What's Going On With Virgin Galactic Stock Thursday?

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc SPCE shares are trading lower Thursday after the company announced a reverse stock split.

What Happened: After the market close on Wednesday, Virgin Galactic announced that its board approved a 1-for-20 reverse stock split, effective after the market close on June 14.

As a result of the split, every 20 shares of the company’s common stock will be automatically reclassified into one new share. Virgin Galactic’s common stock is expected to begin trading on a split-adjusted basis on June 17.

The company said its primary goal in introducing the split is to increase its common stock’s price per share to meet the minimum bid price requirement for continued listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

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How To Buy SPCE Stock

By now you're likely curious about how to participate in the market for Virgin Galactic – be it to purchase shares, or even attempt to bet against the company.

Buying shares is typically done through a brokerage account. You can find a list of possible trading platforms here. Many will allow you to buy ‘fractional shares,' which allows you to own portions of stock without buying an entire share. In the case of Virgin Galactic, which is trading at $0.85 as of publishing time, $100 would buy you 117.65 shares of stock.

If you're looking to bet against a company, the process is more complex. You'll need access to an options trading platform, or a broker who will allow you to ‘go short' a share of stock by lending you the shares to sell. The process of shorting a stock can be found at this resource. Otherwise, if your broker allows you to trade options, you can either buy a put option, or sell a call option at a strike price above where shares are currently trading – either way it allows you to profit off of the share price decline.

SPCE Price Action: Virgin Galactic shares were down 12.6% at 75 cents at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: courtesy of Virgin Galactic.