The 9 Worst Stocks to Buy Right Now

The coronavirus outbreak is making a number of stocks look like bad bets for new money at current levels. Of even more concern are those big, brand-name stocks Wall Street wasn't completely sold on even before COVID-19 hit the scene.

To get a sense of some of the worst well-known stocks to buy now, we scoured the broader market for stocks with large market values and a collective shrug on the part of analysts.

S&P Global Market Intelligence surveys analysts' stock calls and scores them on a five-point scale, where 1.0 equals a Strong Buy and 5.0 is a Strong Sell. Scores between 3.5 and 2.5 translate into a Hold recommendation. Any score higher than 3.5 means that analysts, on average, believe the stock should be sold. The closer a score gets to 5.0, the higher their collective conviction.

We limited ourselves to average scores of 2.9 and above. Additionally, since Sell calls are so rare, we searched for names with at least two of them. Lastly, we only looked at stocks with at least 15 "darn-with-faint-praise" Hold recommendations.

The result? Nine of the worst stocks to buy right now. Among these brand-name stocks are two Dow components and two of Warren Buffett's favorite stock picks. If you currently hold these companies, especially for the long term,