Shares of Root Inc. ROOT rocketed 37.4% toward a 10-month high in premarket trading Thursday, a day after soaring 59.8%, in the wake of a report in The Wall Street Journal that a potential buyer has emerged for the car-insurance company. Citing people familiar with the matter, the WSJ report, which published just before Wednesday’s closing bell, said Embedded Insurance has bid to buy Root for $19.34 a share, which represents a 221.3% premium to Tuesday’s closing price of $6.02. The bid implies a market capitalization of about $276.6 million, which compares with a market value of about $6.84 billion on the day Root went public on Oct. 28, 2020, according to FactSet data. Shares of Carvana Co. CVNA, which owns 8.5% of Root’s outstanding common stock, slipped 0.7% in Thursday’s premarket after rallying 2.8% on Wednesday. Root’s stock has more than doubled over the past three months through Wednesday (up 134.1%), while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 10.9%.
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