.

Bears are eating away at the profits of these F-rated stocks to sell. If you’re holding one of these names, it may be time to make a tough decision to sell.

Lucid Group (LCID)

It wasn’t that long ago that Lucid Group (NASDAQ:LCID) was one of the hottest stocks in the electric vehicle space. Not it’s one of the stocks to sell while you can.

Conventional thinking had that Lucid would make serious inroads with its Lucid Air, and it was getting great reviews from industry watchers like MotorTrend, Car and Driver and Consumer Reports.

That was November 2021. Fourteen months later, the tide has turned on LCID stock. Lucid shares are down more than 80% since those heady days and there’s little to indicate that the company will rebound.

The company produced only 7,180 vehicles in 2022 and managed to deliver only 4,369 of them. The company continues to be unprofitable and analysts are expecting that to continue into the current quarter as well.

In fact, the only thing the company seems to be producing reliably is shares of LCID stock. Lucid sold more than 56.2 million common stock shares as a way to raise money, but in doing so it contributed to destroying the value of the stock.

LCID stock has an “F” rating in my Portfolio Grader.

Virgin Galactic (SPCE)

Here’s another company that had plenty of bullish momentum just a few months ago and now is one of the stocks to sell and forget about.

Private tourism company Virgin Galactic (NASDAQ:SPCE) wants to sell recreational spaceflight. Company founder Richard Branson even won a space race of sorts in July 2021, when he and three Virgin Galactic employees rode on a flight as passengers. (His flight beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos’ flight on a Blue Origin ship by nine days.)

But since then? SPCE stock is down 89% since July 2021, and private space travel still isn’t happening. After delays ultimately canceled the company’s plans to offer flights in 2022, Virgin Galactic is now aiming for commercial flights to begin as early as the second quarter of this year.

Will that really happen? Investors have every reason to be skeptical. SPCE stock has an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.

Meta Platforms (META)

The parent company of Facebook, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is looking past its massive social media platforms and focusing on the next thing down the road. According to founder Mark Zuckerberg, that’s the metaverse – and Zuckerberg is determined that Meta Platforms will be at the forefront. For now, it’s just one of the flainling tech stocks to sell.

The metaverse, according to Zuckerberg, will be an immersive 3D world where people will wear headsets and goggles (manufactured by Meta) to interact with their surroundings. People would be able to live, work and play in the metaverse.

But we’re a long way from getting there. Meta proudly announced a big innovation last quarter – avatars are finally getting legs! But that doesn’t strike me as a sign that we’re at all close to the metaverse taking the shape of Zuckerberg’s vision. We are going to need a lot more than legs for the metaverse to be a true virtual reality for the masses.

Meanwhile, Meta is continuing to invest huge amounts of money in building out this alternative universe. Meta lost $9.4 billion on its Reality Labs division last year and plans to pump 20% of 2023 spending into the project. Investors should expect to the company to lose $10 billion or more per year on the project for the foreseeable future.

META stock has an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.

Exela Technologies (XELA)

Exela Technologies (NASDAQ:XELA) isn’t as well-known as other names on this list, but it’s an overachiever when it comes to losing share price.

XELA shares are down 99% in the last 12 months and now trade at less than $1 per share. The company’s market capitalization is down to just $9.8 million. The Nasdaq has publicly broached the idea that XELA could be delisted.

Exela is a business process automation (BPA) company that helps its customers automate processes, improve data quality and reduce costs. The company says it has more than 4,000 customers in 50 countries.

But the company is having more problems than success. In addition to the falling stock price, Exela carries a tremendous debt of $1.16 billion – far too much for a company with such a tiny valuation.

Liquidity concerns should be taken seriously as long as this company’s debt is so far disproportionate to the company’s value. XELA stock has an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.

Party City (PRTY)

What do you bring to a bankruptcy party? I don’t know if Party City (NYSE:PRTY) offers such items on its shelves, but the party retailer filed this month for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The company said it had $1 billion in assets and $10 billion in liabilities. It already has an agreement with a bondholder group to help it with restructuring, which it hopes will be complete in the second quarter.

Unfortunately, Party City was never able to rebound from the Covid-19 shutdowns of 2020 and 2021 that forced people to stay home and socially distance themselves. Party City’s entire business model is built on helping people celebrate big and small occasions together – not online.

PRTY stock is down 93% over the last year – and even with a 10% jump on bankruptcy news, it’s still trading for less than 50 cents per share. It’s time to turn the lights out on this party and tell investors to go home. PRTY stock has an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.

Arcimoto (FUV)

Arcimoto (NASDAQ:FUV) is a clean energy company that specializes in small electric vehicles.

Its flagship is the Fun Utility Vehicle, which has a top speed of 75 miles per hour and a starting price of $17,200. It also sells its Deliverator vehicle which is designed for deliveries, and it says it’s working on a flatbed vehicle model.

But the company isn’t taking hold. FUV stock is down more than 90% in the last year, and now a top shareholder, exchange traded fund provider Invesco (NYSE:IVZ) is pulling out, selling all 2.27 million of its shares.

Arcimoto continued its trend of missing earnings estimates, posting top- and bottom-line misses in the third quarter of $2.02 million in revenue and an EPS loss of $8.49 per share. Analysts were expecting revenue of $4.09 million and an EPS loss of $5.60 per share.

Arcimoto’s vehicles may be fun, but it’s not fun for investors if you’re not making any money doing it. FUV stock has an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.

Coinbase (COIN)

If there’s a place to invest that’s more toxic than the crypto market right now, I don’t know what it is. Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) went public last April amid hopes that the crypto market was headed toward the mainstream, but the FTX collapse pretty much took care of that.

And unfortunately for Coinbase investors, the FTX’s meltdown coupled with the spectacular failure of Luna is making people rethink crypto in general. Industry insiders are calling this moment “crypto winter” and hope that it will be a cyclical moment that merely blows over.

That may be true. But it’s going to take some time. And as an investor, COIN stock is too volatile to own these days. Coinbase stock is down 75% from its April IPO. The company announced another round of layoffs this week, saying it would let got 20% of its staff, on top of the 18% of staff that was laid off in June.

COIN stock has an “F” rating in the Portfolio Grader.

On the date of publication, Louis Navellier had a long position in META. Louis Navellier did not have (either directly or indirectly) any other positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

The InvestorPlace Research Staff member primarily responsible for this article did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.