The RIDE stock price lost close to 11% on Friday after a WSJ report revealed the US Department of Justice is investigating Lordstown Motors.
Lordstown motors (RIDE: NASDAQ) ended last week at $9.23 after a miserable day of trading on Friday wiped $1.12 (-10.82%) from the Electric Vehicle makers value.
Lordstown Motors has had a torrid time recently. Firstly, in March, short-seller Hindenburg Research targeted the firm in a scathing report suggesting the automaker juiced up its order book.
“Lordstown is an electric vehicle SPAC with no revenue and no sellable product, which we believe has misled investors on both its demand and production capabilities.“
Furthermore, Lordstown’s then CEO Steve Burns revealed to analysts the firm was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC):
“a request from the SEC for the voluntary production of documents and information, including relating to the merger between DiamondPeak and Legacy Lordstown and pre-order of vehicles. The company is responding to the SEC’s requests and intends to cooperate with its inquiry.”
The General Motors backed EV maker later admitted there was some truth to Hindenburg’s report. This led to the resignation of Burns.
However, there was more bad news to follow.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the Department of Justice is investigating Lordstown Motors. Although no allegations were specified, it’s logical to assume they relate to the SEC probe.
The announcement triggered a cascade of selling in RIDE, and the stock could now be in serious trouble.
The daily chart shows Lordstown has broken below a supportive uptrend at $10.45. Additionally, the 50 DMA is below the 100 and the 200. Also, the 100 has crossed below the 200. Furthermore, the price is below all three of these major moving averages.
This reinforces the negative momentum and could lead to more selling.
However, the stock has a high percentage of short interest, and currently, 22.56% of the available shares are lent to short-sellers. This could lead to volatility, especially as the recent news may well lure more shorts into RIDE. Therefore, if the price turns higher above $10.45, it could lead to some short-covering.
That being said, it’s hard to build a bullish argument for the RIDE stock price in the current environment. The likeliest scenario is a return to May’s $6.69 low. Furthermore, there is a case to be made for the price going even lower.
Trading on Lordstown should be viewed as highly speculative until the investigations are concluded.
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