Safety in investing is often in the eye of the beholder, but not all that glitters is gold. Some stocks appear to be safe on the basis of the company's conservative business model or its large scale, only to leave investors exposed to brutal losses when financial results are worse than anticipated. 

Avoiding buying these lemons is a key investing skill that's hard to cultivate without making a lot of costly mistakes along the way. Although no stock's safety can truly be guaranteed, there are some with very stable and long-standing businesses, which makes taking a deeper look into each company's financials and prospects crucial. So let's examine two examples of supposedly safe stocks that have actually lost between 50% and 60% of their value over the last five years, and which could easily fall another 50% in the next five years too.

As a generic drugmaker, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE: TEVA) has the trappings of a safe investment at first glance. Theoretically, demand for generic medications should be relatively consistent, and it's reasonable to believe that ongoing purchases of such drugs would make for a solid base of recurring revenue, which could increase over time.

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Source Fool.com