VinFast Auto (NASDAQ:VFS), the Vietnamese electric vehicle (EV) company, said it will display its VF 9 EV at the COP28 environmental conference in Dubai. The event runs through mid-December.
The press release sent VinFast stock up 19% in overnight trading, which came on top of an 8% gain on Nov. 29.
VinFast opened for trade this morning at $8.60 per share, a market capitalization of nearly $21 billion. It was trading at just over $6/share at the start of the week. Early trading is seeing VFS stock at about 15% up.
Going VinFast
VFS stock has been highly volatile since it went public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) based in Hong Kong on Aug. 14.
The shares topped $82 soon after the initial public offering (IPO), briefly making it the third most valuable car company after Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM). But, like many IPOs that have recently run out of Hong Kong, the stock price quickly fell back to Earth. In mid-November, shares were trading at $5.50.
VFS is a unit of a Vietnamese conglomerate, the VinGroup. The company got into the gas-powered car market in 2018.
VinFast lost $1 billion in 2021, then pivoted to EVs. It recently broke ground for a factory in North Carolina, which says it can make 150,000 cars per year.
Technology analyst Dan Ives at Wedbush has given VFS stock a “buy” rating with a price target of $12. He is one of only two analysts listed as following the stock
While VinFast has 2.33 billion shares outstanding, only 34.75 million are in the public float and fewer than 4.5 million trade in the average day. Over half the public shares held off the exchanges were being held short recently, according to Fintel.
VFS Stock: What Happens Next?
A small float and high short interest make VFS a volatile stock. The company expects revenue of about $933 million this year in Vietnamese Dong, with losses increasing as it ramps up production of its cars.
As of this writing, Dana Blankenhorn did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
