1-Star Stocks Poised to Plunge: Groupon?

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, "daily deal" specialist Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN  ) has received the dreaded one-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Groupon's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Groupon facts

Headquarters (founded)	Chicago (2008)
Market Cap	$15.3 billion
Industry	Internet retail
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$1.29 billion
Management	Co-founder/Chairman Eric Lefkofsky CFO Jason Child
Trailing-12-Month Operating Margin	(29.3%)
Cash/Debt	$243.9 million / $0

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 89% of the 480 members who have rated Groupon believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bears include All-Star TMFBreakerJava, who is ranked in the top 1% of our community, and divinezone.

Earlier this month, TMFBreakerJava tapped Groupon as a particularly bad deal: "Another over-hyped IPO. How does this model scale when all the markets are local? What are the barriers to entry?"

In fact, Groupon currently trades at a price-to-sales multiple of 11.5. That represents a clear premium to much larger tech rivals such as Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN  ) (2.2), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG  ) (5.4), and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT  ) (3.1).

CAPS member divinezone elaborates on the bear case:

Drastically overvalued. Current stock price is a beneficiary of the hysteria and hype surrounding Internet IPOs. The business model is WAY too easy to copy, and the imitators have already begun to spring up. With more mature, cash-rich behemoths like Google and Facebook just becoming established as competitors, Groupon will crash and burn. No barriers to entry, no sustainable competitive advantage, no thanks!

What do you think about Groupon, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to protect your portfolio from any undue risk. Staying away from dangerous stocks is crucial to securing your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to flag them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!