In this article, we discuss 11 Worst-Performing Blue Chip Stocks So Far in 2025.
Blue chip stocks are under immense pressure amid the evolving trade tensions and tariff announcements around the globe. The stocks are down by more than 15%, with some plummeting into bearish territory on shedding more than 20% in market value year to date.
The selloff has come on trading volumes reaching levels not seen in 18 years; investors are increasingly exiting positions. As the US implements sweeping tariffs and China retaliates, fears of a global trade war and recession concerns continue to dent the market outlook.
“The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe…this is not what we voted for,” wrote Bill Ackman, the billionaire head of Pershing Square, on X. “The President has an opportunity on Monday to call a timeout and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system. Alternatively, we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter and should start hunkering down.”
While blue-chip stocks come from well-known, established companies with a strong performance history, they are the most susceptible to changes in trade policies and tariffs. That’s because their business operations span various borders. This might explain why the stocks come under pressure every time the US imposes tariffs, followed by retaliatory measures from other nations.
Similarly, the prospects of the US Federal Reserve sticking with high interest rates to try and tame inflationary pressure from getting out of hand amid the trade war is another major headwind taking a toll on large-cap companies. Last year, the stocks exploded on expectations that the Central Bank would cut interest rates on inflation, dropping to acceptable levels.
Likewise, blue chip stocks exploded on the artificial intelligence-driven run amid growing expectations of multibillion-dollar opportunities around revolutionary technologies. Fast forward, interest rate cut expectations have faded, and investors have started questioning opportunities around AI. The development of low-cost AI models is one factor that has significantly affected sentiments in the semiconductor sector, triggering a recalibration of the long-term outlook.
According to analysts at research firm Citi, President Donald Trump’s tariff push could plunge the U.S. economy into a recession. In return, chip stocks could plunge by over 20% as they remain the most susceptible.
“We believe the biggest risk to the semi sector is a recession resulting from tariffs,” Chris Danely, a managing director at the bank, wrote to clients in a recent note. “If the tariffs continue for another month, we believe is it highly likely the supply chain will ‘freeze up’ given uncertainty, drastically lower order rates/inventory, and result in lower guidance across the board – similar to Covid.”
On the other hand, semiconductor stocks are not the only ones under pressure amid the escalating trade wars. Energy, industrials, and healthcare stocks are also feeling the brunt, resulting in some of the worst-performing blue chip stocks so far in 2025.
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Our Methodology
To prepare this article, we began by listing all the holdings of the various blue chip ETFs like E.A. Bridgeway Blue Chip ETF and Vanguard Mega Cap ETF, among others. We then sourced the year-to-date share price returns for each company and selected the worst performers, as of April 25. We have also mentioned the hedge fund sentiment around each stock, as of Q4 2024. The stocks are ranked in descending order of their year-to-date performance.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
11 Worst-Performing Blue Chip Stocks So Far in 2025
11. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)
Year To Date Share Price Return as of April 25: -16.57%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 91
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is a healthcare company that discovers, develops, and sells pharmaceutical products. Its products treat a wide range of diseases, including cancer, heart-related conditions, and infectious diseases. It is one of the companies hit hard by the newly implemented tariffs between the US and China. Consequently, the stock is down by about 17% for the year.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has been under pressure amid growing concerns over demand for its human papillomavirus vaccine, Gardasil, especially in China. The woes persisted as the company delivered mixed first-quarter 2025 results characterized by a 41% drop in Gardasil sales to $1.33 billion. It marked the third consecutive quarter of decelerating sales amid lackluster demand in China.
The pharmaceutical company was forced to pause shipments of the HPV vaccine in China in the fourth quarter as one of the ways of managing inventory. Due to mounting serious concerns, Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has also been forced to pull back its expected sales forecast of $11 billion for the vaccine. Amid the concerns, the company delivered solid Q1 results with revenues of $15.5 billion, above its forecast of $15.3 billion to $15.4 billion, as earnings increased 7% year-over-year to $2.22 a share. Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage of the stock on April 22 with a Neutral rating and an $85 price target.
10. Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)
Year To Date Share Price Return as of April 25: -16.62%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 117
Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) is a technology company that develops and provides software and digital marketing solutions. The company offers a range of products, including creative software, document management tools, and digital marketing platforms. Its stock has pulled back significantly after being one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI-driven run. While the stock is down by about 17%, analysts at RBC Capital Markets have cut their price target to $480 from $530 while reiterating an Outperform rating.
The price cut comes amid growing concerns that Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) faces significant competition pressure in the generative AI content tool sector. While the company maintains a strong presence in the AI content tool sector, it is under immense pressure as more tools emerge. The rise of several generative AI models offering free picture-generation capabilities is one aspect that continues to send jitters among the investment community.
Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) forecasts weaker-than-expected sales and earnings for its fiscal Q2 2025 and full year, which is one of the headwinds that continue to take a toll on its sentiments in the market. Adobe expects its Q2 2025 earnings to average between $4.95 and $5, as analysts expect EPS of $5. It’s also projecting revenues of between $5.77 billion and $5.82 billion against analyst estimates of $5.80 billion. The weaker-than-expected guidance continues to fuel concerns that the company is falling behind its competitors in generative AI. Last year, generative AI contributed a partial of $125 million of the total $4.23 billion that the company generated.
9. Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)
Year To Date Share Price Return as of April 25: -17.10%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 161
Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) is a technology company that designs, develops, and supplies semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions. Its solutions are used in various applications like data centers, networking, broadband, and wireless communication. It is one of the worst-performing blue chip stocks.
Most of the company’s chips are made in Taiwan and are therefore susceptible to a 125% tariff from China. Consequently, it is vulnerable to supply chain disruptions on escalating US-China trade tensions as it generates roughly 20% of its revenues from shipments in China. On April 9, analysts at TD Cowen cut the price target on Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) to $200 from$265, concerned by the long-term impact of the tariff war. Nevertheless, the firm maintains a Buy rating on the stock as it is expected to benefit from strong demand for its application-specific integrated chips (ASICs) for AI and machine learning applications.
Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) is also banking on enormous AI opportunities as its three hyperscaler clients have begun creating their own XPUs. Each customer is expected to set up one million XPU clusters on a single fabric by 2027, as the serviceable addressable market for XPUs and networks is projected to reach between $60 billion and $90 billion by 2027.
8. The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS)
Year to Date Share Price Return as of April 25: -18.53%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 108
The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) is a diversified entertainment and media company that strives to entertain, inform, and inspire people. It operates under five business segments: Media Networks, Parks and Resorts, Studio Entertainment, Consumer Products, and Interactive Media. The 19% year-to-date selloff has significantly hit the stock’s sentiments.
The Walt Disney Company’s (NYSE:DIS) selloff in the market comes on consumer sentiment plummeting amid fears of a trade war and changes in tariff policies. The company’s business faces unique challenges because of its sprawling nature, encompassing theme parks, cruise lines, streaming services, and movies, all of which depend on discretionary income.
The theme parks from which The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) generates most of its revenues have come under pressure due to the deteriorating economic outlook and consumers cutting back on spending amid recession concerns. Management has already indicated that theme park revenue will drop by 5% in 2025. The company’s theme parks also remain vulnerable to decreased intentional tourism amid the tariff war. Tourism Economics expects international tourism in the US to drop by 5% amid a 15% decline from Canada, which could affect traffic into Disney’s theme park.
7. Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY)
Year To Date Share Price Return as of April 25: -18.97%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 68
Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) is an integrated energy company exploring, producing, processing, and marketing oil and gas. It also has a significant presence in chemicals and is a leader in carbon management. It is one of the companies that have felt the full brunt of oil prices plunging below $70 a barrel. The stock is already down by 18.97% for the year.
Analysts at Barclays have already cut their price target to $46 from $58 while maintaining an Equal Weight. The price cut comes amid a negative oil and exploration outlook due to the deteriorating economic climate. The bank expects oil prices to average $60 a barrel in 2025, which could significantly affect Occidental petroleum earnings.
While Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) rewards investors with a modest 2.5% yield, it is still relatively low compared to the energy industry average of 3.1%. The company’s dividend was cut dramatically when oil prices imploded in 2020. The prospects of the company cutting its dividend payouts amid the current low oil price environment continue to weigh significantly on its sentiments. Another significant headwind weighing on Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) is its high debt load, having funded the $12 billion acquisition of CrownRock through debt. With oil prices plummeting, the company could experience significant financial pressure as it repays the debt.
6. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)
Year To Date Share Price Return as of April 25: -19.00%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 162
Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and related services. Its software applications help customers manage their data, sales processes, marketing efforts, and more. While it exploded amid the artificial intelligence boom, it has come down, tumbling and emerging as one of the worst-performing blue chip stocks in 2025.
Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff has been talking about how the company’s AI-powered platform Agentforce is great and much better than Microsoft’s Copilot. However, the numbers speak for a completely different thing. While data cloud and AI annual recurring revenue was up by 120% in 2024, it still accounted for a small percentage of the total $41 billion. Likewise, Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) expects revenue to increase by between 7% and 8% in 2025, compared to an 8% growth in 2024 to $10 billion, affirming a potential slowdown.
Analysts at D.A Davidson insist that Salesforce Inc’s (NYSE:CRM) increased focus on artificial intelligence has left the core business neglected. Amid the concern, they have cut the price target to $200 from $250 and downgraded it to Underperform from a Neutral.
5. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Year To Date Share Price Return as of April 25: -19.74%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 223
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is a technology company that designs and supplies graphic processing units for high-performance computing in data centres, computers and gaming consoles. It is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence-driven rally, having exploded to become a trillion-dollar company over the past two years. While the stock has posted double-digit percentage gains over the past two years, it is under immense pressure in 2025.
The deep pullback has come from NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) being caught in the middle of an escalating trade war between China and the US. Consequently, the company says it will take a hit of $5.5 billion on the US placing restrictions on the export of its H20 artificial intelligence chips specifically designed for the Chinese market.
The H20 chip has less computing power than the more powerful AI chips banned in China. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) confirmed that it will require a special license to export the chip to China, a market that accounted for 13% of its sales last year and continues to send jitters in the market. Amid the restrictions, HSBC has downgraded the stock to a Hold from a Buy, concerned that the chipmaker’s pricing strength in the AI GPU market is fading.
4. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD)
Year To Date Share Price Return as of April 25: -19.88%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 96
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) is a technology company that designs and manufactures computer processors, graphics processing units (GPUs), and other semiconductor products. Its products are mostly used in PCs, data centers, gaming consoles, and embedded systems. It is one of the companies that are feeling the brunt of Trump’s tariff plans and export controls on powerful artificial intelligence chips.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) has lost significant ground as Chinese chip companies continue to eat into its markets and clients amid the export controls and trade tariff standoff. China’s Huawei is beginning mass shipments of an alternative to Nvidia’s H20 processor, which are barred from export into China, which is one headwind that’s taking a significant toll on the chip giant.
Wedbush analysts have already cut their price target of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) to $115 from $150 while maintaining an Outperform rating, concerned about the company’s prospects amid the competition headwinds. Due to competitive and restriction pressures, the research firm has reduced its expectations of AMD’s growth in computing and data center GPU sales.
Nevertheless, the firm expects AMD to continue outperforming the desktop segment based on China’s decision to switch to tariffs based on the location of the wafer fabrication facility and not the design and packaging location. Consequently, AMD chips manufactured in China and other non-wei locations would be exempt from the 125% tariff.
3. United Parcel Service Inc (NYSE:UPS)
Year To Date Share Price Return as of April 25: -20.96%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 58
United Parcel Service Inc (NYSE:UPS) is an integrated freight and logistics company that offers transportation and delivery services. The company delivers over 10 million packages in over 200 countries, making it a leading provider in the global supply chain. The company has come under immense pressure amid growing concerns of the global economy plunging into recession amid the global trade war. The stock is already down by about 21% for the year, emerging as one of the worst-performing blue chip stocks.
The underperformance has already caught Wells Fargo’s attention, as analysts at the firm downgraded the stock to an Equal Weight from an Overweight and cut the price target to $98. The downgrade comes amid growing concerns that United Parcel Service Inc (NYSE:UPS) is susceptible to trade headwinds and risks emerging amid the tariff war in the parcel delivery industry.
According to Wells Fargo, United Parcel Service Inc (NYSE:UPS), just like FedEx, UPS faces significant execution challenges as it tries to adapt to the shifting trade and e-commerce landscape. Elevated Chinese tariffs and declining volumes in domestic and international markets are expected to weigh significantly on UPS’s revenue base. UPS is in the process of reducing its business with Amazon with plans to cut delivery volumes by up to 50% by the second half of the year as it seeks to focus on higher margin sectors.
2. Nike, Inc. (NYSE:NKE)
Year To Date Share Price Return as of April 25: -21.79%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 73
Nike, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) is a footwear and accessories company that designs, develops, and markets athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services. It is the world’s largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel, with a mission to drive innovation and inspire athletes. While the stock is down by about 22% for the year, it has shed about 50% in market value since the beginning of 2024, affirming its status as one of the worst-performing blue chip stocks.
The underperformance comes from the company delivering disappointing financial results that have raised serious concerns about underlying growth. In its third quarter fiscal 2025, revenue fell 9% as earnings per share fell 30% to $0.54 a share. Revenue and earnings per share over the last three quarters have dropped by 9% and 26%, respectively. The disappointing financial results come from Nike, Inc.’s (NYSE:NKE) facing a challenging promotional environment exacerbated by currency headwinds and tariffs. The decline in sales by 17% in China in the third quarter underscores how the company remains vulnerable to tariff threats. The company projecting Q3 2025 revenues to drop underscores why the stock is being hit hard in the markets.
Nike, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) also remains under pressure amid reports that it is struggling to automate its production processes in the US. Berenberg has initiated coverage of the stock with a Hold rating and a $58 price target while reiterating it faces an uncertain future in reviving growth and profitability.
1. Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Year To Date Share Price Return as of April 25: – 24.87%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 126
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is an automotive and clean energy company that designs, manufactures, and sells electric vehicles, energy generation and storage systems. It also focuses on developing and implementing advanced technology in electric vehicles, renewable energy, and automation.
The selloff comes on Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) emerged as one of the most susceptible companies amid the aggressive US trade war and tariffs. The company’s net income fell by 71% in the first quarter of 2025 to $409 million as it failed to overcome competitive pressure overseas. Tesla delivered a 9% drop in revenue in Q1 2025 that totalled $21.3 billion, hurt by a 20% drop in automotive revenue at $14 billion from $17.4 billion a year ago.
The revenue drop came as the EV giant lost market share in Europe, which fell to 2% from $2.9% a year ago. Amid the disappointing financial results, analysts at Stifel cut their price target on the stock to $450 from $455 while reiterating a Buy rating. The price target cut comes amid concerns that Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) will remain under pressure owing to weaker-than-expected vehicle deliveries. The polarizing role of Chief Executive Elon Musk in President Donald Trump’s administration is also not helping the EV giant’s prospects in the electric vehicle space.
While we acknowledge the potential of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than TSLA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
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