It goes with out saying that the Rolls-Royce (LSE: RR) share price has been in magnificent type for some time. Return 4 years and I may have picked up the inventory for just below 40p a pop in my lockdown-induced haze. Quick-forward to after I’m typing this and the price sits near 530p.

I tip my Silly hat to anybody who managed to experience this unimaginable restoration. I’m additionally asking whether or not there’s an opportunity of one other FTSE inventory rising from the ashes similarly.

Share price crash!

In nearly a whole reversal of fortunes, Ocado (LSE: OCDO) holders have had a really unhealthy final 4 years. At roughly the identical time as Rolls-Royce was on its knees, the share price of the net grocer and logistics supplier sat at a file excessive due to a purple patch of buying and selling throughout the pandemic.

In case you weren’t conscious, Ocado’s share price is now down 86% since these heady days. That’s the type of motion we would count on from a penny inventory!

Rolls-Royce has fared much better thanks partly to journey demand getting again to regular and extra planes (operating on its engines) being within the sky.

In distinction, sentiment in Ocado dropped off as buying habits returned to regular. Extra just lately, buyers haven’t welcomed information of a slowdown within the rollout of its robot-filled Buyer Fulfilment Centres for retail shoppers.

Misplaced trigger?

I believe it’s incorrect to imagine that any share price — together with that of Ocado — is doomed to maneuver sideways (or worse) going ahead. We merely don’t know for positive. And nor do these brainy of us within the Metropolis.

Actually, a few of firm’s most up-to-date updates have been constructive. For instance, the inventory shot up in September after administration raised forecasts on full-year income following a 15.5% leap in its newest quarter as buyer numbers grew. The agency’s three way partnership with Marks & Spencer is now anticipated to ship low double-digit proportion progress. Beforehand, it was anticipated to be a mid-to-high single-digit proportion.

As an apart, the Rolls-Royce restoration should absolutely sluggish in some unspecified time in the future. Its inventory now adjustments palms at a (very) frothy ahead P/E ratio of 30!

Purchaser beware

Then again, I stay cautious of any £3.2bn enterprise that, in line with its chief monetary officer, received’t be posting pre-tax revenue for one more 4 or 5 years!

It appears I’m not alone. Ocado is at present the third-most shorted inventory on the UK market. Put one other method, fairly a couple of merchants are betting the shares have additional to fall.

There’s an opportunity they could possibly be incorrect and a rush to shut their positions would turbocharge the share price. But it surely’s hardly probably the most encouraging signal.

For now, there seems to be no real interest in Rolls-Royce from brief sellers.

I’m not holding my breath

Taking the above under consideration, I’d be stunned if a restoration to match that seen within the FTSE 100 inventory had been to play out right here. In my opinion, there are much more promising turnaround candidates lurking elsewhere within the UK inventory market. A few of these may even pay dividends whereas I wait.

Ocado’s nonetheless not for me.