We analyze the impact of short sellers on Fisker’s stock and strategies to counteract their influence.
Today, Fisker stock neared an all-time low as it hit $4.30 per share, coming within pennies of the April 21st, 2023, low of $4.26. At the close of the NYSE this afternoon, Fisker stock finished the day at $4.37 per share, experiencing a decrease of $0.42 (-8.76%) on almost double the volume, totaling 12.8 million shares. The company reports earnings on November 8th before the stock market open. Fisker shares have faced pressure since mid-September when the stock reached a near-term high of $7.05 per share.
This comes as Fisker opened up its Q&A platform for retail shareholders for the company’s upcoming Q3 2023 earnings call. Retail shareholders can submit and upvote questions once they register. Throughout the morning, 155 participants have submitted a total of 43 questions, representing 679.3K shares. The answer why Fisker shares are near an all-time low probably sits somewhere within those questions. We’ve combed through the questions, but have not submitted any ourselves this go around. We’re still waiting for Fisker to publicly address short sellers wreaking havoc in their stock.
Short Sellers and Fisker’s Stock: A Growing Challenge
Right now, Fisker holds the fifth spot among all publicly traded companies with the highest percentage of outstanding shares being sold short. Considering the vast number of publicly traded stocks, this is quite noteworthy. The short interest in Fisker’s stock is currently at 44.03%, meaning that out of every 100 shares outstanding, 44 are essentially betting against the company’s success. Now, let’s talk about bulls and bears—bulls root for a stock to rise, while bears prefer it to fall. Presently, the bears seem to be winning the stock game.
Strategic Response to Short Interest
Fisker needs a game-changing strategy to address the challenge posed by substantial short interest and counteract those betting against the company’s success. Adopting a multifaceted approach is key to navigating this complex situation. Transparent communication is paramount. Fisker should prioritize keeping stakeholders, including shareholders and customers, well-informed about ongoing projects, future plans, financial health, successes, and challenges. Active achievement and publicity of operational milestones and product launches will serve to demonstrate the company’s progress and operational strength. Additionally, a focused effort on improving financial performance and reporting can positively influence shareholder sentiment.
Surprising the Bears: A Critical Aspect of Fisker’s Strategy
However, a critical aspect of Fisker’s strategy should involve surprising the bears to catch them off guard. The specifics of this unexpected move remains uncertain. However, Fisker must implement a measure that instills fear in those betting against the company. Despite the bears’ perceived intelligence and past successes, their luck may be on the brink of changing. Fisker needs to undertake an initiative that disrupts their expectations and potentially shifts the dynamics in the stock game. This bold move could be the catalyst needed to redefine the company’s position in the stock market.
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Buy the dip 😉
There is an easier way to deal with shorts. DELIVERIES and MARGINS
Lots of deliveries on good margins and the shorts will be taken care of. Henrik can’t seem to grasp this
Maybe if HF underpromised and overdelivered, rather than overpromised and underdelivered the stock price would go up.
The shorts are annoying me. Shorting should be illegal.
Absolutely correct
But his business person he knows how to fool his customers and peoples .
Sean. I appreciate that you’re addressing this issue. Nearly half the shares are short? It’s hard for me to even fathom the marketplace mechanics that enable short percentages approaching 50%.
I’ve touched on the share price here in the past. And, I’ve expressed many times the importance of trust.
I agree with much of what you are saying in this article. There are folks with deep-seated interest in seeing Fisker, Inc. fail. A coordinated attack on the share price is certainly one of many fronts that can be used to create negativity around the Fisker brand. We live in a time where anonymous postings on sites (even sites such as this) and where social media become spaces to wage crafty, but concerted war against brands, especially new brands…like Fisker. Legacy brands and market leaders (and their investors) like to espouse free enterprise. But, really, they don’t much like new options/competitors vying for market share. I guess, in some ways you can’t blame ’em for desiring less competition. Monopoly-like power is a very powerful and lucrative situation to be in.
Team Fisker must be trustworthy, first and foremost. That needs to be a given. And Team Fisker needs to deliver that game-changing strategy (as you mention) to shock these shorts out of existence. And continuous, skillful execution is needed to ensure these shorts never regroup to try this again later.
The article above on a new game plan is correct. Inform your clients better and dynamically. Fisker needs to do this disruptive move. Its not disruptive for the clients, stakeholders and shareholders but will be for those betting against the stock.
There’s no need for a complicated anti-short strategy. Meet or exceed your projections and you don’t have this issue. We’re where we are right now because projected production numbers were not met. Period. And it’s disappointing because the “asset light” business model didn’t meet expectations and should have. Magna should have handled the execution way better.
The 11/8 meeting is either going to feed the bears or kill them. If it kills the stock will rise, if it feeds, $2/share or less? Possible. And I’m not interested in 3rd quarter production numbers. We aIready know that disaster. I want to know that In October 300 units/day were produced as projected and if not, why not specifically.
In the meantime i feel the business model shows promise, the product is stellar and my monthly Fisker allocation is buying more shares than ever before. I’ll take that…..for a while.
Companies should not focus on their share price in the secondary market unless they plan on continually equity financing. Right now their foremost obligation is to focus on profits and ramp up, assuming they have any say in management of the production line at Magna Steyr. If not, they need to focus on the sales, logistics, certifications and approvals, and tax credits of each country or region they are planning to sell in. Profits would be though the reengineering production or parts to improve on costs. Once profits come, with a strong balance sheet, they can if shares are still depressed in pricing, substantially buy back shares at a large discount with their retained earnings as transfer the value of their balance sheet to their share holders that way. Share buyback at that point would discourage shorting if still short and encourage covering if still not covered.
It’s not that evil people or bad companies want to destroy Fisker through short selling, so they have less competition. Fisker is currently not a serious competitor for anyone. A bet that Fisker won’t survive 2024 is simply a bet with a relatively high chance of winning.
The problem is Henrik Fisker himself. He is a very good car designer, but not a good CEO. Under his leadership, Fisker has missed every business goal. The last weeks and months Henrik Fisker spend his time to draw sketches for customers, to personally “help” with test drives and deliveries, and so on. That’s all very kind, if your company is running smoothly. But nothing of this has any priority, if your company is simply fighting for it’s survival.
For example: A year ago there was a very good market environment for EVs in Germany. But because everything was delayed several times, Fisker couldn’t benefit from it. Now the market environment is extremely difficult. Germany is in a recession, interest rates are high, government subsidies for buying EVs for private individuals are lower and there is no longer any subsidy for companies, that buy EVs (most cars in Germany are bought by companies). In addition to the war in Ukraine, there is also war in Israel. There are many more new EV models on the market now (especially from China).
The most important goal for Fisker is now to produce 23.000 cars in 2023 (target already lowered twice). The second most important goal is to produce and sell at least 150.000 cars in 2024. If Fiskeres misses these targets, then Fisker will not survive 2024 (like many other EV startups).
the most important thing is being able to deliver the cars they have already produced. have posted numerous times that i was supposed to get vehicle on Oct 7 and that didn’t happen then a week ago that didn’t happen and not a single dept at fisker responds regarding the status of my vehicle. i have paid for it is full almost 3 weeks ago and received the plates/tags. in the mean time the status of my vehicle on the app has gone from at facility to Place Order and lock in production. i don’t even send emails or go into the Chat any more as no o e at fisker responds or apparently cares. instead more focused on future models. the way things are going those will never happen. focus first on what is on the market and provide excellent customer service, that apparently is not a top priority!
Bob. If this is true. Then you have every right to be upset. And, the Ocean is the stunningly beautiful Fisker, Inc. option that is competing in the here and the now. The future is right now. The success and the learning that comes from the launch of the Ocean will fuel the PEAR, Alaska, Ronin and others.
Guido. I’m not sure what to make of your comments. Fisker, Inc. is not a serious competitor…yes…yet. And there are many, many billions, if not trillions of reasons (💵💶💷) why an upstart’s failure-to-launch is so motivating to incumbents and current market leaders. Now, EVs are gaining converts and market share across the globe, despite the recent negative headlines from Ford, GM, Stellantis (and even Tesla). As to rates – I don’t know how old you are, but I’m over 60. These interest rates are normal. Wars – very sadly, they have been happening all of my life. These wars, I suspect, are serving to exacerbate negative climate impacts. People don’t sit on their hands during these wars. People will keep buying cars. The key is always leading people to choose YOUR cars…and making them thrilled they did choose YOU.
Finally, the “asset light” model needs to clearly demonstrate a real and valuable wisdom. It certainly cannot become an excuse for poor production results. Team Fisker can’t espouse the wisdom of their “asset light” approach while simultaneously failing to skillfully manage the array of “asset light” pieces/suppliers that result in the final product…Ocean…or PEAR…or Alaska…or Ronin…
Finally, finally. People want to know the outfit they are purchasing from will be here for them in the many decades that follow. Shorting success can serve to plant seeds of doubt about the future. This is why this topic is so crucial. Speaking of wars, Fisker, Inc. needs to annihilate these shorts through every means necessary at this early stage…not least of which is through delivering high-quality vehicles with high-quality service and high-quality logistics and high-quality customer engagement.
Oceans. Now. 🏄♂️🏄♀️
All, I had an Ocean Ultra that was going to be built. I cancelled my order. While I want Fisker to succeed, I have read too many negative comments on lack of basic customer service and follow through with Oceans that have issues. While I am a 1000 share shareholder, I can take a few thousand loss in the stock. I can not take a $65,000 brick in my driveway if it does not work. Guido said it best about HF… he needs to be a CEO and less of a salesman/pitchman until goals set are made. I see a excellent designer but a poor CEO. I also do not like his wife on the board as well. He needs people to tell him when its not going right. I have listened to earnings calls and just not impressed.
Meanwhile I search for a replacement car/suv to lease. I hope they do hit it out of the park on the earnings call, but I just don’t think they will. I hope I am wrong.
I have booked a Ocean but there is absolutely zero communication from Company on actual delivery or even proposed delivery. I am getting very concerned about HF spreading himself too thin across all roles. Customer service is non existent. It’s all AI responses. I have a Tesla and wanted to venture out to get something better. I too am planning to put my purchase on hold to see if HF survives thru 2024. Hopefully Customer Service will return back to life like before when online booking were on!
Naresh
Well, God only knows (maybe Sean too) if Fisker reads Fiskerati or reads these comments. I don’t know about Henrik being “spread too thin”. Fisker, Inc is a team of people and Henrik, as the leader, is the captain of this ship riding on the Ocean. Attention to, and execution of, the details that produce excellent results…this is what will allow the ship to sail safely to its destination. He is responsible for this, along with the entire Fisker Team. And he and the Team must know that failure mustn’t be an option this time around. 🚢🌊
I hope you are right. Does not feel like a big team when one cannot even get a response from customer service. How big is the team? Customer service is missing.
Naresh. I hope Fisker makes the best cars in the world as we move to a new era of powering mobility. I hope every person on Team Fisker (as well as Magna Steyr who builds these vehicles…as well as all of the suppliers of components…as well as the computer and software creators) understands that the time to deliver on their promises of the most “emotional and sustainable” vehicles on earth is right now…this very moment! And, every moment going forward. The time for talk is over. Doing must be done.
🌊🍐🏔️ Ronin