It appears two broadcasters no longer have to worry about delisting of their stock. Gray Television and Entravision saw their stock prices move back above $1 in recent weeks and they’ve now been notified by the NYSE that they are back in compliance with the minimum share price listing requirement.
Both companies said Thursday, October 1st, that they’d received formal notice from the NYSE that their stock price had closed above $1 on September 30th and that the average closing price had exceeded $1 for the 30-day trading period leading up to the last day of September. That meant that they had met the standard for compliance with the NYSE’s minimum share price continued listing requirement.
Entravision traded as low as 12 cents over the past 52 weeks, with a closing low of 15 cents on March 17 & 18, 2008. More recently, the last close below $1 was on August 13, 2009 and the stock has closed as high as $1.91 in recent weeks.
Gray’s common stock fell as low as 16 cents in the past 52 weeks of trading and posted its closing low of 18 cents on November 20, 2008. It’s last close below $1 was on September 3, 2009 and it has closed as high as $2.96 in recent weeks.
RBR-TVBR observation: Some broadcast stocks remain well below the one buck mark, but at least a couple are within range of being able to get back in compliance.
The Nasdaq stock exchange also has a $1 minimum, although it had been suspended for a few months due to the severe recession. Nasdaq reinstated its rule on August 3rd and the clock began ticking toward a March 15 deadline for listed stocks not in compliance.
Emmis and Radio One are now closing on that $1 target (10 consecuritve days for Nasdaq’s rule) and it looks like they should get there with plenty of time to spare. Sirius XM shareholders have already authorized a reverse split if that becomes necessary to keep the stock listed, but it’s not something that CEO Mel Karmazin wants to do. He may not have to. Sirius XM isn’t yet as close as those other two we mentioned, but it has come a long way from its 52-week low of five cents and could well be back above $1 by the Nasdaq deadline.
