Citadel PHUN ownership increased over 80%... Right before a pump and dump

In August 2021, the Citadel PHUN (Phunware Inc) holdings increased by 81.95% according to officially reported data by Fintel.

Kenny did it again. Just a couple of months ago he took a massive position in something he could well have had some insider knowledge of, and then dumped it during a massive pump on news, screwing over retail investors in the process. It's a good thing he's in court today telling the judge that Citadel does loads of good things for retail investors.

The Citadel PHUN ownership is, as of August, a total of 46,209 shares, up from 25,397 at the end of May.

2021-08-16 - Citadel Advisors Llc has filed a 13F-HR form disclosing ownership of 46,209 shares of Phunware Inc (US:PHUN) with total holdings valued at $64,000 USD as of 2021-06-30. Citadel Advisors Llc had filed a previous 13F-HR/A on 2021-05-21 disclosing 25,397 shares of Phunware Inc at a value of $42,000 USD. This represents a change in shares of 81.95 percent and a change in value of 52.38 percent during the quarter.

Source: Fintel [https://fintel.io/so/us/phun/citadel-advisors-llc]

So, who cares, you might be thinking.

Well, that would be just fine, but it absolutely smells like a mayo-sandwich that's been left on the backseat for a couple of months. On October 22, as a hour long halt was called on the stock as it ran up like a crazy thing on steroids, suddenly it got dumped, from $24 down to $8 within the space of a matter of minutes.

PHUN Runs: then dumps its load

By 12:00EST on Friday 22nd October, DWAC (Digital World Acquisition Corp) paused trading 13 times on the news that it intended to merge with Donald Trump’s planned social media startup, Truth Social, and take it public.

That massive interest in the Trump SPAC also created a flurry of trades of a penny stock with ties to the Trump reelection campaign, Phunware.

The day of the announcement, nearly 106M PHUN exchanged hands, up from little more than 3 million the day prior. Phunware’s market cap, which was valued at $116 million at market close on Thursday, soared to $1.5 billion at one point on Friday, when shares peaked at $19.39 per share. They have since fallen to around $10 by early afternoon.

Again, it's worth pointing out Kenny has been very active in donating huge sums of money to politicians recently, and suddenly he sees a bloody massive gain in his PHUN holdings, and this does beg the question what does he know, and when does he know it?

AMC_Apee on Twitter said what many of us were thinking:

How does Citadel PHUN holdings stack up against other institutions?

Kenny's leading crimegang Citadel Advisors LLC ownership of the mobile cloudware tech is the 6th biggest increase by institutions, but Citadel PHUN holdings are still dwarfed by the massive position taken by Vanguard Group, which holds over 2.3M shares, currently valued at over $20M. Institutions currently control just under 7.5% of the companies outstanding shares, a total of 76 Million.

Institutional ownership of PHUN

PHUN institutional investors ranked by % increase (largest from top). Source: NASDAQ

What is PHUN (Phunware)?

Phunware is mobile software that exhibits gamelike mechanics and behavior so brands can contextually engage customers and drive digital transformation. Focused predominantly on Fortune 5000 brands, with customers including Cisco, GOTV, Phusion and Pocketshare to name but a few.

Phunware says it is tech-enabling experiences so brands can get the right content to the right customer at the right time in the right place.

Once again, Kenny does seem to be in the right place at the right time to make a massive stack of cash on some really dodgy looking trading activity.