Rivian Automotive, Inc. (RIVN) shares took a hit Thursday following the company's fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings release, as Wall Street tried to make sense of what the results actually mean for the electric vehicle maker's future.

The numbers themselves tell an interesting story. Fourth-quarter revenue came in at $1.29 billion, down from $1.73 billion a year earlier. Gross profit also declined to $120 million from $170 million in the prior-year quarter. Not exactly the kind of momentum that gets investors excited in isolation.

But zoom out to the full year, and things look a bit different. Revenue climbed 8% to $5.39 billion for 2025. More importantly, Rivian posted a full-year gross profit of $144 million—a massive swing from the $1.2 billion gross loss it recorded in 2024. That turnaround came courtesy of better software performance and aggressive cost reductions, which is precisely the kind of progress early-stage EV companies need to demonstrate.

Analysts Can't Agree on What Comes Next

The analyst community responded with all the consensus of a group trying to decide where to go for dinner. Stifel kept its Buy rating and bumped its price target to $20, clearly believers in the Rivian story. UBS upgraded the stock to Neutral with a $16 target, taking a more cautious "wait and see" approach. Then there's DA Davidson, which downgraded Rivian to Underperform and slashed its target to $14.

The stock now carries a Hold consensus rating with an average price target of $17.73, which tells you exactly how divided the street is right now.

Executive Share Sales and Tesla Speculation

Adding another wrinkle to the story, CEO Robert Scaringe and CFO Claire McDonough both sold shares on February 18 under pre-scheduled Rule 10b5-1 trading plans. Scaringe offloaded 34,900 shares for roughly $586,000, while McDonough sold 27,133 shares valued at about $456,000. The sales happened at prices between $16.49 and $17.08.

These were pre-planned trades, not panic selling, but the optics never help when a stock is under pressure.

Meanwhile, investor Ross Gerber threw an interesting idea into the conversation: he argued that Tesla Inc. (TSLA) has damaged its brand and suggested Tesla should consider selling its EV business to Rivian. It's a bold take, to say the least. Gerber has been bullish on Rivian's upcoming R2 crossover, which is expected to start around $45,000 and could be a game-changer for the company's mass-market ambitions.

What the Charts Are Saying

From a technical perspective, Rivian is sending mixed signals. The stock is trading 1.4% above its 20-day simple moving average, which suggests some near-term stability. But it's sitting 11.6% below its 50-day SMA and 3.6% below its 100-day SMA, indicating weakness over the intermediate term. Over the past year, shares have gained 11.13%, though they're currently positioned closer to their 52-week lows than highs.

The Relative Strength Index sits at 50.71, firmly in neutral territory—the stock is neither overbought nor oversold. The MACD tells a slightly more optimistic story, showing a value of -0.4092 versus a signal line at -0.7339, which represents a bullish crossover.

Put it all together, and you've got a stock with stable momentum that could move higher if market conditions turn favorable.

Key Resistance: $18.00

Key Support: $13.50

ETF Exposure Worth Watching

Rivian carries substantial weight in several exchange-traded funds, which means institutional flows can drive automatic buying or selling pressure:

• First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Green Energy Index Fund (NASDAQ:QCLN): 8.90% weight
• iShares Morningstar Small-Cap Value ETF (NYSE:ISCV): 0.55% weight
• Invesco Global Clean Energy ETF (NYSE:PBD): 1.13% weight

That 8.90% position in QCLN is particularly significant—any major moves in that fund will ripple directly into Rivian's stock price.

Price Action: Rivian Automotive shares were down 6.53% at $15.09 at the time of publication Thursday.