Airbnb Stock Drops on Short Report

Shares of Airbnb (ABNB:US) closed almost 5% lower on Thursday after short-seller Bear Cave detailed issues with the company.

Accordingly, Airbnb is reportedly facing stronger competition, including from professionally managed properties that are active on its platform.

"Airbnb's top professional hosts are building out their own booking platforms and offering cheaper deals to cut out Airbnb, growing their own email lists and distribution, and offering loyalty discounts to book off of Airbnb," said Edwin Dorsey, publisher of The Bear Cave newsletter.

"In short, Airbnb's future will look a lot different than its past as the company will now need to compete against its best and largest hosts.”

Shares managed to regain some of the lost footings after Bernstein analyst Richard Clarke weighed in to defend the company.

"Airbnb.. sits in a much more favorable supply market, and looks much more like Amazon: everything on Amazon is pretty much purchasable another way, but that does not make it a less valuable platform," he said in a note.

Airbnb stock is still down over 10% over the last 5 days, however, shares trade 28.3% higher year-to-date. 

Congressman Daniel Goldman bought some shares on January 31 when they closed at $111.11. Similarly, Rep. Jim Langevin invested $15,000 - $50,000 in early November when the ABNB stock was trading below $100 a share.

On the other hand, Rep. Ro Khanna reported the sale of Airbnb shares in December and therefore missed out on a subsequent rally. 

Airbnb stock closed at $109.69 on Thursday.