Seven large pension funds, including (CalPERS), the largest pension fund in the United States, bought shares in Rivian, an electric vehicle start-up, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, according to securities filings released on Monday.
According to fund tracker WhaleWisdom, the seven pension funds include Texas teachers' retirement fund (Teacher Retirement System of Texas), California civil service pension fund (CalPERS), Maryland retirement and pension (Maryland State Retirement and Pension System), and pension funds in Utah, Colorado, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Among them, the California civil service pension fund (CalPERS), which has about $492 billion in assets under management, is the largest pension fund in the United States. The fund bought more than 305000 Rivian shares, according to the announcement. Based on Rivian's closing price of $103.69 at the end of last year, it equates to a market capitalization of about $32 million.
The $191 billion Texas teacher Retirement system (Teacher Retirement System of Texas) Fund holds about 33000 shares in the company.
These measures point to an increase in risk appetite among pension funds that have always favoured soundness. This may be because these pension funds still face funding shortfalls-although US stocks have been on an upward trend since the outbreak of novel coronavirus, overall, the average capital adequacy ratio of US pension plans, a measure of assets and liabilities, is still less than 75 per cent, according to (Global SWF), the global sovereign wealth fund, a large buyer's agency data platform.
It is worth noting that pension funds are not the only well-known institutions that bought Rivian. Reports released last week showed that several well-known investors, including billionaire George Soros (George Soros) and hedge fund Tiger Global Fund, increased their holdings in the company last quarter.
Rivian shares rose more than 12 per cent on Monday and narrowed their gains to 6 per cent at the end of the day.
Taking advantage of the trend of car electrification, Rivian became the star enterprise in the IPO wave of US stocks last year. Its IPO raised $12 billion at the end of last year, making it the largest financing project for U. S. stocks last year.
However, Rivian's share price has not performed well since its IPO. By Friday's close, Rivian's shares had fallen 43 per cent so far this year. As of Monday's close, the company's shares closed at $62.65, still about 64 per cent below their peak of $179.46 on Nov. 16.
