SoFi’s Top Investor SoftBank Sells 12 Million Shares

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SoFi Technologies

stock stumbled Tuesday, a day after major shareholder

SoftBank

announced it had sold at least part of its 9% stake in the financial services company.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SoftBank (ticker:

SFTBY

) disclosed it had sold 6.68 million shares of SoFi (

SOFI

) at the price of $8.17 a share. Three days earlier, the company sold 5.4 million shares at $7.99 each.

SoftBank still owns 83.2 million shares of the online banking services company, but it is unclear whether it will continue to divest itself of more shares. SoftBank reported its biggest ever quarterly loss on Monday of 3.1 trillion yen, or $23 billion. The loss was partially due to significant losses in its flagship Vision Fund, which has been dragged down by tumbling technology valuations.

The company is now planning to take a “defensive” stance to review costs across all its investments, including the Vision Fund, said CEO Masayoshi Son at an earnings call with investors.

“SoftBank Group, as an investment company, has to reduce cost dramatically,” Son said.

And over the course of the year, SoFi’s performance has been less than stellar. The stock is down nearly 50%, battered by sluggish growth in the company’s lending segment as the student loan moratorium has suspended loan repayments. Still, SoFi may be poised for a comeback soon. The company posted record second-quarter revenue and raised its guidance for fiscal 2022. SoFi’s robo-advisor ranked highest in Barron’s annual robo-advisor ranking for the second year in a row.

SoFi shares fell 3.9% to $7.67 in premarket trading on Tuesday. SoftBank, which trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closed 7% lower. SoftBank’s U.S.-listed stock was down 4.6% in premarket trading.

Write to Sabrina Escobar at sabrina.escobar@barrons.com