Facebook, Coinbase and Peloton: Wipe out kings of 2022

$Nasdaq Composite Index(.IXIC.US)$ It’s been a year of historic selloffs for US equities.
Here’s a closer look at some of the most stunning stock wipe outs of 2022:

$Meta Platforms(META.US)$
The FAANGs — Facebook, $Amazon(AMZN.US)$ , $Apple(AAPL.US)$ , $Netflix(NFLX.US)$ and $Alphabet-A(GOOGL.US)$ — had it bad this year as surging bond yields prompted investors to flee stocks with the highest valuations.
Yet it was the former, renamed Meta, that suffered most, falling 66 per cent to date. The Facebook owner had the worst day in its stock market history on February 3, when it lost an estimated $US251 billion in market value after posting disappointing earnings.
To that can be added regulatory and legal risks, cutbacks from advertisers and a crackdown on targeted ads by Apple. Plus, chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg’s bet on virtual reality through the metaverse has cost the company billions and isn’t expected to turn a profit anytime soon.
Still, analysts are looking to a revival in 2023, with the majority having buy ratings and the average price target implying 26 per cent potential upside.

$Coinbase(COIN.US)$
It’s been a disastrous year for stocks with exposure to cryptocurrencies as digital tokens were pummeled by a series of blowups, including the collapse of a so-called stablecoin in May and the unravelling of the FTX crypto exchange in November.
And as the largest public US crypto exchange platform, Coinbase has been among the hardest hit as investors yank coins off exchanges or exit the asset class as a whole. This year’s 87 per cent plunge in the stock has wiped out about $US47 billion in market value.
Owning Coinbase shares is “making a bet on the whole crypto token ecosystem,” according to Dan Dolev, an analyst at Mizuho Securities who has an underperform rating on the stock. “You’re better off just owning bitcoin, if you believe in bitcoin,” he said.
Not all analysts are so gloomy, with the average price target implying that the stock will more than double in the next 12 months.

$Carvana(CVNA.US)$
It’s been a difficult year for many stocks that not long ago were considered pandemic winners. Prime among them is the online car seller Carvana.
Having lost about 98 per cent of its value in 2022, the company is one of the 10 worst performers in the Russell 3000. The difference with the other nine is that it was by far the biggest at the start of the year when its market value stood at about $39 billion.
Carvana had surged during the pandemic as consumers flocked to the digital platform to buy used cars. But declining prices, soaring inflation and the rising cost of debt cast doubt on the business model. The company struggled to restructure debt, and its bonds signal the market sees a potentially high chance of default.
“While the company has been aggressively cutting fixed expense, we also see execution risks as elevated,” Truist Securities analyst Naved Khan wrote in a December note, downgrading the stock to hold from buy.

$Peloton Interactive(PTON.US)$
Another lockdown winner turned loser is Peloton. Having lost a large part of its searing 2020 gains last year, the stock has slumped a further 78 per cent in 2022, and now trades a long way below even its 2019 initial public offering price.
Peloton’s story has moved beyond a reversal in once booming demand for its exercise bikes and fitness classes, with the company scrambling to cut jobs and offload operations following calls by activist investor Blackwells Capital for the departure of chief executive and co-founder John Foley. Foley stepped down as part of a leadership shakeup.
“I think we’ll get an answer on whether Peloton survives in the next year,” said Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Brian Nagel, who has an outperform rating on the stock. “Time is not on their side necessarily.”
Analysts mostly look for the shares to rally in 2023, with the average price target implying 59 per cent upside over the next 12 months.