Airbnb falls as employees become free to sell shares

Shares of Airbnb Inc dropped more than 5% on Monday after company employees in the vacation rental firm became free to sell their shares for the first time since its initial public offering in December.

About $3.3 billion worth of Airbnb shares were bought and sold on Monday, compared with an average of under $1 billion a day over the past 20 sessions, according to Refinitiv data, Reuters reported.

The shares of the company opened today about a 3% low, to $137.16, compared to Friday’s close at $141.20, after the premarket trading.

The share fell to $130.25, the lowest for today, about an 8% fall from the previous close.

In the IPO prospectus published on November 16, Airbnb said up to 27.8 million shares, which were are by employees, could be sold as of the second trading day immediately after its first-quarter earnings report.

Airbnb has about 608 million outstanding shares, according to Refinitiv, the report said.

The San Francisco-based rental company reported its first-quarter earnings on May 13 and beat analysts’ expectations for gross bookings and revenue as COVID-19 jabs and easing restrictions encouraged more people to travel.

Airbnb has battered the pandemic better than the competitors as people reserved stays away from the major cities in the age of social distancing.

Airbnb was up more than three folds in February, reaching the highest price, from its IPO price of $68 apiece, the largest Wall Street debut in 2020, but it has fallen more than 50% since then.

Picture Credit: Quartz