October 15, 2025
Smart investors know that knowing when to sell is just as important as knowing what to buy.
While most financial media focuses on stocks to purchase, we look for companies facing serious problems that might make them worth selling. These aren’t just stocks that are temporarily underperforming – they’re businesses facing real challenges with their operations, finances, or that are simply overvalued.
We don’t make recommendations based on short-term price movements or news headlines. Each company on this list has been carefully analyzed using multiple factors that often predict significant price drops.
Good portfolio management means both buying and selling at the right time. Often, the best decision is to move your money away from troubled positions before problems show up in the stock price.
AppLovin (APP)
AppLovin confronts a regulatory and legal perfect storm that threatens the foundation of its AI-powered advertising business model. The stock plummeted 16% this week following Bloomberg’s report that the SEC has been probing the company’s data collection practices, specifically investigating whether AppLovin violated platform partners’ service agreements to push more targeted advertising to consumers. SEC enforcement officials assigned to cyber and emerging technologies are handling the matter, responding to a whistleblower complaint and multiple short-seller reports published earlier this year.
The investigation strikes at the core of AppLovin’s spectacular growth trajectory—the company’s AXON software that has driven its 300% stock appreciation over the past year. Short-sellers including Muddy Waters, Fuzzy Panda, and Culper Research have accused AppLovin of “systematically” violating app store terms of service by “impermissibly extracting proprietary IDs from Meta, Snap, TikTok, Reddit, Google, and others” to funnel targeted ads without user consent. This fingerprinting practice, if proven, would represent a fundamental violation of both Apple’s App Store rules and platform partner agreements.
At $569.75 with a $193 billion market value, AppLovin trades at a price-to-sales ratio of 37—more than ten times the S&P 500 average of 3.4—on the assumption its data collection advantages are both legal and sustainable. While the company generated impressive 77% revenue growth to $1.26 billion last quarter, this performance may be built on practices now under federal scrutiny. The combination of SEC investigation, potential class action lawsuits (estimated at $750 million in potential fines), and the inherent difficulty of defending against allegations from multiple credible short-sellers creates existential business model risk. Even if AppLovin ultimately prevails, the regulatory overhang and potential restrictions on its data collection methods could severely impair the targeting precision that drove its recent success, making current premium valuations unjustifiable.
Quantum-Si (QSI)
Quantum-Si demonstrates how dilution warnings can trigger sell-offs even when the underlying technology narrative remains intact. The protein sequencing company’s stock dropped nearly 5% this week following Thursday’s shelf registration filing with the SEC announcing intentions to raise up to $300 million through various securities including common stock, preferred stock, and debt. This comes just months after the company completed a $50 million registered direct offering in July, highlighting the persistent cash consumption inherent in developing niche life sciences technologies.
The fundamental challenge facing Quantum-Si is the tension between capital requirements and shareholder value preservation. With a market value of just $338 million, raising anywhere close to $300 million through equity issuance would result in catastrophic dilution for existing shareholders. The company’s negative 71.69% profit margin underscores the reality that Quantum-Si remains in the expensive product development phase with minimal revenue generation, burning cash while commercializing its Platinum Pro instrument and developing the next-generation Proteus platform.
At $1.67, Quantum-Si trades as a speculative bet on breakthrough protein sequencing technology achieving commercial adoption before the company exhausts its capital runway. While management maintains the shelf registration provides “broad discretion” and flexibility for future funding needs, the filing’s timing—shortly after previous capital raises—signals ongoing cash burn that threatens to outpace revenue growth. The protein sequencing market remains niche compared to the more established genomics field, and Quantum-Si’s path to profitability extends well into 2027 even under optimistic scenarios. For investors, the persistent dilution risk combined with negative unit economics suggests waiting for clear evidence of commercial traction before considering investment at less punitive valuations.
New Fortress Energy (NFE)
New Fortress Energy exemplifies a death spiral scenario where operational failures compound with legal challenges and mounting debt to create an unsustainable business model. This week’s 24% plunge followed a U.S. district judge’s temporary injunction halting the company’s LNG deliveries to Puerto Rico after marine pilots filed suit alleging the company’s tugboats were unsafe. The order forced New Fortress subsidiary Genera PR, which manages most of Puerto Rico’s power generation, to switch two major plants from LNG to more expensive diesel fuel, creating operational chaos that caught Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer González-Colón’s attention as an “outrage.”
The Puerto Rico situation represents far more than a temporary setback—it exposes the fragility of New Fortress’s entire business model. The company’s stock has plummeted 75% over the past year as debts mounted, and this latest crisis jeopardizes the recently-signed seven-year, $4 billion contract to supply LNG to Puerto Rico power plants. That contract still requires approval from the federal oversight board, which previously rejected a proposed $20 billion, 15-year deal citing concerns about creating a “monopolistic arrangement that would ultimately jeopardize energy security.”
At $1.87 with a $532 million market value, New Fortress trades below the company’s substantial debt obligations, suggesting equity holders face significant impairment risk. The 24.81% profit margin provides inadequate cushion against the operational disruptions, asset sales, and legal challenges battering the business. With two LNG tankers stranded—the Energos Maria sitting in port at San Juan and the Energos Princess waiting outside—the company faces immediate revenue loss while debt service continues. The combination of legal injunctions, debt burden, and regulatory rejection of key contracts creates a situation where even a tentative resolution may come too late to preserve meaningful equity value for current shareholders.
Bottom Line
This week’s featured companies demonstrate how regulatory challenges, capital structure problems, and operational failures can quickly undermine even rapidly growing businesses. AppLovin faces an SEC investigation threatening the foundation of its advertising technology advantage, Quantum-Si confronts massive potential dilution as cash burn continues without clear path to profitability, and New Fortress Energy struggles with legal injunctions and debt obligations that may prove insurmountable. In each case, the risks facing equity holders appear to significantly outweigh any potential upside from successful navigation of these challenges.