Cars and Drivers

Nikola Warrant Holders Must Be Happy With This

Chris Lange

Published: July 20, 2020 12:01 pm

Nikola Corp. (NASDAQ: NKLA) is in for an interesting trading week now that its warrants from its initial public offering have become exercisable. Although shares have fallen off this month, investors holding the warrants still stand to make an incredible profit.

So far in July, and excluding Monday’s move, the stock was down about 28%. However, Nikola was actually up about 373% year to date. The year-to-date number is the one the focus on.

The company has 24 million warrants outstanding, and each warrant gives the shareholder the right to buy one share of Nikola for $11.50.

Barron’s noted that this is only part of the warrant story. Roughly 11.5 million Nikola shares have been borrowed and sold short. It’s highly likely that some of the short sellers are also warrant holders that are locking in profits. When the warrant holders receive the stock, they will use it to replace the shares borrowed.

Nikola announced late on Friday that its warrants would now be exercisable and shares quickly dropped in the after-hours. The stock was still down on Monday, likely from the exercise of the warrants.

Another thing to note is that with investors exercising these warrants, Nikola also gains up to $270 million in cash.

Nikola stock traded down about 21% on Monday to $38.45, in a 52-week range of $10.27 to $93.99. The consensus price target is $59.67.