The Biggest Losers in 2023: Five Worst-Performing S&P500 Companies Collectively Lost $207B in Stock Value

The US stock market showed a remarkable rally in 2023, helping the S&P 500 end the year with nine consecutive weeks of growth. And while plenty of tech giants added hundreds of billions of dollars to their stock values amid the artificial intelligence craze, nearly one-third of stocks in the S&P 500 were still down for the year. These five took the worst nosedive and ended the year as the biggest losers.

According to data presented by Stocklytics.com, as the five worst-performing S&P 500 stocks in 2023, Enphase Energy, FMC Corporation, Moderna, Dollar General, and Pfizer have collectively lost a whopping $207bn in stock value.

Enphase Energy and FMC Corporation Top the Worst Performers Chart with a 50% Stock Value Drop

Unlike tech giants Nvidia, AMD, Tesla, and Amazon, which ended the year as the biggest winners on the S&P 500 list, nearly 180 companies took a nosedive during 2023 and lost hundreds of billions of dollars in stock values.

According to YCharts data, Enphase Energy and FMC Corporation took the biggest hit of all S&P 500 companies, losing 50% of their stock values in 2023. In December 2022, the market cap of Enphase Energy stood at $36bn. However, by the end of the year, half of that value melted, falling to $18bn on December 31. As the second-worst performer in the S&P 500 club, FMC Corporation lost nearly $8bn in stock value in the twelve months, with the combined value of its stocks falling to $7.8bn on the last day of 2023.

COVID-19 producers also took a severe hit in 2023. The YCharts data show Moderna lost $31bn or 45% of its stock value last year, falling from $69bn to only $37.9bn. Pfizer also had substantial losses, with $125bn or 43% of its stock value wiped off in 2023. On December 31, the market cap of the pharmaceutical giant stood at $162.5bn, down from $287bn in the same month in 2022.

The US chain of variety stores, Dollar General, also ranked among the worst S&P 500 performers, with a 45% market cap drop last year. Statistics show the company lost more than $25bn in stock value in the twelve months, the third-largest loss in this group. Collectively, these five companies have lost more than $207bn in stock value in 2023, with their combined market cap falling from $463bn in December 2022 to $256bn last month.

Utilities, Energy, and Consumer Staples Three Worst-Performing S&P 500 Sectors in 2023

The five worst-performing stocks reflect how well the industries they work in performed last year. For example, the two pharma giants, Pfizer and Moderna, collectively lost more than $150bn in stock value, while the S&P 500 healthcare sector index stagnated at 0.3% in 2023. But even that looks good compared to utilities, energy, and consumer staples, the three worst-performing S&P 500 sectors in 2023.

According to MarketWatch data, the utilities sector index saw the biggest drop, falling by 10.2% last year, and marking a second consecutive year of decline. The energy sector index was down by 4.8% in 2023, after plunging by 59% in 2022. The consumer staples sector index followed with a 2.2% decline.

On the other hand, information technology, communication services, and consumer discretionary sectors had the best-performing indexes, surging by 56.4%, 54.4%, and 41%, respectively.