Pop Mart shares dropped the most in over six weeks amid renewed concern that the Chinese toymaker’s US sales growth momentum is slowing.
The Hong Kong-listed stock slumped as much as 9% on Monday, taking its decline from an August high to about 40%. Market watchers pointed to worries that its sales during the Black Friday promotions in the US might have fallen short of expectations.
“Potential weak US sales could dampen market’s confidence on Pop Mart’s growth,” said Jeff Zhang, an analyst at Morningstar. Overseas sales momentum is closely tracked by Pop Mart investors after the company reported over 1,200% growth for America sales in the September quarter.
The Labubu maker’s stock has been on a roller-coaster ride in recent months, as concern mounted that it lacks product diversity and new revenue drivers. Traders have continued to ramp up bearish bets, pushing short interest on the stock to 6.3% of total free float as of Thursday, according to S&P Global data. That’s the highest since August 2023.
The share price weakness is “most likely driven by falling North America offline sales trends throughout November,” said Melinda Hu, an analyst for Asia consumer stocks at Bernstein in Hong Kong. Hu estimates the company’s America sales growth to have slowed to below 500% so far this quarter.
