Swiss bank UBS trimmed its position in Nio Inc. by 49.7% in the first quarter of 2026, marking the fifth consecutive quarterly reduction since the Zurich-based lender peaked its holdings at the start of last year.
According to a 13F filing disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, UBS held 12,347,240 shares of Nio as of March 31, valued at $74.45 million.
With the latest trim, UBS has now exited Nio’s top ten institutional shareholders by share count — a year after being the company’s largest institutional investor.
The position is down from 24,549,713 shares at the end of 2025 — a reduction of 12.2 million shares in three months.
The first quarter cut alone matches the size of the entire stake UBS held just two years ago, in mid-2024.
A Five-Quarter Retreat
The Tuesday disclosure deepens a sustained retreat that began in the second quarter of 2025.
UBS held 74,955,469 shares at the end of March 2025 — its largest-ever position in the Chinese EV maker after a 975% increase the prior quarter that took the stake from roughly 4.1 million to 44.2 million shares.
Since that March 2025 peak, the trajectory has moved one direction.
The Swiss lender cut to 70.15 million shares in the second quarter of 2025, then to 28.78 million in Q3 2025 — a 59.0% reduction in a single quarter.
Last December’s 13F filing showed a further 14.7% reduction to 24.55 million shares.
The latest cut to 12.35 million extends the streak to five consecutive quarters of reductions and brings the position down 83.5% from the peak.
The total value of the stake has fallen from $285.58 million at the March 2025 peak to $74.45 million at the end of March 2026 — a decline of $211 million over twelve months as both share count and Nio’s US share price contracted.
Puts Now Exceed Calls
The derivatives positioning offers a sharper read on UBS sentiment.
As of the end of the first quarter, the bank held call options representing 2,813,833 underlying Nio shares, valued at $16.97 million.
It also held put options representing 3,185,900 underlying shares, valued at $19.21 million.
That marks the second consecutive quarter in which UBS’s put exposure on Nio — measured by the value of underlying shares — exceeded its call exposure.
In Q3 2025, UBS held puts representing 8.99 million shares against calls representing 12.99 million shares, but the put position was already the largest on record by share count.
The Q3 2025 put position was particularly notable for its 61.4% quarter-over-quarter expansion in share count and a 258.6% jump in disclosed value.
The historical pattern shows how dramatic the Q3 2025 shift was.
For most of 2022 through 2024, UBS held minimal or zero put options on Nio, with disclosed put share counts ranging from 0 to 836,400.
Calls dominated the derivatives book throughout that period.
The expansion of put positioning began in Q1 2025, when the bank disclosed 5.35 million underlying shares in puts — a 343.91% increase from the previous quarter’s 1.20 million.
A Long-Standing Position
UBS first opened a Nio position in the third quarter of 2018, disclosing 61,757 shares shortly after the company’s New York Stock Exchange IPO in September of that year.
The position remained modest through 2019 and into 2020, ranging between 42,577 shares and 2.21 million shares.
It expanded significantly during the 2020-2021 EV stock rally, peaking at 5.26 million shares at the end of 2020 — a level the bank would not exceed for nearly four years.
As EV reported in August 2024, UBS purchased 1.62 million additional shares in the second quarter of that year, taking the position to 5.72 million shares.
That marked a return to its late-2020 peak.
The bank then increased the position aggressively through the second half of 2024, reaching 44.16 million shares by year-end — a 975% jump in a single quarter.
The Q1 2025 expansion took the stake to its all-time high of nearly 75 million shares before the reversal began.
The stock has lost roughly 90% of its value from the all-time high of $66.99 reached in January 2021.
UBS has now left Nio’s top ten institutional shareholders by share count, a year after being the company’s largest institutional investor.
The top ten includes D. E. Shaw & Co., Susquehanna International Group, LMR Partners, BNP Paribas Arbitrage, Wolverine Asset Management, Jane Street Group, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs.
Total institutional ownership stands at approximately 306 million shares held by 458 institutions, according to Fintel.
