Top IPO Tax Selling Stocks for a Possible Bounce in January

by Fred Fuld III

In case you haven’t noticed, many of the IPO stocks during the last year have turned out to be turkeys, making them possible tax sale opportunities.

If you are wondering what a tax selling stock is, it is a stock that is currently selling for a low price due to heavy year-end selling for tax purposes, but was trading at much higher levels earlier in the year.

As the year-end approaches, many investors employ the technique called tax harvesting , which is the selling of loser stocks to offset any gains that may have been established during the year.

With all the heavy selling, the price of the stocks that have had big drops tends to tank far more than what would normally take place during the rest of the year.

So traders and investors are on the lookout for stocks that are heavily hit, hoping for a significant bounce in January, once the tax selling is over.

So if you are looking for these types of stocks, here is a selection of some that have dropped by over 20% year-to-date. They all have market capitalizations over $500 million.

Stock Symbol Price Drop YTD
Chewy CHWY -29.5%
Fiverr FVRR -43.3%
Levi Strauss LEVI -20.5%
Lyft LYFT -47.1%
SmileDirectClub SDC -29.8%
Uber Technologies UBER -24.2%

Maybe someone’s tax losses can be your tax stock gains.

Disclosure: Author owns FVRR

How to Triple Dip Your Rewards Points

by Fred Fuld III

It’s nice that you get cash back or rewards points when you use your credit card. It’s also great when you can get rewards from the company you make purchases from. It’s like double dipping.

But wouldn’t it be great if you could triple dip. How would you like to receive free stock in the companies that you buy from? Well now it’s possible.

There is a company called Bumped, which allows you to have a percentage of your purchase go towards fractional shares of stock in those companies. The percentage isn’t a lot but it adds up over time.

For example, if you buy rom Starbucks (SBUX), you get 2% of your purchase price going towards the company’s stock. If you buy from ExxonMobil (XOM), you get 0.5%. The range goes all the way up to 3% defending on the type of business.

Here are the categories and their percentages:

  • Coffee  2%
  • Gas/Convenience Stores  0.5%
  • Entertainment  2%
  • Family Dining  2%
  • Personal Care  1%
  • Quick Eats  3%
  • Vineyards  1%

So, for example, if I buy food and a beverage at Starbucks, and I pay with my cash back American Express (AXP) card, I will get the cash back bonus from AmEx at the end of the month. Plus, if I’m a member of the Starbucks rewards program, I get those benefits. Finally, if I have linked my AmEx card to Bumped, I get 2% of my purchase applied to the Starbucks stock.

My Bumped app when I just started out
My Bumped app when I just started out

There are a wide range of companies that are participating in this program. Just in the Quick Eats category alone, there is:

  • Burger King
  • Chipotle (CMG)
  • Jamba Juice
  • McDonalds (MCD)
  • Subway

Now you may ask, what about the private companies that are listed, such as Jamba Juice and Subway? Well, if you purchase from Jamba Juice, your 3% is applied towards the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF (VTI).

So when I bought a Jamba Juice recently, I got cash back on my AmEx card, I got more Jamba Juice  points since I’m a member of their rewards program, and I got 3% of my purchase automatically invested in VTI.

Other companies that are part of the program include Peet’s Coffee, BP (BP), Chevron (CVX), Shell (RDSA), Netflix (NFLX), Spotify (SPOT), Lyft (LYFT), Uber (UBER), plus several restaurants and other businesses.

Unfortunately, there is a waiting list for Bumped, (they don’t want to get overwhelmed as they are growing) but once they notify you that you are eligible, you can jump on the triple dip bandwagon.

Disclosure: Author owns MCD, VTI, SBUX, & XOM. I did not receive any compensation from Bumped. 

IPOs for the Next Week

by Fred Fuld III

It seems like everyone is waiting for the long anticipated Uber IPO. The spotlight will be on the trading after Uber goes public, since Lyft (LYFT) has tanked to a record low today.

Your broker might not be participating in any or all of these IPOs, but if you are interested in any of them, it is worth checking. Just remember, just because there is an IPO, doesn’t mean the stock will jump in price. Remember Lyft.

Here are some IPOs scheduled for the next ten days:

NEXTCURE, INC. NXTC 5/9/19
CORTEXYME, INC. CRTX 5/9/19
AXCELLA HEALTH INC. AXLA 5/9/19
MILESTONE PHARMACEUTICALS INC. MIST 5/9/19
SOUTH PLAINS FINANCIAL, INC. SPFI 5/9/19
MAYVILLE ENGINEERING COMPANY, INC. MEC 5/9/19
DIAMOND EAGLE ACQUISITION CORP. \ DE DEACU 5/9/19
HEADHUNTER GROUP PLC HHR 5/9/19
APPLIED THERAPEUTICS INC. APLT 5/9/19
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC UBER 5/10/19
SONIM TECHNOLOGIES INC SONM 5/10/19
HEALTH SCIENCES ACQUISITIONS CORP HSACU 5/10/19
POSTAL REALTY TRUST, INC. PSTL 5/10/19
JIAYIN GROUP INC. JFIN 5/10/19
CONVERSIONPOINT HOLDINGS, INC. CPTI 5/14/19
BRICKTOWN BREWERY RESTAURANTS LLC BEER 5/15/19
PIMCO MORTGAGE INCOME TRUST INC. PMTG 5/16/19
FASTLY, INC. FSLY 5/17/19
LUCKIN COFFEE INC. LK 5/17/19
AVANTOR, INC. AVTR 5/17/19

Upcoming IPOs

by Fred Fuld III

Were you able to get any IPO shares of Zoom Video (ZM), Pinterest (PINS), or Greenlane (GNLN)? If you did, you made out like a bandit.

Zoom closed up 72% for the day. Pintrest was up over 23$. And Greenlane traded over 20% from its IPO price.

If you want to get in on one of these popular IPOs, try calling your broker. One brokerage firm will let you get in on an IPO as long as you qualify. The qualification is either an account with over $250,000 in assets OR an account with over 60 trades in the last 90 days.

Just because you are approved, doesn’t necessarily mean that you will get shares. The firm has to be part of the underwriting, and it has to have enough shares to distribute to all its interested clients.

So if you are looking for upcoming IPOs, here is a list:

HEALTH SCIENCES ACQUISITIONS CORP HSACU
SONIM TECHNOLOGIES INC SONM
CONVERSIONPOINT HOLDINGS, INC. CPTI
CORTEXYME, INC. CRTX
SOUTH PLAINS FINANCIAL, INC. SPFI
MILESTONE PHARMACEUTICALS INC. MIST
MAYVILLE ENGINEERING COMPANY, INC. MEC
APPLIED THERAPEUTICS INC. APLT
NEXTCURE, INC. NXTC
PARSONS CORP PSN
AXCELLA HEALTH INC. AXLA
DIAMOND EAGLE ACQUISITION CORP.
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC UBER
AGBA ACQUISITION LTD AGBAU
RED RIVER BANCSHARES INC RRBI
SO-YOUNG INTERNATIONAL INC. SY
ACT II GLOBAL ACQUISITION CORP. ACTTU
TREVI THERAPEUTICS, INC. TRVI
TRANSMEDICS GROUP, INC. TMDX
SCIPLAY CORP SCPL
BRICKTOWN BREWERY RESTAURANTS LLC BEER
IHEARTMEDIA, INC.
POSTAL REALTY TRUST, INC. PSTL

Maybe some of these will skyrocket, but be careful. Lyft (LYFT) has dropped substantially since its IPO price.

Disclosure: Author owns LYFT indirectly.

How to Invest in Ride Hailing Stocks

by Fred Fuld III

Did you notice what happened with the IPO of Lyft (LYFT)? The stock came out at $72 per share and immediately jumped to 88.60 per share. Since that time, it has drifted downwards, and closed at exactly 70.00 today, two bucks a share below its original offering price.

The stock has a market cap of almost $20 million but no earnings. The price to sales ratio is 7.61.

Lyft’s biggest competitor is Uber, which hasn’t gone public yet. Unless you are an accredited investor who may have gotten pre-IPO shares, the chances of you getting some IPO shares from your broker are slim.

Currently, the largest shareholder of Uber is Softbank (SFBTY), the telecommunications and e-commerce company based in Japan. The company currently owns about 15% of Uber. Softbank trades at 9.42 times trailing earnings and even pays a small dividend of 0.40%.

There is a small publicly traded company called HereCar (HYRE) which has a business that allows car owners to rent their idle cars to ride-sharing service drivers. The company has a market cap of $63 million and a price sales ratio of 4.55.

Hopefully one of the ride sharing stocks can your portfolio for a ride to higher profits.

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.