f you’re a long-term investor, then chances are that 2019 treated you pretty well. When the curtain closed, the iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, and benchmark S&P 500 had risen by 22%, 35%, and 29%, respectively. By comparison, the S&P 500 has historically risen by 7% on an annual basis, inclusive of dividend reinvestment and when adjusted for inflation. In other words, the stock market delivered more than four times its annual average return last year.
But this doesn’t mean that every stock participated in the move higher. I’ve located three companies whose share prices fell by at least 30% in 2019, thereby underperforming the benchmark S&P 500 by roughly 60 (or more) percentage points. The good news is that these contrarian stocks looks to be in play as serious bounce-back candidates in 2020
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
Though arguable, there may not be a more disliked publicly-traded company than brand-name and generic-drug developer Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE:TEVA). Pretty much everything possible that could go wrong has in recent years. In no particular order, Teva has dealt with:
- A settlement stemming from bribery allegations overseas.
- Top-level executive turnover.
- The complete shelving of its once high-yield dividend.
- Generic-drug price weakness.
- A 44-state lawsuit stemming from its role in the opioid crisis.
- Generic competition impacting sales of its top-selling brand-name drug, Copaxone.
Suffice it to say, things… Continue reading at The Motley Fool.com