New York, Feb 18, 2026, 07:23 ET — Premarket
- Rivian ticked up roughly 0.4% ahead of the bell, following a 7.1% slide in the previous session.
- D.A. Davidson lowered its rating to underperform and also reduced its price target to $14
- Big 2026 delivery targets are on the table, but investors are eyeing execution risk for the lower-priced R2.
Rivian Automotive edged higher by 0.4% to $16.53 before the bell Wednesday, rebounding a bit after D.A. Davidson cut its rating on the EV maker the previous day. 1
Rivian’s stock has swung sharply since last week’s earnings, putting extra weight on this call. The company pointed to 2026 as the start date for a more affordable model to take the lead.
The more affordable R2 sits at the center of Rivian’s push to move beyond its premium truck niche and tap bigger markets. Success could bend the company’s demand trajectory sharply higher. A flop, though, would deplete both cash reserves and investor trust.
Analyst Michael Shlisky at D.A. Davidson dropped Rivian to underperform from neutral and slashed his price target to $14. Shlisky said Rivian is staring down the need for “the best mid-size EV launch since 2021”—and that’s without the benefit of tax credits or a big dealer network. He called out Rivian’s stated R2 ramp as aggressive, stacking it up against Ford’s Mustang Mach-E rollout. 2
Rivian shares lost 7.11% to finish at $16.47 on Tuesday. Other EV makers slipped too—Tesla ended down 1.6%, Lucid fell 3.5%. That’s per a Motley Fool wrap-up posted by Nasdaq. 3
The decline comes on the heels of a major surge late last week. Rivian shares soared over 25% Friday, ending the session at $17.73 after the company reported its latest quarter and confirmed the R2 remains slated for a second-quarter debut. The company also said it will reveal further product information at an event March 12. 4
Rivian now expects to deliver between 62,000 and 67,000 vehicles in 2026, following 42,247 units in 2025, according to its updated forecast. The company also said capital expenditures are set to climb, landing somewhere between $1.95 billion and $2.05 billion, as it gets the R2 ready and boosts investment in its own driver-assistance systems. “The growth is really… what we see in R2,” CEO RJ Scaringe told Reuters. Scaringe added that Rivian plans to be “opportunistic” about raising additional funds, as cash outflows continue, even with a $2 billion injection anticipated this year through the Volkswagen tech JV. 5
But some analysts aren’t shying away. Stifel bumped its price target up to $20, sticking with a buy rating as margins improve and citing “pre-production reviews” for the R2. The firm also describes the coming year as a crucial stretch to gauge R2 volumes and how margins play out. 6
Pre-market action tends to be light, making price swings look bigger than they might later. Rivian’s early rise still needs confirmation as typical trading picks up at 9:30 a.m. ET.
The risk here is clear enough. If R2 demand stumbles in a cooling EV market, thinner incentives won’t help; any snag on the production side just means stretching out losses further before Rivian sees a return.
