Even a good year for stocks has its share of high-flyers that have turned into losers -- or buying opportunities
Following last week's lackluster action in the stock market, it might surprise you that 2021 has been an excellent year, with the benchmark S&P 500 Index up 22%.
Beneath the surface, some high-flyers have taken a beating, as you can see from the list below.
Last week, Charlie Bilello made an excellent point while listing the biggest all-time losers among stocks included in the Nasdaq-100 Index: It is always good to be diversified, rather than have your investments concentrated in one company -- even very successful ones.
Bilello, CEO of Compound Capital Advisors, called the scene "a stock picker's bear market," while noting that the "flagship stock picking fund," the Ark Innovation ETF, was down significantly in 2021 after being a winner in 2020, when it rose 156%. (ARKK was down 14% for 2021 through Nov. 26.)
So if you are looking for former high-flyers that may rise from the ashes to soar again, the following list may be useful to begin your own research.
In order to come up with a broad list with well-known companies that might not yet be included in the S&P 500 or the Nasdaq-100 Index , we began with the Russell-1000 Index, which includes the largest U.S. stocks by market capitalization.
Exactly 60 of them were down at least 50% from their 2021 highs, through Nov. 26:
| Company | Decline from 2021 high | Closing price – Nov. 26, 2021 | 2021 high | Date of 2021 high | Price change – 2021 through Nov. 26 |
| StoneCo Ltd. Class A STNE | -83% | $16.34 | $95.12 | 02/17/2021 | -81% |
| Paysafe Ltd. PSFE | -80% | $3.89 | $19.57 | 01/25/2021 | -74% |
| Skillz Inc. Class A SKLZ | -79% | $9.82 | $46.30 | 02/05/2021 | -51% |
| Chegg Inc. CHGG | -78% | $24.99 | $115.21 | 02/16/2021 | -72% |
| C3.ai Inc. Class A AI | -78% | $38.38 | $176.94 | 02/10/2021 | -72% |
| GoHealth Inc. Class A GOCO | -78% | $3.56 | $16.37 | 01/08/2021 | -74% |
| Zillow Group Inc. Class A ZG | -74% | $55.07 | $212.40 | 02/16/2021 | -59% |
| Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. SPCE | -73% | $16.73 | $62.80 | 02/04/2021 | -29% |
| Zillow Group Inc. Class C Z | -73% | $55.62 | $208.11 | 02/16/2021 | -57% |
| Peloton Interactive Inc. Class A PTON | -73% | $46.41 | $171.09 | 01/14/2021 | -69% |
| Lemonade Inc. LMND | -72% | $52.80 | $188.30 | 01/12/2021 | -57% |
| Vroom Inc. VRM | -71% | $15.54 | $53.33 | 02/16/2021 | -62% |
| QuantumScape Corp. Class A QS | -69% | $30.64 | $97.89 | 12/31/2020 | -64% |
| Discovery Inc. Class A DISCA | -68% | $24.72 | $78.14 | 03/19/2021 | -18% |
| ViacomCBS Inc. Class B VIAC | -68% | $32.61 | $101.97 | 03/15/2021 | -12% |
| Vimeo Inc. VMEO | -68% | $19.67 | $61.00 | 05/18/2021 | N/A |
| Fastly Inc. Class A FSLY | -67% | $40.53 | $122.75 | 01/27/2021 | -54% |
| CureVac N.V. CVAC | -67% | $44.18 | $133.00 | 02/08/2021 | -46% |
| Boston Beer Co. Class A SAM | -66% | $454.64 | $1,349.98 | 04/23/2021 | -54% |
| Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc. IOVA | -66% | $18.50 | $54.21 | 01/15/2021 | -60% |
| Signify Health Inc. Class A SGFY | -66% | $13.94 | $40.79 | 02/19/2021 | N/A |
| ViacomCBS Inc. Class A VIACA | -65% | $35.23 | $101.60 | 03/15/2021 | -7% |
| Beyond Meat Inc. BYND | -65% | $76.72 | $221.00 | 01/26/2021 | -39% |
| Teladoc Health Inc. TDOC | -64% | $109.61 | $308.00 | 02/16/2021 | -45% |
| Discovery Inc. Class C DISCK | -64% | $24.22 | $66.70 | 03/22/2021 | -8% |
| Rocket Cos. Inc. Class A RKT | -64% | $15.69 | $43.00 | 03/02/2021 | -22% |
| Penn National Gaming Inc. PENN | -63% | $52.77 | $142.00 | 03/15/2021 | -39% |
| New Fortress Energy Inc. Class A NFE | -62% | $25.16 | $65.90 | 01/13/2021 | -53% |
| Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. ADPT | -61% | $28.12 | $71.25 | 01/19/2021 | -52% |
| SAGE Therapeutics Inc. SAGE | -60% | $39.32 | $98.39 | 01/15/2021 | -55% |
| TripAdvisor Inc. TRIP | -59% | $26.75 | $64.95 | 03/15/2021 | -7% |
| GameStop Corp. Class A GME | -59% | $199.72 | $483.00 | 01/28/2021 | 960% |
| NovoCure Ltd. NVCR | -58% | $97.01 | $232.76 | 06/24/2021 | -44% |
| Opendoor Technologies Inc. OPEN | -58% | $16.37 | $39.24 | 02/11/2021 | -28% |
| Nektar Therapeutics NKTR | -58% | $11.21 | $26.75 | 02/17/2021 | -34% |
| Altice USA Inc. Class A ATUS | -58% | $16.02 | $38.19 | 05/10/2021 | -58% |
| Sabre Corp. SABR | -57% | $7.31 | $16.88 | 03/15/2021 | -39% |
| Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. RARE | -56% | $76.49 | $175.00 | 02/10/2021 | -45% |
| Wix.com Ltd. WIX | -56% | $159.55 | $362.07 | 02/19/2021 | -36% |
| Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. IONS | -55% | $29.05 | $64.37 | 01/26/2021 | -49% |
| Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. SRPT | -54% | $79.62 | $174.49 | 01/04/2021 | -53% |
| Alteryx Inc. Class A AYX | -54% | $64.09 | $140.36 | 02/09/2021 | -47% |
| Gap Inc. GPS | -54% | $17.33 | $37.63 | 05/18/2021 | -14% |
| Amedisys Inc. AMED | -54% | $150.13 | $325.12 | 01/25/2021 | -49% |
| Oak Street Health Inc. OSH | -54% | $30.77 | $66.31 | 02/12/2021 | -50% |
| Palantir Technologies Inc. Class A PLTR | -53% | $21.03 | $45.00 | 01/27/2021 | -11% |
| Sunrun Inc. RUN | -53% | $47.41 | $100.93 | 01/12/2021 | -32% |
| LegalZoom.com Inc. LZ | -53% | $19.24 | $40.94 | 07/02/2021 | N/A |
| CommScope Holding Co. Inc. COMM | -52% | $10.55 | $22.18 | 07/01/2021 | -21% |
| Pinterest Inc. Class A PINS | -52% | $42.80 | $89.90 | 02/16/2021 | -35% |
| Roku Inc. Class A ROKU | -52% | $235.16 | $490.76 | 07/27/2021 | -29% |
| Agilon health Inc. AGL | -52% | $21.59 | $44.83 | 06/18/2021 | N/A |
| Nordstrom Inc. JWN | -52% | $22.41 | $46.45 | 03/15/2021 | -28% |
| DraftKings Inc. Class A DKNG | -52% | $36.04 | $74.38 | 03/22/2021 | -23% |
| Zoom Video Communications Inc. Class A ZM | -51% | $220.21 | $451.77 | 02/16/2021 | -35% |
| TuSimple Holdings Inc. Class A TSP | -51% | $38.92 | $79.84 | 06/30/2021 | N/A |
| Duck Creek Technologies Inc. DCT | -51% | $28.98 | $59.40 | 02/10/2021 | -33% |
| RingCentral Inc. Class A RNG | -50% | $224.54 | $449.00 | 02/16/2021 | -41% |
| Anaplan Inc. PLAN | -50% | $43.12 | $86.17 | 02/16/2021 | -40% |
| Playtika Holding Corp. PLTK | -50% | $18.18 | $36.06 | 01/15/2021 | N/A |
Source: FactSet