Two Struggling Tech Stocks Worth Skipping on Any Market Dip

When stocks plunge significantly, it can be tempting to view them as bargains. However, a struggling company with valid reasons for its decline may offer investors nothing more than further losses. Two prime examples are The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) and C3.ai (NYSE: AI)—both down more than 60% over the past 12 months—and both merit extreme caution despite their depressed valuations.

The Trade Desk’s Compounding Challenges

The Trade Desk has endured an especially severe downturn, plummeting 72% in the past year. The company operates within the highly competitive programmatic advertising space, where clients are increasingly reluctant to commit ad budgets amid economic headwinds. Adding fuel to the fire, the company has experienced turbulent leadership transitions that raise serious questions about operational stability.

The management instability became particularly acute when the company announced on January 26 that Tahnil Davis would assume the interim chief financial officer role. This came less than six months after Alex Kayyal took the CFO position in August 2025, replacing Laura Schenkein. This revolving-door pattern at the C-suite signals underlying organizational friction.

More troubling is the decelerating growth trajectory. The company’s expansion rate has slipped from 27% to 18% in its most recent quarter—particularly damaging for a business that investors have historically valued on growth potential. Trading at approximately 40 times trailing earnings, the stock remains expensive relative to its deceleration and the uncertainty surrounding management. Until leadership stabilizes and growth rebounds, the stock faces additional downside risk.

C3.ai’s Disappointing Operational Results

C3.ai shares have declined 61% over the same 12-month window, reflecting the market’s disappointment with the company’s performance. The enterprise artificial intelligence firm recently underwent its own leadership transition, with Stephen Ehikian replacing longtime founder and CEO Thomas Siebel.

Despite positioning itself in the hot AI sector and offering over 130 turnkey enterprise solutions, the company has struggled to demonstrate meaningful expansion. During the six-month period ending October 31, 2025, total revenue contracted by 20% to $145.4 million—a concerning sign given AI’s prominence in market discussions. Equally alarming is the deteriorating bottom line: net losses more than doubled from $128.8 million over the preceding two quarters to $221.4 million in the measured period.

The fundamental problem is straightforward: revenue is declining while losses are expanding, a combination that demands resolution before the stock becomes worthy of investor confidence, regardless of how deeply it falls.

The Common Thread: Why Waiting Makes Sense

Both of these struggling technology companies face distinct challenges, yet they share a troubling pattern: deteriorating fundamentals paired with organizational uncertainty. While their steep declines might appear to create opportunity, history suggests that sometimes falling stocks simply deserve to fall further. The prudent approach is to wait for concrete evidence of operational improvement and management stability before considering these beaten-down shares.

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor team has identified what they consider to be the 10 best stocks for current investors—and neither of these names made the cut. Consider that investors who bought Netflix on the team’s recommendation in December 2004 would have seen $1,000 grow to $456,457, while those following the Nvidia call from April 2005 would have watched a similar initial investment reach $1,174,057. With a portfolio average return of 950% versus the S&P 500’s 197%, the case for patience and selective stock-picking remains compelling.