Spotting harmful stocks and abandoning them at the right time is the key to protect your portfolio from big losses or make profits by short selling them.
Here are four stocks with an unfavorable rank and serious fundamental drawbacks for investors to get rid now:
Attunity Ltd. (NASDAQ:ATTU) : This service-orientated software and solutions provider has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), and witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings decreased 25% in the last 30 days to 3 cents per share. Attunity earnings have missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters. This translates to an average negative surprise of 183.3%. Further, the company has a very poor VGM Score of F.
The stock registered a negative return of 22.5% in the last one year, underperforming the industry’s growth of 7.4%.
3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD) : This leading provider of 3-D Modeling has a Zacks Rank #5, and seen the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings decreased 15.1% in the last 30 days to 45 cents per share.3D Systemshave posted a negative earnings surprise of 38.5% in the last quarter. 3D Systems has a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 67.2, compared with 14.9 for the industry. Also, the company has a very poor VGM Score of F.
The stock registered a negative return of 10.2% in the last one year, underperforming the Industry’s growth of 51%.
FARO Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:FARO) : A provider of the computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing revolution carries a Zacks Rank #5, and observed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings decreased from 56 cents in the last 30 days to a loss of 19 cents per share. FARO earnings have missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, with average negative surprise of 166.5%. Also, the company has a very poor VGM Score of F.
The stock registered a negative return of 5.7% on a year-to-date basis, underperforming the industry’s growth of 20.9%.
Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ:HLIT) : The company designs, manufactures and markets digital and fiber optic systems for delivering video, voice and data services over cable, satellite, telephone, and wireless networks. This Zacks Rank #5 has seen the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings decreasing from 8 cents in the last 60 days to a loss of 41 cents per share. Harmonicearnings have missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters, with average negative surprise of 74.2%. Also, the company has a poor VGM Score of F.
The stock registered a negative return of 34% on a year-to-date basis, underperforming the Industry’s growth of 18.9%.
Bottom Line
We expect the aforementioned factors to hurt the company’s near-term profitability. Hence, we recommend investors to stay away from these stocks until the Zacks Rank, VGM Score and estimates improve.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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3D Systems Corporation (DDD): Free Stock Analysis Report
FARO Technologies, Inc. (FARO): Free Stock Analysis Report
Attunity Ltd. (ATTU): Free Stock Analysis Report
Harmonic Inc. (HLIT): Free Stock Analysis Report
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Zacks Investment Research