The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock has trimmed its stake in the Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio in the third quarter.
The reduction is the first this year as BlackRock had increased its holdings in Nio in the first two quarters of the year by 1.35 million and 410,000 shares, respectively.
BlackRock opened its position in the EV manufacturer in early 2019, a few months after Nio‘s Nasdaq debut.
Between July and September, the New York-headquartered asset manager sold 1.64 million shares, closing the third quarter with nearly 2.21 million shares.
BlackRock’s Dump in 2024
BlackRock sharply reduced its stake in the first half of 2024.
The firm ended 2023 with 62.6 million shares, adding just 10,000 shares in the first quarter of 2024 before selling nearly 2.2 million shares in the second quarter, cutting its position to 60.5 million as of June 2024.
However, BlackRock dumped 55.3 million shares in the third quarter of last year — a 91.55% cut in its holdings.
Since then, it has been holding between 2 and 4 million shares in the EV maker.
As of Thursday, and with several large institutions yet to disclose their second-quarter holdings, BlackRock ranked as Nio’s 15th-largest institutional shareholder.
Despite Nio‘s US-listed shares having reached a 13-month high of $8.02 in early October, the stock has fallen by more than 13% quarter to date and closed at $6.45 on Wednesday.
The current stake in the Shanghai-headquartered company is valued at $14.2 million.
BlackRock saw its assets under management rise to $13.46 trillion as of September 30, up from $11.48 trillion a year earlier.
According to Nasdaq, Nio currently has a total of 453 institutional shareholders holding more than 194.7 million shares.
Other Institutional Shareholders
As reported earlier this week, Citigroup has slightly decreased its stake in Nio for the second consecutive quarter.
London-based RWC Asset Management acquired 10.46 million Nio shares in the previous quarter, marking its return to the stock nearly five years after exiting its position.
Similarly, WT Asset Management has purchased over $18.6 million shares between July and September, after having exited its position in the automaker in late 2021.
WT and RWD currently place second and third among other institutional shareholders of the EV maker.
JPMorgan Chase, which used to be one of Nio‘s top 10 largest institutional investors, has reduced its stake in the electric vehicle maker by 30% during the third quarter, selling over 1.49 million shares.
