Every investor looks at the market and wonders what to buy. That’s normal. It’s tempting to look to the experts for inspiration, and that’s also normal. And few experts have more to offer retail investors than the market’s legendary investors. These are ones who have built themselves up, sometimes from humble beginnings, to control tens of billions in assets, to dominate the hedge markets.
Meet Samuel – Your Personal Investing Prophet
Explore ARCX for 2X leverage on ACHRDmitry Balyasny typifies this breed. Originally from the Soviet Union, his family brought him to the US when he was 7. He started his career in financial trading in 1994, and in 2001 he founded his fund, Balyasny Asset Management, BAM. Today, Balyasny’s fund boasts some $32 billion in total AUM, and over 2,000 professionals working out of 20-plus global offices.
In a recent interview, Balyasny made an interesting observation: that people are the most difficult issue to navigate in the financial trading business. As for market issues, he had a simple solution for difficulties: “You could just exit a position,” he said.
So, let’s take a look at two of Balyasny’s positions, one that he’s exited and one that he’s opened. These are both companies focused on electric VTOL aircraft – a hot topic that aims to bring flying taxis to life. Balyasny’s positions involve Archer Aviation (NYSE:ACHR) and Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY), two companies at the leading edge of this industry – and his actions may bring some light to bear on which stock is the better buy.
Archer Aviation
Archer Aviation, the first flying taxi stock we’ll look at here, was founded in 2018, and aims to develop an all-electric, short-hop air taxi for urban commuter routes – it describes the ‘target route’ as one which will take an hour or more by surface transport but can be reduced to a 10-minute hop or less by air. The trip from downtown Manhattan to Newark Airport is used by the company as an example.
Archer’s prototype aircraft is dubbed ‘Midnight,’ and it features a battery-powered multi-rotor design to carry a pilot and four passengers, plus luggage, on a 20- to 50-mile route at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour. The Midnight uses 12 rotors mounted on the wing; the forward rotors can tilt between level and vertical modes for take-off and landing operations. The use of multiple rotors is a redundancy-based safety feature.
The company is currently advancing its Midnight aircraft through FAA regulatory processes for certification, with the aim of getting it cleared for commercial service. In the meantime, Archer is also making arrangements to start services in various cities around the country. Two recent examples: in December, Archer announced its plans for an air taxi network in Metropolitan Miami, to link the cities of Miami, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and Fort Lauderdale, and to connect the major international air travel hubs of Miami International Airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and Palm Beach International Airport. This announcement was followed two weeks later by an announcement that Archer will be launching air taxi trials in California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and New York under the White House’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), a joint program of the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
We should also note that during 3Q25, Archer had sufficient resources to purchase LA’s Hawthorne Airport for $126 million in cash and finished the quarter with over $1.6 billion in cash and liquid assets on hand.
When we turn to Dimitry Balyasny, we find that the hedge fund legend bought big into Archer recently. During 3Q25, he opened a position in this air taxi company, buying 1,276,177 shares; at current prices, this position is worth almost $9.2 million.
Needham analyst Chris Pierce covers Archer and is impressed by the company’s sound position, realistic plans to expand, and its means to execute those plans. He writes of Archer, “With substantial balance sheet liquidity, ACHR retains flexibility to fund internal commercialization initiatives, advance its Georgia manufacturing ramp, and pursue targeted tuck ins across IP and composites, including defense adjacent opportunities. While OEM remains the core value driver vs peers levered to longer dated air taxi network operations, we view ACHR’s forward leaning posture (spanning defense, civil, public normalization efforts, and disciplined certification) as increasingly differentiated. Net, while timelines remain long and patience is required, the setup continues to favor companies with capital and regulatory credibility, and ACHR continues to check those boxes.”
Pierce rates ACHR as a Buy, with a $10 price target that implies a one-year upside potential of 39%. (To watch Pierce’s track record, click here.)
Overall, Archer’s Moderate Buy consensus rating is based on 3 recent analyst reviews that include 2 Buys and 1 Hold. The stock is priced at $7.19, and its $11.50 average target price points to a 60% gain over the coming year. (See ACHR stock forecast.)
Joby Aviation (JOBY)
Next on our list is Joby Aviation. This company, based in Santa Cruz, California, started operations in 2009. It was the first company in the eVTOL field that earned the airworthiness approval rating from the US Air Force, an important regulatory milestone. The company, like Archer above, is working on development of a four-passenger-plus-pilot air taxi, based on electric power, multiple rotors, redundant safety, and adequate luggage capacity. The aircraft builder is currently putting the design and prototypes through the FAA’s multi-year certification testing process to receive commercial operation approval.
Joby has a wide footprint, with offices in Washington DC and Munich, Germany, as well as a manufacturing facility in Marina, California. In January of this year, Joby announced that it had acquired a 700,000-square-foot factory in Dayton, Ohio, and will use the facility to increase its aircraft production to 4 planes per month next year. Also in January, Joby announced that it has the first of two advanced flight simulators, prepared by CAE, complete and ready for installation. The installation will be at the company’s Marina facility, which houses its pilot training program.
Joby’s full-scale aircraft was developed to meet a set of rigorous parameters: a 6-minute flight from Manhattan’s heliport to JFK Airport, a 200-mile-per-hour speed, and the ability to operate out of existing aviation facilities.
This is the stock that Balyasny has unloaded. In the third quarter last year, the hedge fund billionaire sold off his entire position in JOBY: 501,034 shares. It was a notable transaction, especially in light of his purchase of ACHR.
We’ll see Joby’s 4Q25 earnings today after the close, but for now we can look at the company’s 3Q25 results to see where it stands. In that quarter, Joby reported revenues of more than $22 million; this included revenue derived from its August 2025 acquisition of Blade Air Mobility’s helicopter air travel business. Joby’s EPS, at ($0.48) per share, marked a deeper loss than the ($0.21) reported in the prior-year quarter; it was also 29 cents per share worse than expected. Joby had $978 million in cash and short-term investments on hand at the end of Q3.
Austin Moeller, covering Joby for Canaccord Genuity, writes of the company, “We continue to believe that Joby remains a market leader within the eVTOL sector from a certification, piloted transition flight hours and production perspective. We also now expect the company to be more than sufficiently capitalized to complete production of the six total TIA aircraft for certification testing and completion of TC with the FAA. Our view remains neutral for now as we await greater clarity on the expected cadence and timing of FAA piloted tests, details on the TIA certification process and the official selection of DoT pilot projects for the eIPP.”
Moeller puts a Hold rating on JOBY shares, although he might as well have said Buy, given his $15.50 price target suggests a 59% upside for the next 12 months. (To watch Moeller’s track record, click here.)
The Street’s overall take here offers something of a conundrum. On the one hand, 2 Holds and 1 Sell add up to a Moderate Sell consensus rating
This is in line with the Street’s consensus; the stock has a Hold consensus rating, based on 4 reviews that break down to 3 Holds and 1 Sell. With a $9.52 trading price and a $15.50 average price target, the upside potential matches the Canaccord view at 62%. (See JOBY stock forecast.)
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.