Nikola stock is falling again Thursday after an early investor said it was selling shares and Deutsche Bank expressed caution about the hydrogen fuel cell truck maker’s capital raising plans.
Nikola (ticker: NKLA) stock is down 7.1% in midday trading to $15.22 a share. The S&P 500 is down about 0.4%.
South Korean-based industrial company Hanwha (000880.Korea), an early Nikola investor, is selling half its stake in the company. Coming into Thursday, Hanwha owned about 5.7% of the Nikola, or 22 million shares. The sale was disclosed in a regulatory filing Wednesday.
Investors don’t like to see early investors sell low. Nikola stock is off about 70% from recent highs. But large blocks of stock on sale can also push down prices.
The Hanwha revelation isn’t the only thing impacting Nikola. Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner recently met with CEO Mark Russell and CFO Kim Brady and came away feeling better about Nikola’s fuel cell offerings. Still, Rosner pointed out in a Thursday report that Nikola needs about $1 billion more before it reaches break-even. He fears large capital raises are coming in 2021.
Rosner has a Hold rating and $26 price target on Nikola stock.
Overall, two out of eight analysts, or 25%, rate Nikola share Buy. The Buy ratings are from Cowen’s Jeffery Osborne and Loop Capital’s Jeffrey Kauffman. Osborne’s price target is $47 a share. Kauffman sees shares hitting $35. The average analyst price target, however, is almost $28, well above where shares are trading.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
