Wolverine Asset Management held put options on 16,594,400 Nio Inc. underlying shares at the end of the first quarter, a new regulatory filing showed.
The position of the Chicago-based quantitative investment manager was valued at $100.06 million, down 16.46% in share count from 19,862,900 shares at the end of 2025.
The dollar value fell just 1.2% from $101.30 million, as Nio‘s lower ADS price during the quarter offset the smaller share count.
Wolverine held no Nio common shares and no call options on the stock as of the end of March.
The firm exited a small common equity position in the third quarter of 2025, selling its remaining 321,491 shares for about $1.1 million.
Put Position Reduced
The first quarter of the year marks the third consecutive one in which Wolverine has reduced the size of its Nio put position.
Wolverine first trimmed its put exposure from 22,052,400 underlying shares in the second quarter of 2025 to 21,562,300 at September 30, 2025 — a 2.22% reduction.
The firm then reduced the position by 7.88% in the fourth quarter of 2025, taking it to 19,862,900 underlying shares.
The Q1 2026 reduction to 16,594,400 underlying shares is the largest sequential cut in the position since Wolverine began publicly disclosing meaningful Nio put exposure in 2019.
The current position remains the firm’s largest Nio put exposure since the third quarter of 2024, when Wolverine held put options on 16,771,900 underlying shares.
Quarterly Position History
The Wolverine position scaled aggressively during 2024 and the first half of 2025 before the recent multi-quarter unwind.
The firm held put options on 6,486,300 underlying Nio shares at March 31, 2024 — valued at $29.2 million.
The position grew 77.3% in underlying shares to 11,498,000 by June 30, 2024.
Wolverine then expanded the position by 45.9% to 16,771,900 underlying shares at September 30, 2024.
The position rose modestly to 19,609,400 underlying shares in the last quarter of 2024 — a 16.9% increase.
Through the first three quarters of 2025, the position remained between 19.2 million and 22.1 million underlying shares before beginning the multi-quarter reduction.
No Equity, No Call Options
Wolverine’s last meaningful Nio call option position — covering 92,900 underlying shares — was disclosed in the third quarter of 2021 and progressively wound down through 2024.
The year 2021 marked Nio‘s all time high of its US-listed shares.
The stock reached $66.99 in January 2021 over the launch of a global expansion plan, a global EV bubble, the launch of the first model under the second generation platform, while the broader stock market recovered from the 2020 Pandemic era.
The firm has reported zero call option exposure to Nio ADS in every 13F filing since its May 13, 2024 disclosure.
The common equity position followed a similar pattern of slow accumulation followed by exit.
Wolverine reported its highest disclosed Nio common stock position in late 2020 and early 2021.
The firm reduced and ultimately eliminated the small common equity position by September 30, 2025, when it disposed of the remaining 321,491 ADS shares.
First Nio Holders to File Q1 13F
Wolverine is the first major Nio institutional shareholder to file a 13F-HR disclosing the first quarter portfolio update.
As of Tuesday morning, none of the other top 15 Nio institutional holders by share count had filed a 13F-HR covering positions held as of March 31, 2026.
Institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in qualifying assets under management have until 45 days after the end of each calendar quarter to file Form 13F-HR — making May 15 the deadline for Q1 disclosures.
Nio’s Institutional Ownership
Nio currently has 4755 institutional owners holding cumulative positions of approximately 319 million shares, according to Fintel.
By the end of 2025, the largest shareholders included CYVN Holdings, D.E. Shaw & Co., Susquehanna International Group, UBS Group AG, LMR Partners, BNP Paribas Arbitrage, Jane Street Group, and Morgan Stanley.
The EV maker is expected to report first quarter financial results between between late May and early June.
After posting its first ever profitable quarter in Q4 2025, the company is targeting its first full year of profitability in 2026.
