When Wall Street turns bearish on a stock, it’s worth paying attention. These calls stand out because analysts rarely issue grim ratings on companies for fear their firms will lose out in other business lines such as M&A advisory.

Accurately determining a company’s long-term prospects isn’t easy, especially when sentiment is weak. That’s where StockStory comes in - to help you find attractive investment candidates backed by unbiased research. That said, here are three stocks where the outlook is warranted and some alternatives with better fundamentals.

C3.ai (AI)

Consensus Price Target: $14.67 (4.4% implied return)

Named after the three Cs of its original focus—carbon, cloud computing, and customer relationship management—C3.ai (NYSE: AI) provides enterprise AI software that helps organizations develop, deploy, and operate large-scale artificial intelligence applications across various industries.

Why Do We Avoid AI?

1. Products, pricing, or go-to-market strategy may need some adjustments as its 3.8% average billings growth over the last year was weak
2. Bad unit economics and steep infrastructure costs are reflected in its gross margin of 51.8%, one of the worst among software companies
3. Cash-burning tendencies make us wonder if it can sustainably generate shareholder value

C3.ai’s stock price of $14.05 implies a valuation ratio of 6.1x forward price-to-sales. Read our free research report to see why you should think twice about including AI in your portfolio.

Kirby (KEX)

Consensus Price Target: $133.67 (6.6% implied return)

Transporting goods along all U.S. coasts, Kirby (NYSE: KEX) provides inland and coastal marine transportation services.

Why Does KEX Fall Short?

1. Muted 4.7% annual revenue growth over the last two years shows its demand lagged behind its industrials peers
2. Free cash flow margin dropped by 4 percentage points over the last five years, implying the company became more capital intensive as competition picked up
3. Below-average returns on capital indicate management struggled to find compelling investment opportunities

At $125.42 per share, Kirby trades at 18.6x forward P/E. Dive into our free research report to see why there are better opportunities than KEX.

Prudential (PRU)

Consensus Price Target: $118.71 (0% implied return)

Recognized by its iconic Rock of Gibraltar logo symbolizing strength and stability since 1896, Prudential Financial (NYSE: PRU) provides life insurance, annuities, retirement solutions, investment management, and other financial services to individual and institutional customers globally.

Why Should You Sell PRU?

1. Insurance policy sales contracted this cycle as net premiums earned decreased by 3.1% annually over the last five years
2. Products and services are facing significant credit quality challenges during this cycle as book value per share has declined by 11.3% annually over the last five years
3. Elevated debt-to-equity ratio of 1.3× suggests the firm is overleveraged and may struggle to secure additional financing

Prudential is trading at $118.73 per share, or 1.3x forward P/B. To fully understand why you should be careful with PRU, check out our full research report (it’s free).

Stocks We Like More

Check out the high-quality names we’ve flagged in our Top 5 Strong Momentum Stocks for this week. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 244% over the last five years (as of June 30, 2025).

Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,326% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-small-cap company Comfort Systems (+782% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.