February Risk Alert: 3 Stocks to Unload Now to Protect Your Portfolio
In the investment space, uncovering stocks to sell with potential pitfalls is as crucial as identifying opportunities. This comprehensive review zooms in on the recent moves of three prominent companies that have sent ripples through the market. These aren’t just fluctuations, but indicators of underlying operational vulnerabilities, providing essential insights for investors seeking portfolio resilience.
Each of these stocks to sell has a tale of challenges impacting profitability and investor sentiment. Understanding these intricacies becomes pivotal, guiding investors through a landscape fraught with uncertainties and strategic hurdles.
Agilon Health (AGL)
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Agilon Health’s (NYSE:AGL) decision to sell the Hawaii business stands out as a strategic move but suggests inherent weaknesses. The lack of a joint venture partnership, smaller patient-physician panel size and infrastructure differences compared to core partner markets diminished strategic value for Agilon.
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Despite strong financial performance in partner markets, Agilon’s adjusted EBITDA for Q3 2023 was negative $6 million, which aligns with their outlook. However, excluding Hawaii, the adjusted EBITDA would have been $6 million, reflecting Hawaii’s drag on profitability.
Additionally, Agilon witnessed fluctuations in medical margins, with adverse developments in claims impacting stability. This instability can pose challenges in predicting and maintaining consistent margins, thus affecting overall profitability. This unpredictability impacts Agilon’s ability to forecast and maintain stable margins, affecting overall profitability and market valuation.
Looking forward, Agilon’s revised outlook for adjusted EBITDA and medical margins for 2023 indicates a more conservative stance. Overall, the downward revision of their medical margin guidance by $50 million for the year, even after excluding Hawaii’s impact, indicates the company’s struggle and its lack of confidence in future financial projections.
Core Laboratories (CLB)
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The decline in revenue within the production enhancement segment is a critical indicator of potential weaknesses affecting Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) growth. This is a drop of approximately 10% sequentially and 14% year-over-year. Hence, this declining revenue suggests underlying challenges impacting the segment’s income generation.
Fundamentally, economic uncertainty or recession fears can impact oil and gas activities, directly affecting demand for services provided by Core Labs. Ongoing geopolitical tensions, such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Middle East turmoil, could disrupt the crude oil trade and associated laboratory assay services, reducing demand for related services.
Additionally, a decrease in U.S. onshore activity, reflected in reduced rig and frac spread counts, directly impacts revenue from this region. International product sales declined by 6% sequentially and 15% year-over-year, reducing overall revenue. Also, delays in international product deliveries and market fluctuations might influence factors.
Finally, the delayed delivery of some international product sales from Q3 2023 to October 2023, along with planned recurring product orders scheduled for the fourth quarter, indicates challenges in managing product delivery timelines. This is adversely impacting the market valuation causing CLB to join the ranks of stocks to sell.
AerSale (ASLE)
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AerSale’s (NASDAQ:ASLE) reliance on flight equipment sales as a significant revenue driver presents challenges due to its inherent volatility. The quarterly sales fluctuations create inconsistency in the company’s performance, impacting revenue projections and return on equity.
The company experienced a substantial year-over-year increase in sales in Q3 2023. However, it fell short of internal forecast expectations due to delays in closing several flight equipment sales. Hence, this unpredictability can affect the company’s ability to forecast revenue and plan resource allocation accurately.
Fundamentally, the unfavorable conditions in the cargo market, driven by higher interest rates and decreased air cargo demand, have adversely affected AerSale’s ability to sell aircraft. As a result, the company foresees a shift towards leasing more aircraft instead of selling them, indicating a delay in revenue generation from asset sales.
Finally, the company ended the quarter with a substantial balance sheet and liquidity. However, the company utilized significant cash in operating activities for feedstock acquisition and inventory preparation. This heavy cash usage raises concerns about the company’s ability to manage its cash flow efficiently.
On the date of publication, Yiannis Zourmpanos did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Yiannis Zourmpanos is the founder of Yiazou Capital Research, a stock-market research platform designed to elevate the due diligence process through in-depth business analysis.
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