Why Symbotic Stock Dropped 24% in the First Half of 2026 And Is a Screaming Buy Now

Symbotic's (NASDAQ: SYM) backlog might be soaring, but the stock still lost 24.5% value in the first half of 2026, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

So what actually happened? The market set the bar incredibly high for the robotics company, and Symbotic couldn't keep up. To make matters worse, key insiders dumped shares, sending the stock into a tailspin.

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Huge backlog and a big customer win

Heading into the year, Symbotic was trading like a high-flying tech stock, closing 2025 with a 150% surge. The company builds high-speed AI-powered intelligent robots to automate warehouses. It builds gigantic systems, each containing hundreds of robots, that can handle everything from receiving goods at a center to their dispatch.

When a stock is riding that high, though, anything the market perceives as a misstep gets punished hard. That's what happened with Symbotic, especially after its second-quarter earnings release in early May.

There was nothing wrong with its numbers. In fact, the company swung to net income of $9 million in Q2, versus a loss of $10 million in the year-ago quarter, on 23% top-line growth. The consensus, however, projected an even bigger jump in profits, but didn't foresee the rise in costs.

Symbotic's expenses rose as it deployed more systems, with the total number of systems in deployment rising to 70 by the end of the second quarter from 46 one year earlier. Those high costs squeezed its profit margins, and the stock fell as investors panicked at how capital-intensive this growth really is.

Investors didn't care that Symbotic had a $22.7 billion backlog, or 10 times its 2025 revenue. They also overlooked one of the company's biggest developments in recent years: In April, it signed its first customer outside the food and grocery business, Medline. Medline is the nation's largest manufacturer and supplier of medical-surgical products with a global warehouse footprint of more than 29 million square feet.

The sell-off in Symbotic, however, continued, even picking up momentum later in May when major institutional backer SoftBank Group and its affiliates dumped 5.59 million shares at $50.41 per share. Softbank, however, remains a large investor and partner in Symbotic, and it's common for long-term institutional sponsors to sell large chunks of shares in companies as they mature.

Should you buy Symbotic stock before August 5?

Symbotic shares have slid in recent weeks on profit-taking, but the business remains solid.

The company already has large customers such as Walmart and Target, though Walmart alone accounted for 85 % of its revenue in 2025. That figure explains why adding Medline is such a big milestone. It not only diversifies Symbotic's customer base, which is a must, but also reflects the growth opportunities ahead across a variety of industries.

Symbotic will report its third-quarter numbers on August 5 after the market close. It expects to generate $710 in revenue at the midpoint, or roughly 20% year-over-year growth. Don't bet on Sit for one quarterly report though -- it is a compelling robotics and automation stock to buy on dips for the long term.

Neha Chamaria has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Medline, Symbotic, Target, and Walmart. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.