Richard Branson Sells $300 Million Stake in Virgin Galactic

The company's stock has been bleeding value all week.

The company’s stock has been bleeding value all week.

Following their first successful manned spaceflight last month, Richard Branson’s commercial spaceflight company Virgin Galactic has been in a state of stasis as they begin a multi-month maintenance check on their vessels. Due to this check, no future Virgin Galactic flights are currently scheduled, which is sitting rather poorly with the investors who were swept up by the success of the first flight.

Over the course of this week, Wall Street analysts downgraded the value of Virgin Galactic’s stock as interest began to cool. In a sudden need for money, Branson sold off 10.4 million of his personal shares in the company at prices ranging from $25.75 to $34.39 a share. In total, Branson has sold off roughly $300 million in Virgin Galactic shares.

“The Virgin Group continues to be the largest single shareholder in Virgin Galactic,” Branson’s parent company said in a statement. It added that it “intends to use the net proceeds from this sale to support its portfolio of global leisure, holiday and travel businesses that continue to be affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to supporting the development and growth of new and existing businesses.”

As of writing, the value of Virgin Galactic shares is down by 2.74%.

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