2 Turnaround Stocks Wall Street Hates That I've Been Buying in 2026

Goodyear shares have fallen 80% over the past decade, but the company is progressing on its Goodyear Forward restructuring plan after achieving a $1.5 billion cost-savings run rate last year; its shares trade at nearly a 20% discount to tangible book value. Fiverr is down 97% from its peak and faces AI-driven losses in low-margin freelance work, yet $1,000-plus project revenue rose 13% year over year and spend per buyer increased 15.6% to $368. Fiverr ended June with $308.5 million of cash and investments, no debt, and a market capitalization only about $24 million above its cash position, supporting a longer-term turnaround case.

Analysis

GT is a balance-sheet and execution trade, not a simple mean-reversion story. The relevant upside driver is whether Goodyear Forward converts restructuring into sustained tire-segment margin improvement while reducing leverage; a lower fixed-cost base would materially increase equity sensitivity to replacement-tire demand. EV tire wear is directionally favorable, but it is not proprietary: Michelin (ML.PA), Bridgestone (5108.T), Continental (CON.DE), and Pirelli (PIRC.MI) have stronger premium-brand positioning and may capture disproportionate pricing. The near-term risk is that imported-tire competition and input-cost volatility prevent savings from reaching EBIT.

FVRR screens optically cheap because net cash approximates enterprise value, but the market is assigning a low probability that its remaining buyer base can stabilize. The key variable is not gross-services-volume growth; it is whether higher-value categories can retain buyers and expand take rate without incremental sales-and-marketing spend. AI is both a substitution threat and a potential supply-side benefit: if Fiverr can package AI-enabled freelancers into managed, enterprise-grade offerings, margin can rise despite lower transaction volume. Absent evidence of buyer stabilization, the cash balance is more downside protection than a catalyst.

Over the next 1-3 months, neither name has a clean news-driven catalyst outside earnings and restructuring milestones. Over 6-18 months, GT has the clearer operational rerating path if leverage falls and segment margins normalize; FVRR has more asymmetric upside but requires a business-model proof point. Consensus may be underestimating GT's operating leverage, while underestimating how quickly AI can commoditize FVRR's higher-ticket work as well.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Watch, do not chase GT before the next earnings release: initiate only if management demonstrates cost-savings conversion into segment operating-margin expansion and reaffirms deleveraging. A long GT / short XLY or long GT / short CON.DE relative-value structure isolates a successful self-help outcome from broad consumer cyclicality; invalidate on renewed negative free cash flow or a leverage increase.
• Treat FVRR as an event-driven net-cash special situation rather than a core AI long. Build a small position only after buyer-count stabilization and sustained growth in higher-value marketplace spend are visible for two consecutive quarters; upside can be substantial if enterprise monetization works, but downside remains material if cash burn begins or adjusted EBITDA guidance resets lower.
• For AI-services exposure, prefer a barbell over a directional FVRR bet: long FVRR in a limited-risk size against a short basket of more richly valued, AI-exposed digital-content intermediaries only after verifying relative valuation and short borrow. The thesis fails if AI-driven job substitution broadens into premium professional categories.
• Set GT alerts around replacement-tire pricing, raw-material costs, and quarterly free cash flow; a margin miss despite reported restructuring savings would indicate savings are being competed away and should end the turnaround thesis.