Last Updated on May 10, 2022 by CCAR Staff
By Bailey Lipschultz | Bloomberg
Retail investors snapped up shares of Irvine-based Rivian Automotive on Monday as the stock tanked after prominent corporate backers and insiders got a chance to trim their stakes when the IPO lockup ended.
Individuals flocked to the electric-vehicle maker along with some of the market’s other worst performers, sticking to their buy-the-dip ways as benchmark indexes plunged. Rivian and retail-trader favorites like Tesla and Apple were the most bought stocks on Fidelity’s platform on Monday.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker slumped 21% to a record low $22.78 after selling restrictions on investors like Amazon.com and Ford Motor Co. made an estimated 720 million shares eligible for sale. Ford has sold eight million shares, or 8% of its position in Rivian, since Sunday, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
All told, retail traders snapped up $22 million worth of Rivian shares on Monday, the most since early March when the startup warned about “unprecedented” supply-chain shortages, according to data compiled by Vanda.
Rivian was the fourth most bought stock on Fidelity’s platform with buy orders nearly tripling sales. The buying came amid a jump in interest on popular retail trader websites like Reddit’s WallStreetBets and Stocktwits.
Retail traders have taken a hit during the stock’s 87% drop from its Nov. 16 record high. Individuals have spent an estimated $604 million on the shares since their debut in November, according to data compiled by Vanda, with the bulk of those purchases coming when it was trading well above $100.
RELATED LINKS
- Electric car buying: What you need to know now and in the future
- Where did Rivian’s electric truck come from? It’s a long, messy road
- Will Irvine-based Rivian be the ‘Tesla of trucks?’
- Review: $73,000 electric Rivian R1T is cute but not a work truck
- Why Southern California is a new EV mecca, with Rivian, Lordstown, and Karma in Irvine
