Rivian stock falls following COO departure

Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman and Brian Sozzi discuss how Rivian stock is dropping following the news that its chief operating officer is retiring from the company.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: And then finally, we want to talk about Rivian, which is a perennial training ticker on YahooFinance.com. The stock is down almost 50%, more than 50% I should say, from its highs that reached in November after coming to the public markets. The stock's down 3% this morning, so extending declines. And the company said its Chief Operating Officer, Rod Cope's is his name. He had been there since March of 2020.

And the company says he began a phased retirement several months ago, affording the team continuity as we move toward production ramp. But it's something that the markets are learning about just now. The company also said that it has made just over 1,000 vehicles, or made just over 1,000 vehicles by the end of last year, Sozz.

BRIAN SOZZI: Retirement? Look at this guy, Julie. We're showing photos of him. He doesn't look like 95-years-old to me, and this is now a newly public company. Bottom line, bottom line here, you do not want to see your Chief Operating Officer of an electric vehicle company retire or leave for whatever reason as you're trying to ramp production.

Keep in mind, Rivian just warned a couple of weeks ago that it's not going to meet its delivery guideline. Again, just not a good look, not a good look here.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. I mean, it does seem to have met that reduced--

BRIAN SOZZI: Retire?

JULIE HYMAN: Just because you're never retiring, let other people take a break, Brian Sozzi. The other thing I just wanted to mention quickly with Rivian, of course, is that the shares had also taken a hit because Amazon said it would buy electric delivery vans from Stellantis. So we'll kind of see the new year with the rest of the news flow, it looks like, for Rivian and whether it can stage a bit of a comeback. It's not happening today.