Rivian Stock Down 50% This Year

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Sep 30, 6:49AM EDT · Published Sep 29, 7:33AM EDT

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Rivian Stock Down 50% This Year — © Rivian R1S at Hillsdale Shopping Center (CC BY-SA 3.0) by Mliu92

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Rivian Automotive Inc.’s (NASDAQ: RIVN | RIVN Price Prediction) long-term prospects are battering the stock.
It is hard to imagine what good news it might have going forward.
Also: 2 Dividend Legends to Hold Forever.

Rivian Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: RIVN) stock rallied in late July and then gave up the improvement. The stock of the crippled electric vehicle (EV) company is down 50% so far in 2024. The brief hope of a turnaround has evaporated.

Morgan Stanley downgraded Rivian’s stock to Equal Weight, which usually translates into a low rating of Hold. However, the company’s long-term prospects are battering the stock.

The most recent disappointment was a deal with Volkswagen. Those who did not read the fine print believed the huge German car company had made a $5 billion investment. However, the deal explanation read, “Volkswagen Group to invest an initial $1 billion in Rivian, with up to $4 billion in planned additional investment for a total expected deal size of $5 billion.” VW is having deep trouble of its own, including its EV ventures.

Investors ignore promotions like the long “Shareholder Letter,” which primarily boasts about Rivian’s technology advances. The advances only matter if Rivian is in business, and it may not be for long.

In the most recent quarter, Rivian produced 9,612 vehicles and delivered 13,790. Its revenue for the quarter was $1.12 billion, compared with $1.2 billion the year before. A tiny EV company has to show it is growing. Its net loss for the period was $1.2 billion compared to $1.46 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Rivian’s burn rate is likely about $6 billion a year.

Rivian’s stock is down 50% so far this year. It operates in the troubled EV sector, and it is hard to imagine what good news it might have going forward.

3 Glaring Problems Facing Rivian

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.