No, Amazon did not increase its stake in Vermont electric aviation company Beta Technologies.
But if you read financial blogs on Tuesday, you could be forgiven for thinking so.
On Tuesday evening, financial news outlet Barron’s published a story headlined, “Beta stock soars 25%. Thank Amazon.”
Indeed, Beta Technologies saw a sudden surge in its stock price, which had been declining steeply since the company’s initial public offering at $34 in November. In the 90 minutes after the market closed on Tuesday, its stock price moved from $16.77 a share to more than $20.
The reason, Barron’s and others noted, appeared to be that Amazon had just filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing its 11.7 million-share position in the company.
Some traders reacted as though Amazon had made a new investment in Beta Technologies, and its price moved upward on the apparent vote of confidence.
The document, however, simply restated a position that dates back to 2021, when Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, a venture capital fund, announced it was investing in the Vermont company. Details about its roughly 5% stake in Beta had previously been described in regulatory filings last October in conjunction with Beta’s initial stock offering.
In other words, nothing new had happened.
By Wednesday, the Barron’s story had a new headline: “The Amazon move doesn’t make sense.”
Beta stock dipped slightly, but by the close of markets on Wednesday, it closed at $19.39, retaining most of the gains it made following the Amazon non-announcement.
