Things are not looking great for Virgin Galactic(NYSE: SPCE).
Since confirming its decision to run a 1-for-20 reverse share split last week (shrinking its share count by 20x and artificially pumping up its share price by 20x), the space tourism company's share price at first seemed to leap the expected 20 times to $14.80 -- but then it resumed falling.
Through 10:35 a.m. ET Tuesday, Virgin Galactic stock is down an unlucky 13% from Monday's close, bringing total losses since the split was announced to a staggering 31% in just three trading days.
Handing out shares like monopoly money
Virgin Galactic is a stock in dire straits. Having just retired its only operational spaceplane, Unity, the company faces two long years (in the best-case scenario) without anything to fly while it tries to get a new Delta class of spaceplane built and certified. There's no guarantee this will happen before Virgin Galactic runs out of cash, however, and employees may not want to stick around to see how this plays out.
Virgin's solution: hand out stock grants to incentivize folks to stick around.
Last night, the company announced (as required by NYSE Listing Rule 303A.08) that it awarded 1,741 Virgin Galactic "restricted stock units" (RSUs) to an unnamed "new non-executive employee." These free shares don't entirely vest for four years, incentivizing the employee not to quit before then.
Exactly how desperate is Virgin Galactic?
Curious to learn how unusual this move was, I searched Virgin Galactic's news archives. Turns out, Virgin Galactic has awarded RSUs to new hires five times in the past three months (and twice more in the past year).
The amount of these grants isn't concerning. Accounting for the reverse split, Virgin's RSU awards this year total only 6,460 shares, worth less than $66,000 at current prices. What is concerning is that Virgin Galactic feels the need to make these awards all of a sudden -- suggesting nervousness is growing among its employees and that folks within Virgin are already starting to jump ship.
Investors might want to follow suit.
Should you invest $1,000 in Virgin Galactic right now?
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Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
