3 Stocks To Sell Before Earnings Season

By Marc Guberti – Apr 3, 2026 at 12:30AM EST

Key Points

Etsy has been losing customers and profits, with its recent Depop sale acting as a white flag for what was once a promising investment.
Nike’s sales have stumbled for a while, resulting in a -2.27% CAGR over the past three years that makes a rebound look difficult.
Tesla is transitioning into a physical AI and energy company, but declining sales and a lofty valuation make the current price look excessive.

Etsy

Etsy (ETSY +3.34%) seemed to do everything right in the mid-2010s and was thrust into the spotlight as a top pandemic stock. Custom face masks flooded the online marketplace and attracted customers seeking products they couldn’t find on other e-commerce platforms.

Etsy Stock Quote

NYSE: ETSY

Etsy

Today’s Change

(3.34%) $1.67

Current Price

$51.64

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$5.0B

Day’s Range

$48.65 – $51.88

52wk Range

$40.05 – $76.52

Volume

2.6M

Avg Vol

3.6M

Gross Margin

71.64%

Etsy initially capitalized on its pandemic-fueled growth, but the wheels fell off, resulting in an 80% drop from all-time highs. The main culprit has been decelerating gross merchandise sales, which reflects all of the sales across Etsy’s platform. This figure dropped by 5.3% year over year in 2025. The figure is a little more promising in the fourth quarter if you exclude Reverb sales, and is up by 2.4% year over year with that stipulation. Etsy recently sold its Reverb segment, so it is fair to remove it from the Q4 comparison.

The company also sold its Depop business to eBay (EBAY +1.08%) for $1.2 billion. That’s not a good look when Etsy bought the same business for $1.625 billion in 2021.

Active buyers and sellers both decreased year over year in Q4, and net income dropped along with them. While revenue was up year over year, Etsy offset a GMS slowdown with online advertising and fees. That’s not a winning formula in the long run if customers and sellers keep leaving. Etsy will ly report its next quarterly earnings in mid-May.

Nike

Nike (NKE 0.99%) has been on the decline for multiple years, but some investors saw a glimmer of hope when Apple CEO Tim Cook bought 50,000 s in the final days of 2025. Nike’s CEO also loaded up on s at the same time, and that type of insider investing made people excited.

Nike Stock Quote

NYSE: NKE

Nike

Today’s Change

(-0.99%) $-0.44

Current Price

$44.19

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$65B

Day’s Range

$43.17 – $44.34

52wk Range

$43.17 – $80.17

Volume

63M

Avg Vol

18M

Gross Margin

40.57%

Dividend Yield

3.67%

The stock has been brought back to reality with its 31% year-to-date decline. Once heralded as a dividend growth stock, Nike has turned into a dividend income stock with its 3.6% yield, and recent developments do not suggest a rebound is on the way.

Nike has been struggling with revenue growth for a while. It has a -2.27% CAGR over the past three years, meaning the company has been actively losing market to its competitors. That trend continued in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 (ending Feb. 28), as Nike reported flat year-over-year revenue.

The main growth engine — wholesale revenue — was up by 5% year over year. However, that part of the business was balanced out by a 4% year-over-year decline in Nike Direct revenue. Growth in North America was the main reason for improved wholesale revenue, but Nike has already tapped deeply into that market. China sales also dipped 7% year over year, a recurring theme for one of Nike’s most important markets.

It remains to be seen if Nike can deliver long-term meaningful growth in that region, but recent revenue CAGR trends don’t offer much optimism. Nike will ly release its next earnings report in late June.

Tesla

While Etsy and Nike represent lost potential, Tesla (TSLA 5.46%) is a risky pick going into earnings for the opposite reason. Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robots and autonomous vehicles, can potentially drive substantial sales growth, but those two catalysts haven’t been realized yet.

That hasn’t stopped Tesla from exceeding a $1 trillion market cap, a feat that is only possible because Elon Musk is the CEO. Investors are more willing to pay high premiums under his leadership.

Still, Tesla faces growth obstacles. Revenue dipped by 3% year over year throughout 2025. Automobile sales still make up the bulk of the underlying business, and that segment was down by 10% year over year. Tesla should also face tough comps this year since the EV tax credit has been discontinued. GAAP net income attributable to holders also dropped by 46% in 2025.

Tesla is turning itself into a physical AI and energy company. In the long run, electric vehicles may not even make up half of Tesla’s total sales. However, a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio above 300 indicates immediate valuation risk, as long-term growth initiatives haven’t yet materialized meaningfully. Tesla should report earnings at the end of April, which will provide investors with new information about its business segments.