Holding an underperforming stock in your portfolio can be very risky, as you could be setting yourself up for even greater losses. Below are three stocks that have not been doing well this year and that investors may be better off just selling:
Bombardier, Inc. (TSX:BBD.B) reported yet another disappointing quarter last week. Not only did the company post a net loss of $36 million, which was down from a $70 million profit a year ago, but it also adjusted down its forecast for the year as well.
Free cash flows are also expected to be worse than expected for the year as the company stated it would be investing more money into its rail division.
The stock has continually found ways to test investors’ patience with these latest results being just the most recent example. The stock plummeted 18% last week as a result; over the past 12 months, it is now down more than 60% with little hope of a turnaround anytime soon.
Closing the week at just $1.85, the stock could soon be in striking distance of its low for the year – $1.585. Bombardier is an investment suitable only for the most risk-averse investors, and anyone else should consider ditching the stock once and for all.
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc (TSX:SNC) knows a lot about controversy and risk as well. It may be one of the few stocks on the TSX that could be a riskier buy than Bombardier.
With lots of legal uncertainty surrounding the company, there were already plenty of reasons to sell the stock before the company released its quarterly earnings last week.
And with a $2.1 billion loss in Q2, things just went from bad to worse for SNC, as it too is stuck in a free fall that it may not be able to climb out of.
The loss included a $1.8 billion writedown to its goodwill so the good news was that a big part of the bad performance was due to a non-cash item. However, it was still a brutal result for a stock that has lost nearly 70% of its value during the past year.
While there is the possibility that SNC could still turn things around, for now, it’s not an investment that’s worth the risk.
CannTrust Holdings Inc (TSX:TRST)(NYSE:CTST) is definitely the riskiest buy on this list. As bad as SNC and Bombardier may be, neither of them are in imminent danger of not being able to operate their businesses.
Faced with the prospect of possibly losing their license to sell marijuana, CannTrust doesn’t know yet if it will be able to continue with its operations.
The stock lost half of its value last month and the worst may be yet to come. Once Health Canada comes down with the hammer and announces CannTrust’s punishment, we’ll have a better idea of just how dire of a situation it is for the cannabis stock.
While the company may be spared and given another chance, the odds of that happening are low.
There may be the temptation to roll the dice on CannTrust, but investors shouldn’t ignore the very serious risks still plaguing the company.
