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Rivian Shares Plummet: Time to Cut Losses?

Bryce TuoheyAvatar
Written by Bryce Tuohey
Updated 2/21/2025, 5:21 pm ET 2/21/2025, 5:21 pm ET | 7 min 7 min read

Rivian Automotive Inc.’s stock trajectory faces downward pressure driven by a report illustrating the company’s struggle with production targets and amplified by broader market downturns; On Friday, Rivian Automotive Inc.’s stocks have been trading down by -5.14 percent.

Impactful News Highlights

  • Senate Republicans propose a new tax on electric vehicles, creating waves in the auto market as electric vehicle buyers might now face an additional $1,000 cost when purchasing an electric vehicle. Such a move could ripple through the market, affecting demand and possibly curbing the growing interest in electric vehicles.

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Live Update At 17:20:29 EST: On Friday, February 21, 2025 Rivian Automotive Inc. stock [NASDAQ: RIVN] is trending down by -5.14%! Discover the key drivers behind this movement as well as our expert analysis in the detailed breakdown below.

  • Bernstein initiates coverage on Rivian Automotive with an underperform rating. Analysts expressed skepticism about Rivian’s ability to deliver financial success to shareholders despite reaching production milestones. Concerns revolve around increased competition within the electric vehicle market and the limitations Rivian faces in its brand reach.

  • Rivian reported its fourth-quarter revenue at $1.32 billion, falling short of the anticipated $1.40 billion. Missing the FactSet consensus estimate highlights potential challenges Rivian faces in alignment with expectations and growing its top line sales.

  • Rivian’s rating of underperform comes on the back of issues like market growth, competition, and brand reach limitations, contributing to uncertainty in its future prospects and exacerbating hesitance within the investor community.

Recent Earnings and Key Financial Metrics Overview

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Rivian’s earnings report unveiled that the company is navigating challenging terrain, evident from a reported revenue of approximately $4.43 billion for the year 2024. With key ratios pointing towards unsatiated profitability goals, Rivian’s gross margin stood at a stark -43.4%, a figure that shows the struggles it endures in achieving a cost-effective production balance. The net income from continuous operations is marred with red ink, reflecting a challenge to turn mere production capacity into profitable ventures.

In terms of valuation measures, Rivian exhibits a tangible book value ratio of 2.35. This suggests that the market might be attaching a hefty premium given the company’s growth potential despite its current financial adversity. Yet, with a price-to-sales ratio of 3.05, it’s critical to understand how Rivian is a play grounded in speculative optimism and if it’s justifiable.

Some metrics might bewilder even seasoned investors. Consider Rivian’s return on equity at a staggering -82.47% and return on assets at less than -35%. These indicators portend growth challenges in the near term. Such figures bring forth deliberation over Rivian’s operating cash flow, which registers in the negative at $876 million, emphasizing cash burn issues that need addressing with swiftness.

Given the combination of heavy capital outflows and increasing production costs, Rivian’s quarterly end with a cash position of $5.39 billion could pose yet another strategic decision point — i.e., fetching additional capital either via acquiring more debt or considering equity dilution.

News and Market Influence Detailed Examination

Electric Vehicle Tax Proposal

The proposition by Senate Republicans to hike taxes on electric vehicles emerges as a shadow projecting over Rivian’s ambitions. For an industry enticing consumers with the allure of sustainable driving, increasing costs might be unwelcome news that could alter consumer spending habits considerably, as the lure of cost savings in operational expenses faces cancellation by upfront price increments.

The implications could go beyond immediate sales numbers. They may unveil consumption hesitations and stagger what was anticipated to be a smooth pivot from traditional automotive preferences toward a more eco-friendly slate of choices, framed by government incentives and subsidies rather than taxes. A parallel can be drawn to how consumption taxes on luxuries must balance public revenue needs with market growth motivations, a synergy precarious and thus worth scrutinizing.

Bernstein’s Underperform Rating

Bernstein’s stance on labelling Rivian’s stock as underperforming invites introspection about the benchmark challenges in Europe’s burgeoning electric vehicle landscape. Competition with stalwart automotive pioneers and emerging tech giants alike presents a crowded market field demanding differentiation not merely by the same ‘green-thumb’ rhetoric.

Dissensions over market growth trajectories compound ambiguity, making it critical for stakeholders to decode if Rivian’s value proposition is sustainable or merely fluffed by engineering prowess alone. With this too comes an inflection point where Rivian needs to nurture a brand presence entwined with success in the financial labyrinth — lessons from fizzled endeavors littering the tech transition are a cautionary tale.

More Breaking News

Missed Revenue Targets

The miss on Rivian’s Q4 revenue exemplifies the schism yet to bridge between market appetite and delivery. When revenue projections act as a thermometer measuring future expectations, falling short hints at either disrupted supply chains, delayed deployments, or misaligned market strategies necessitating recalibration.

Stock fluctuations react mercilessly to such discrepancies, and here rests the precariousness for newcomers like Rivian justifying their stature beside Goliaths. It bears remembering how seemingly negligible price-to-earning dips unravel Herculean slides when repetitively affirmed in sequential disclosures.

Summary and Conclusion

Rivian navigates a volatile landscape, punctuated by legislative proposals and market skepticism over its financial metrics. Bernstein’s categorical rating, compounded by revenue lapses, underscores the challenges. While Rivian stands emblematic in weaving a new automotive tapestry, traders must consciously evaluate if the essence lies in speculative bravado or grounded in tangible, forthcoming operational solvency. As millionaire penny stock trader and teacher Tim Sykes says, “Small gains add up over time; focus on building wealth gradually, not chasing jackpots.” This sentiment echoes through the minds of those involved with Rivian, emphasizing the importance of patience and caution in trading strategies.

For those with equity stakes or decision-making in Rivian, the narrative is a candid conversation between potential unfolds and the shattering midst of trader conscience questioning viability amidst compelling odds. Thus, reinforcing the choice between committed aspiration alongside judicious revelations.

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Bryce Tuohey

Mentor and Trainer at StocksToTrade.com, Lead Mentor at Small Cap Rockets and To The Moon Report
Bryce’s first pattern was buying into strength in breakouts. But he noticed when they didn’t work, he took bigger losses. When the OTC market got hot, Bryce learned to dip buy the inevitable panics. He adapted his breakout strategy and now buys consolidation and trend breaks. His goal is to have better risk/reward and get an entry before multi-day listed breakouts.
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* Results are not typical and will vary from person to person. Making money trading stocks takes time, dedication, and hard work. There are inherent risks involved with investing in the stock market, including the loss of your investment. Past performance in the market is not indicative of future results. Any investment is at your own risk. See Terms of Service here

The available research on day trading suggests that most active traders lose money. Fees and overtrading are major contributors to these losses.

A 2000 study called “Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors” evaluated 66,465 U.S. households that held stocks from 1991 to 1996. The households that traded most averaged an 11.4% annual return during a period where the overall market gained 17.9%. These lower returns were attributed to overconfidence.

A 2014 paper (revised 2019) titled “Learning Fast or Slow?” analyzed the complete transaction history of the Taiwan Stock Exchange between 1992 and 2006. It looked at the ongoing performance of day traders in this sample, and found that 97% of day traders can expect to lose money from trading, and more than 90% of all day trading volume can be traced to investors who predictably lose money. Additionally, it tied the behavior of gamblers and drivers who get more speeding tickets to overtrading, and cited studies showing that legalized gambling has an inverse effect on trading volume.

A 2019 research study (revised 2020) called “Day Trading for a Living?” observed 19,646 Brazilian futures contract traders who started day trading from 2013 to 2015, and recorded two years of their trading activity. The study authors found that 97% of traders with more than 300 days actively trading lost money, and only 1.1% earned more than the Brazilian minimum wage ($16 USD per day). They hypothesized that the greater returns shown in previous studies did not differentiate between frequent day traders and those who traded rarely, and that more frequent trading activity decreases the chance of profitability.

These studies show the wide variance of the available data on day trading profitability. One thing that seems clear from the research is that most day traders lose money .

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Citations for Disclaimer

Barber, Brad M. and Odean, Terrance, Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors. Available at SSRN: “Day Trading for a Living?”

Barber, Brad M. and Lee, Yi-Tsung and Liu, Yu-Jane and Odean, Terrance and Zhang, Ke, Learning Fast or Slow? (May 28, 2019). Forthcoming: Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Available at SSRN: “https://ssrn.com/abstract=2535636”

Chague, Fernando and De-Losso, Rodrigo and Giovannetti, Bruno, Day Trading for a Living? (June 11, 2020). Available at SSRN: “https://ssrn.com/abstract=3423101”