Aeva Stock: CEO Sells $6.3 Million Before NVIDIA Partnership Revealed

TLDR

• Aeva’s CEO dumped 488,160 shares on January 2 for approximately $6.33 million at $12.96 per share, cutting his holdings by over 21%
• This continues a pattern of executive selling with previous transactions of 250,000 and 39,702 shares in November at higher prices
• Four days after the sale, Aeva announced selection for NVIDIA’s autonomous vehicle platform, sending pre-market shares up 28%
• The NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion partnership validates Aeva’s 4D LiDAR technology with production vehicles expected by 2028
• Stock trades at $13.09 with consensus “Hold” rating and $26.50 average target despite analyst opinions ranging from sell to buy

The head of Aeva Technologies made a multimillion-dollar stock sale just before his company dropped news that would send shares rocketing higher.

Aeva Technologies, Inc., AEVA

CEO Soroush Salehian Dardashti sold 488,160 shares on January 2. The sale brought in $6.33 million at $12.96 per share. His remaining position totals 1,831,199 shares after the transaction sliced his ownership by 21.05%.

Four days later, the stock exploded 28% in pre-market action. The catalyst? A partnership with NVIDIA announced at CES 2026.

The NVIDIA Effect

Aeva revealed its 4D LiDAR sensor technology will be integrated into NVIDIA’s DRIVE Hyperion platform for autonomous vehicles. This marks a critical validation point for the company’s frequency-modulated continuous wave technology.

The deal positions Aeva within NVIDIA’s ecosystem as automakers build self-driving systems. It’s more than a simple supplier arrangement. The integration into a reference platform used by major manufacturers creates potential for widespread adoption.

Target date for production vehicles sits at 2028. While that’s still years away, it gives the market a concrete milestone to track.

Aeva currently loses money on every dollar of revenue. The most recent quarter showed a $0.46 per share loss on revenue of only $3.58 million. Net margins run deep in the red at -1,031.15%. Return on equity clocks in at -603.21%.

A Pattern Emerges

January’s sale wasn’t the CEO’s first exit. Dardashti sold 250,000 shares on November 10 for $3.36 million at $13.45 each. Before that, he unloaded 39,702 shares on November 5 at $13.64, pocketing $541,535.

The three sales combined total nearly 778,000 shares and over $10.2 million. All three happened while shares traded in a relatively narrow band compared to the stock’s volatile history.

Aeva has traded as low as $2.52 and as high as $38.80 over the past year. Current pricing around $13.09 represents a middle ground but sits far below analyst targets averaging $26.50.

The company carries a market cap near $786 million. With a beta of 2.08, the stock moves roughly twice as aggressively as the overall market. Recent volume spiked to 2.87 million shares on January 5, crushing the typical 1.4 million share average.

Moving averages tell a downward story. The 50-day sits at $13.07 while the 200-day rests at $17.28. That spread shows recent weakness relative to the longer trend.

Wall Street Stays Split

Analyst opinions scatter across the spectrum. Three firms maintain buy ratings while one holds and another rates it a sell. The resulting consensus lands at “Hold” with that $26.50 average price target.

Canaccord Genuity Group kept its buy rating and $24 target in early December. Wall Street Zen downgraded from hold to sell in November. Weiss Ratings stuck with a sell rating in late December.

Projections call for losses of $2.70 per share for the full year. The company isn’t expected to turn profitable anytime soon given its early-stage technology development and limited revenue base.

Institutional ownership accounts for 62.92% of outstanding shares. Several funds made moves recently. GAMMA Investing nearly doubled its position in the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS added to its stake in the first quarter by 4.8%.

The technology Aeva develops measures both velocity and distance simultaneously using FMCW LiDAR. Traditional time-of-flight systems can’t capture velocity directly. This differentiates Aeva’s approach in theory, though commercial success remains unproven.

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Mountain View, California, the company went through a name change from Aeon Imaging to Aeva Technologies in 2019. The founders include Soroush Salehian and Mina Rezk.

Applications span automotive, industrial and robotics sectors. The automotive opportunity represents the largest addressable market as self-driving technology advances toward commercial deployment.

The NVIDIA selection moves Aeva from development toward potential manufacturing scale. Reference platform status means automakers evaluating NVIDIA’s autonomous systems will see Aeva’s LiDAR as an integrated option. The 2028 timeline provides a target for revenue ramp expectations.