Why Pagaya Technologies Collapsed 84.8% in September
Shares of Pagaya Technologies (NASDAQ: PGY) plummeted 84.8% in September, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The artificial intelligence (AI) provider for financial companies offered a dilutive secondary-stock sale and was hit by rising interest rates and fears of loan delinquencies. As of Oct. 4, shares are down 82% since the company went public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) earlier this year.
There wasn't any big news around Pagaya's business in September, but there was major news around a stock offering and macroeconomic developments. Near the end of the month, Pagaya released a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stating it intended to sell 46.1 million new shares to the public and that 674 million existing shares from insiders would be sold as well.
Pagaya has just over 851 million weighted average shares outstanding as of the end of last quarter, so these stock offerings likely ended up bringing on a huge amount of selling pressure. With so many people looking to sell, it is not surprising that the stock plummeted around the days of the announcement. New public companies typically debut with a low float (amount of shares publicly traded) which can drive up the price in the near term. When shares get unlocked, the stock can face major downward pressure.
Source Fool.com