Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY), an electric air-taxi aircraft developer, closed at $8.43, down 4.26%. The stock fell after a $500 million defense acquisition and a planned $750 million stock sale; investors are now watching funding for certification, manufacturing, and commercial launch. Trading volume reached 51.3M shares, coming in about 27% above its three-month average of 40.5M shares. Joby Aviation IPO’d in 2020 and has fallen 20% since going public.
How the markets moved today
S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC) closed at 7,727, down 0.33%, while the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) closed at 26,445, down 0.60%. Among advanced air mobility / electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft development peers, Archer Aviation (NYSE:ACHR) closed at $6.78, up 8.23%, while Vertical Aerospace (NYSE:EVTL) closed at $0.89, down 1.37%.
What this means for investors
The market had plenty to digest after Joby announced it was acquiring Resonant Sciences for $500 million, while simultaneously announcing a $750 million at-the-market equity distribution agreement. Management with Joby explained the deal, saying the combination will “unite Joby’s dual-use aircraft, propulsion and autonomy technologies with Resonant’s radio frequency (RF), sensing and mission systems capabilities as well as its world-leading expertise in low-observability aircraft design.”
Resonant reported that it just grew sales by 40% to $100 million over the last year and has reached adjusted EBITDA profitability. While i think this acquisition is pretty interesting for JOBY stock (I’m happy to keep holding my shares with a decade-long outlook), the equity offering comes at a bad time with the company’s shares down 51% over the last year.
That said, if the acquisition is closed and integrated successfully, this could prove irrelevant, even though it is rather dilutive for shareholders today, with shares trading at a depressed level — which is what spurred today’s decline, in my opinion. Ultimately, Joby remains years away from full-scale operations and steady profitability, let alone a moat, but I’m happy to keep holding shares of the company as long as serial inventor and entrepreneur JoeBen Bevirt remains CEO.
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