Velodyne Lidar Surging After Pact with Amazon

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Lidar stock Velodyne Lidar (VLDR) is pushing higher afterhours.

All after a regulatory filing showed that Amazon.com received warrants to buy about 40 million shares of the VLDR stock.  “According to the deal, Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon, can exercise the warrant on or before Feb. 4, 2030 at $4.18 per share,” as noted by Reuters.

It’s other catalyst is, of course, lidar technology.

It’s what allows auto computers to take a 3D image of the area around them.  The sensors can then measure the range or speed of objects, bounce lasers off the objects, and be able to calculate its distance to the car.  It’s essentially the eyes and ears of autonomous vehicles, and helps the car avoid hitting people, animals, and other cars.

It could be beneficial for companies, like VLDR.  In addition, according to CFO Drew Hamer:

“As we prepare for large scale volume purchases to satisfy customer demands predicting linearity of shipping orders is uncertain but not indicative of our view of the growing market opportunity. With a robust balance sheet, we are focused on accelerating roadmap improvements in commercial and engineering execution to provide for our customers at the level and consistency of quality we, as the global lidar leader, can deliver.”

“We expect to ship approximately 4,000 sensors in the fourth quarter, for a full year total of over 15,000, which would be up approximately 28% as compared to the full year 2020.”