Stock picking isn’t dead. But for most investors it might as well be!
In the past year the once-vibrant activity in the online stock picking universe has dramatically declined. With some of the top performers already sold out, the new year has seen the following companies no longer on the market:
Macy’s (NYSE: M)
Macy’s (NYSE: M) — an IPO-to-defunct in a blink of an eye, but one the board of directors didn’t take long to write off. The company offered shares in its IPO for the lowest prices ever seen, but it was too little, too late, and as the company found itself overleveraged, its prospects dimmed.
In just over a week, Macy’s went from a hot stock to a defunct one.
Nokia (NYSE: NOK)
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) — the $200 million purchase of Motorola that many thought was just the beginning of a larger consolidation in global mobile phone markets. The company has been unable to compete with the Apple iPhone and the Android based devices, and Nokia has been struggling to recover from a string of failed attempts to turn its struggling portfolio of mobile phone patents into something profitable.
Nokia shares fell by $2.40 or more than 13%, following the purchase of Motorola Mobility, a company with a large patent portfolio and no revenues or earnings.
Fiat Chrysler (NYSE: FCHA)
Fiat Chrysler (NYSE: FCHA) — the company that filed for bankruptcy and then emerged just months later to announce a $6.3 billion restructuring. The restructuring and the emergence of the Chrysler Group as a “new” company were the result of a reorganization that was done in a “non-accretive” fashion, with the sale of non-core assets to Fiat instead of using the sale to generate a healthy cash flow.
While the company announced