Reviewing the 30 worst-performing stocks so far this year; Major IPOs have seen big drawdowns one year later
1) As a bargain-hunting value investor, I regularly look for babies thrown out with the bathwater: good companies encountering temporary (not terminal) problems, whose stocks are experiencing a sell-off that's wildly overdone.
So it was with great interest that I reviewed this list of the 30 worst-performing stocks in the S&P 500 Index year to date (through July 24), published by Charlie Bilello in his latest Week in Charts:
The names in red are software and related services companies, which have been suffering due to investor fears around AI.
Regular readers will recognize many of the stocks on this list, as I've written about them several times. So today, I'd like to share my latest thoughts on them...
499, 496, 484, 479, 478, and 475 – Intuit (INTU), Lululemon Athletica (LULU), Salesforce (CRM), Adobe (ADBE), ServiceNow (NOW), and Nike (NKE): In my June 12 e-mail, I named these six as part of my "Discarded Dozen" list of stocks that I predict will outperform SpaceX (SPCX) over the next year. Here's how they've performed since then:
Five of the six are up over the past six and a half weeks, and the group is up 11% on average. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is flat, and SPCX is down a whopping 28%.
497 – Boston Scientific (BSX): I analyzed the company's financials and valuation on July 1, then reviewed a bull case for the stock on July 2. I continue to think it's very interesting.
493 – Accenture (ACN): I took a quick glance at the stock on June 22, after it had crashed to around $125. It's now up to around $165, but I'm still planning to take a closer look at the company when I get a chance.
491 and 471 – Applovin (APP) and Palantir Technologies (PLTR): I've warned my readers to stay away from these stocks many times. They remain on my "Filthy Five" list of stocks to avoid, which I last updated on July 24.
490 – Charter Communications (CHTR): Along with Accenture, I took a quick glance at Charter on June 22 when the stock had hit a 13-year low. I'm planning to take a closer look at the company when I get a chance.
489 – Oracle (ORCL): I took a first look at the company on June 17, 2025 and concluded, "I think other tech giants have better growth prospects yet trade at a lower valuation, so I'm not tempted to buy ORCL at these levels..." Since then, the stock is down 42% – and I'm still not interested.
488 – Intuitive Surgical (ISRG): I've been following the company for decades because my cousin was one of the first employees after the company was founded in 1995. I (stupidly) never bought the stock as it rose more than 250 times. But with it down 40% from its 52-week high, I've added it to my list of stocks to take a closer look at.
487 – Zoetis (ZTS): Along with Accenture and Charter, I took a quick glance at Zoetis on June 22 when it was at an eight-year low. It's essentially flat since then, and I'm planning to take a closer look when I get a chance.
485 – Paramount Skydance (PSKY): On March 30, I analyzed the company and concluded to avoid the stock at all costs. Since then, it's down 10%, as its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has – at least temporarily – been blocked by a court. If the deal goes through, I think the stock will quickly go to zero. If it doesn't, it'll just take a little longer to get there.
As for the rest on the list, I've yet to take a look. But if any of these stocks are of particular interest to you, please e-mail me by clicking here. I'll take a closer look at ones that are of greatest interest to my readers.
2) Another list on Bilello's Week in Charts caught my eye...
It shows 27 major IPOs in the past 15 years, measured by stock price performance a year after the first-day close and the maximum drawdown from that point in the first year:
I'm familiar with the research that buying IPOs after their typical first-day pop is a bad idea. But I was still shocked to see how badly some of the biggest IPOs have performed...
Only five of the 27 were up a year later, and the overall median return was a 30% loss – during a long bull market! If you had invested in all 27, you would have endured a median maximum drawdown of 52%.
This underscores what I've long said: Do not invest in IPOs.
Best regards,
Whitney
P.S. I welcome your feedback – send me an e-mail by clicking here.
P.P.S. My family and I spent the day in Salzburg, Austria on Monday. We walked through beautiful gardens, went to the cathedral in the old town, and took the funicular up to the fortress. We then toured the Mozart museum (in the building where he was born and lived for the first 25 years of his brief 35-year life) and capped the day with a Mozart dinner concert. Here are pictures:
