Symbotic tumbles on $550 mln stock offering as SoftBank slices stake

** Shares of robotics vendor Symbotic SYM down 5% before the bell at $57.45 after $550 mln follow-on priced

** Wilmington, Massachusetts-based SYM late Thurs announced 10 mln shares at $55, a 9.1% discount to last sale

** Co sold 6.5 mln shares and SoftBank 9984 affiliate SVF Sponsor III offloaded 3.5 mln shares

** SYM shares tumbled 17.4% to $60.48 on Thurs after co commenced the offering late Weds

** SYM to use net offering proceeds it receives for general purposes

** Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are lead bookrunners

** Prior to offering, Japan's SoftBank and its affiliates owned roughly 49 mln of SYM's approx 594 mln total shares outstanding, per the SEC filing

** SYM went public in 2022 after the Walmart WMT-backed firm merged with the SoftBank-sponsored SPAC, SVF Sponsor III

** On Nov 25, SYM shares soared 39% to close at $77.29, the day after co reported Q4 rev grew ~7% yr/yr to $618.5 mln, topping Wall Street consensus

** Through Thurs close, SYM shares up 155% YTD

** Avg rating among 20 analysts is "hold" and median PT is $60.50, per LSEG