These stocks soared during the pandemic, and then crashed. Ten are now expected to double in price.
A screen of stocks that popped during the coronavirus pandemic highlights dozens that have crashed. But some are considered worthy of purchase by a majority of analysts. You might want to keep an eye on them because every market cycle, even bad ones like today’s, eventually turns around.
The following three pandemic stars went into supernova mode as the U.S. economy rose from a recession. They had been widely discussed every day — on CNBC, on Twitter — but now they have few friends.
- Shares of Teladoc Health Inc. TDOC,
+9.05% closed at $83.72 on Dec. 31, 2019, then rose as much as 252% to $294.54 through the close on Feb. 8, 2021, after which they fell 89% through April 29, 2022, when they closed at $33.76. (All price changes in this article exclude dividends.) - Zoom Video Communications Inc. ZM,
+4.07% rose 735% from $68.04 at the end of 2019 through a closing high of $568.34 on Oct. 19, 2020, before falling 82% through the close at $99.57 on April 29. The stock is still held by Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF ARKK,+4.32% , which has had its own pandemic boom-and-bust cycle, including a 50% decline in 2022 through April, following last year’s 24% decline. - Another pandemic high-flyer, Peloton Interactive Inc. PTON,
+6.06% , rose 490% from $28.40 at the end of 2019 to $167.42 on Jan. 13, 2021, but then plunged 90% through its close at $17.56 on April 22. At the end of 2019, Peloton was the smallest of these three companies, with a market capitalization of just over $1 billion.
It turns out that Teladoc is not listed on the Nasdaq — it is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
So our initial screen encompassed all stocks listed on both exchanges. Then, in light of Peloton’s market value before the pandemic began, we narrowed the list to companies with market caps of $1 billion or more at the end of 2019.
Since part of the data presented below makes use of consensus estimates among analysts working for brokerage firms, we further limited the group to companies covered by at least five analysts polled by FactSet. That brought the list down to 1,608 stocks.
Stocks that were hit the hardest
Among the 1,608 stocks in the screen, these 26 rose at least 300% through their pandemic closing highs, after which they fell at least 70%. They are ranked by their declines from their closing highs:
Company | Symbol | Decline from closing high | Gain from end of 2019 through closing high | Price change – end of 2019 through April 22, 2022 |
Stitch Fix Inc.. Class A | SFIX-US | -91% | 315% | -63% |
Peloton Interactive Inc. Class A | PTON, |
-90% | 490% | -38% |
Redfin Corp. | RDFN, |
-88% | 357% | -47% |
Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc | SPCE, |
-87% | 414% | -35% |
TG Therapeutics Inc. | TGTX, |
-87% | 395% | -37% |
Farfetch Ltd. Class A | FTCH, |
-85% | 609% | 8% |
Bilibili Inc. ADR Class Z | BILI, |
-84% | 740% | 31% |
Carvana Co. Class A | CVNA, |
-84% | 302% | -37% |
Zoom Video Communications Inc. Class A | ZM, |
-82% | 735% | 46% |
Zillow Group Inc. Class C | Z, |
-80% | 335% | -13% |
Ballard Power Systems Inc. | BLDP, |
-80% | 471% | 16% |
Appian Corp. Class A | APPN, |
-80% | 516% | 25% |
3D Systems Corp. | DDD, |
-80% | 533% | 30% |
Sunrun Inc. | RUN, |
-79% | 599% | 45% |
Zai Lab Ltd. ADR | ZLAB, |
-79% | 361% | -4% |
Pinduoduo Inc. ADR Class A | PDD, |
-79% | 436% | 14% |
Pinterest Inc. Class A | PINS, |
-77% | 378% | 10% |
Fate Therapeutics Inc. | FATE, |
-76% | 500% | 46% |
Chewy Inc. Class A | CHWY, |
-76% | 309% | 0% |
Vir Biotechnology Inc. | VIR, |
-76% | 561% | 62% |
Twilio Inc. Class A | TWLO, |
-75% | 351% | 14% |
Shopify Inc. Class A | SHOP, |
-75% | 325% | 7% |
Denali Therapeutics Inc. | DNLI, |
-75% | 437% | 37% |
DocuSign Inc. | DOCU, |
-74% | 318% | 9% |
Penn National Gaming Inc. | PENN, |
-73% | 434% | 43% |
Moderna Inc. | MRNA, |
-72% | 2377% | 587% |
Source: FactSet |
Click on the tickers for more about each company.
Then read Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information for free on the MarketWatch quote page.
Teladoc didn’t make the list, as its 252% gain from the end of 2019 through its high turned out to be relatively modest. For the period of Dec. 31, 2019, through the close on April 22, 2022, the stock was down 60%.
Leaving the stocks in the same order, here’s a summary of analysts’ opinions. Half of the stocks have majority “buy” or equivalent ratings, and 10 are also expected to at least double over the next 12 months:
Company | Symbol | Share “buy” ratings | Share neutral ratings | Share “sell” ratings | Closing price – April 22 | Consensus price target | Implied 12-month upside potential |
Stitch Fix Inc.. Class A | SFIX-US | 6% | 88% | 6% | $9.50 | $11.38 | 20% |
Peloton Interactive Inc. Class A | PTON, |
49% | 45% | 6% | $17.56 | $42.23 | 141% |
Redfin Corp. | RDFN, |
13% | 74% | 13% | $11.15 | $22.79 | 104% |
Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. | SPCE, |
33% | 42% | 25% | $7.49 | $15.53 | 107% |
TG Therapeutics Inc. | TGTX, |
87% | 0% | 13% | $6.94 | $19.63 | 183% |
Farfetch Limited Class A | FTCH, |
75% | 25% | 0% | $11.20 | $32.66 | 192% |
Bilibili Inc. ADR Class Z | BILI, |
81% | 14% | 5% | $24.34 | $43.03 | 77% |
Carvana Co. Class A | CVNA, |
50% | 46% | 4% | $57.96 | $146.10 | 152% |
Zoom Video Communications Inc. Class A | ZM, |
50% | 47% | 3% | $99.57 | $163.12 | 64% |
Zillow Group Inc. Class C | Z, |
38% | 54% | 8% | $39.82 | $67.47 | 69% |
Ballard Power Systems Inc. | BLDP, |
38% | 58% | 4% | $8.30 | $15.04 | 81% |
Appian Corp. Class A | APPN, |
37% | 50% | 13% | $47.80 | $60.00 | 26% |
3D Systems Corp. | DDD, |
10% | 70% | 20% | $11.34 | $21.00 | 85% |
Sunrun Inc. | RUN, |
78% | 13% | 9% | $19.98 | $49.19 | 146% |
Zai Lab Ltd. ADR | ZLAB, |
100% | 0% | 0% | $39.96 | $113.05 | 183% |
Pinduoduo Inc. ADR Class A | PDD, |
80% | 18% | 2% | $43.09 | $67.26 | 56% |
Pinterest Inc. Class A | PINS, |
33% | 64% | 3% | $20.52 | $29.11 | 42% |
Fate Therapeutics Inc. | FATE, |
85% | 15% | 0% | $28.56 | $90.00 | 215% |
Chewy Inc. Class A | CHWY, |
54% | 42% | 4% | $29.06 | $58.33 | 101% |
Vir Biotechnology Inc. | VIR, |
63% | 37% | 0% | $20.35 | $65.86 | 224% |
Twilio Inc. Class A | TWLO, |
94% | 6% | 0% | $111.82 | $299.52 | 168% |
Shopify Inc. Class A | SHOP, |
55% | 43% | 2% | $426.82 | $864.04 | 102% |
Denali Therapeutics Inc. | 79% | 21% | 0% | $23.80 | $77.75 | 227% | |
DocuSign Inc. | DOCU, |
47% | 48% | 5% | $81.00 | $105.31 | 30% |
Penn National Gaming Inc. | PENN, |
75% | 25% | 0% | $36.57 | $62.11 | 70% |
Moderna Inc. | MRNA, |
47% | 48% | 5% | $134.41 | $242.19 | 80% |
Source: FactSet |
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