The whole “sell in May and go away” seasonality has been roundly debunked many times over — most recently here on MarketWatch by Mark Hulbert. In a nutshell, while a few select years do show you’d be better off bailing out of stocks before the summer months, on balance it’s not a reliable bet.

That sounds like almost everything relating to the market, doesn’t it?

After all, if investing in stocks were easy, everyone would become a millionaire in short order. But the reality is the best investments present themselves with specific strengths at specific times — and the investors who do the research and pay attention find rewards by being tactical with their trades instead of just chasing broad trends.

That’s true for selling as well as buying. Because if finding a good stock that will appreciate over time is difficult, knowing when to bail out of a stock before times get tough can be even harder.

I’m not one for market timing. But I am all for looking at the facts of your specific holdings and acting accordingly.

And if you own any of the following stocks, the right action in May should be to sell — regardless of broader market conditions.

AT&T

Telecom giant AT&T Inc. T, +0.41% reported a small gain in its first-quarter earnings, but the fine print showed that was an “adjusted” number. In fact, profits and revenues were both down on a Generally Accepted Accounting Principles basis. Worse, the company said it won’t provide consolidated revenue guidance for the full year “because of the unpredictability of wireless handset sales” — not an encouraging sign for those of us who actually care about real numbers.

Sure, the company trades at comparatively inexpensive valuation with a forward price-to-earnings ratio of almost 14 times forward earnings compared with a P/E of 18 for the broader S&P 500 index SPX, -0.46% but there is no growth here and no growth premium should be demanded.

Heck, after a measly penny bump to the dividend in January, you have to ask what you’re really owning AT&T for … just a dividend? If so, I’d suggest you trade up to one of the dozens of other stocks yielding 4% or better and avoid this lumbering telecom.

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Advanced Micro Devices

It seems like a no-brainer trade, doesn’t it? Chip makers are getting gobbled up in recent years, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, -2.87% is the perfect acquisition target for a big player like Qualcomm Inc. QCOM, -1.73% or Broadcom Ltd. AVGO, +0.03% . However, speculation on that trade has been going on for a while now, and the stock has run up more than 600% since early 2016 to trade at 47 times forward earnings estimates.

Sure, it’s growing revenue modestly … but AMD barely operates at a profit. The stock has been slipping since setting highs around $15.50 at the beginning of March, and AMD could suffer more near-term pain regardless of its upcoming earnings report.

Fitbit

This one is simple: Fitbit Inc. FIT, +0.94% is expected to be unprofitable this year and will see sales decline by double digits, and it’s projected to be unprofitable next year, too. The company is hoping for a return to growth in 2018 as it develops new products, but betting on Fitbit vs. the field has been a losing proposition for some time, and I doubt it will pay off soon. After all, Fitbit spent $320 million on R&D in 2016 — more than double the $150 million in 2015 — and what does the company have to show for it? A revenue decline of 19% in the fourth quarter, that’s what, and its first loss as a public company. Oh yeah, and a new gadget that reportedly explodes on your wrist.

Forgive me if I don’t have confidence the story will change anytime in the next 12 months. I’d dump this dog before its May 3 report.

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Halliburton

Oil service stock Halliburton Co. HAL, +4.36% surged after Election Day and in early 2017 hit its highest levels since 2014. But that rise was clearly premature, as we remain broadly in the era of a strong U.S. dollar and weak commodity pricing, along with plenty of global energy supply keeping back crude oil prices.

Halliburton is down 15% year-to-date, and with crude back under $50 and no sign of the much-anticipated “reflation” of growth to juice demand, it’s going to be more of the same old pain for this oil name. Remember, the stock traded in the low $30s at the start of 2016 as oil prices dropped to 13-year lows under $30 a barrel. We might not get that low again, but there is plenty of room to the downside if crude oil US:CLM7 remains under pressure. Halliburton’s recent first-quarter report showed another loss, and now is the time to sell before it gets even worse.

First Solar

Alternative energy giant First Solar Inc. FSLR, -1.27% dovetails with the bearish argument for oil outlined above. And more specific to its individual financials, while First Solar doesn’t report until May 2, don’t hesitate to unload this stock given its steady history of declining sales.

What’s even more noteworthy is that despite the company beating expectations on profits, the stock is one of the worst performers in the S&P 500 over the past 12 months with a gut-wrenching 50% decline. Shares have risen by nearly 10% since hitting a 52-week low of $25.56 a few weeks back, but why? Oil prices have been even more pressured, and that makes solar even less attractive. Throw in a Republican administration committed to dirty coal energy and reluctant to offer solar energy tax breaks, and what’s there to like about First Solar?

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