Ocado Group PLC (LSE:OCDO) fell on Wednesday as analysts batted off speculation of the firm rehousing its stock market listing from London to New York.
Pointing to speculation last year that Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) was mulling a bid for Ocado, analysts at Shore Capital suggested this was more unsourced talk that “clearly proved to be groundless” previously.
The broker's chief analyst, Clive Black, went as far as suggesting the move was a “stunt from wherever to boost the heavily loss-making British ‘tech’ company’s share price”.
The comments came after reports emerged over the weekend that Ocado had faced pressure from one of its top shareholders to relist in the US.
Such a move would see the UK online grocery firm join several others in fleeing London over concerns of stocks being undervalued.
Amazon's launch of an online grocery delivery subscription service this week was also highlighted by Black, as potential bad news for Ocado.
It remains to be seen if this move is a notable step up in competitive intensity in the US online grocery market, he added, where Amazon is reported by eMarketer to have an 18.5% share behind the 27% of Wal-Mart.
The potential impact for Ocado centres on, he said, how an intensification of online grocery competition impacts US client Kroger’s online grocery economics, where Ocado "is its seemingly somewhat mothballed partner".
A long-time Ocado sceptic, Black added: “Amazon has had every chance to acquire its smaller British competitor to no avail, probably because its economic model just does not work, which US investors will no doubt suss out.”
Ocado shares fell 3.6%.