What happened
ChargePoint Holdings (CHPT +1.30%) wasn't the most electric stock on the exchange Friday. Its price dipped by nearly 4% on the day, in contrast to the nearly 1% improvement of the S&P 500 index. The latest development in the charging station company's C-suite was the main reason for the decline.
So what
In a regulatory filing, ChargePoint revealed that its chief technology officer, Eric Sidle, had served notice that he is to vacate his position. The departure will be effective Jan. 31 of next year. The company said that it would disclose the terms of his departure in a subsequent filing.
It did not provide the reasons for Sidle's move, nor did it say anything about a possible successor for the position.
Additionally, ChargePoint said that it has named a new COO, effective immediately. This is to be Rick Wilmer, who's moving over from his job as chief customer and operations officer. Wilmer has been at the company for only a short time, having joined it this past July. According to his LinkedIn page, he was previously something called "head of chowbotics" at food delivery incumbent DoorDash.
NYSE: CHPT
Key Data Points
Now what
ChargePoint is a relatively young company in the rapidly developing electric vehicle (EV) services space. Therefore, some degree of top managerial turnover is expected, but even so it's always concerning when a company's C-suite level executive departs. Compounding that, the CTO fills a critical role at engineering-heavy businesses, plus ChargePoint was mum on the succession plan.
Meanwhile, even after its recent share price decline, the company is very richly priced on its valuations. Given that, it's going to need to produce some good and encouraging news to bring the bulls back to its stock.
