Symbotic tumbles on $550 mln stock offering as SoftBank slices stake

Shares of robotics vendor Symbotic SYM.O down 5% before the bell at $57.45 after $550 mln follow-on priced

Wilmington, Massachusetts-based SYM late Thurs announced 10 mln shares at $55, a 9.1% discount to last sale

Co sold 6.5 mln shares and SoftBank 9984.T affiliate SVF Sponsor III offloaded 3.5 mln shares

SYM shares tumbled 17.4% to $60.48 on Thurs after co commenced the offering late Weds

SYM to use net offering proceeds it receives for general purposes

Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are lead bookrunners

Prior to offering, Japan's SoftBank and its affiliates owned roughly 49 mln of SYM's approx 594 mln total shares outstanding, per the SEC filing

SYM went public in 2022 after the Walmart WMT.N-backed firm merged with the SoftBank-sponsored SPAC, SVF Sponsor III

On Nov 25, SYM shares soared 39% to close at $77.29, the day after co reported Q4 rev grew ~7% yr/yr to $618.5 mln, topping Wall Street consensus

Through Thurs close, SYM shares up 155% YTD

Avg rating among 20 analysts is "hold" and median PT is $60.50, per LSEG