Another radio broadcaster has received a letter from officials at NASDAQ warning it could be kicked off the stock exchange if its stock price continues to trade below a key threshold.
The letter was sent this week to executives at Beasley Media Group, the operator of more than five dozen AM and FM radio stations across the country. The company’s stock price has traded below $1 per share since early September; NASDAQ requires a company to maintain a steady per-share price of at least $1 in order to be listed on their exchange.
Officials at NASDAQ are giving Beasley a considerable amount of time to remedy the situation. The company has been told to raise its stock price above $1 per share for at least 10 consecutive days by April 2024, or it faces delisting.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commisison, executives at Beasley say they will continue to “actively monitor the closing bid price of its Common Stock and will consider all reasonable available options to regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Requirement, which may include transferring the listing to the Nasdaq Capital Market and/or seeking stockholder approval to effect a reverse stock split.”
A reverse stock split is what rival broadcaster Audacy did over the summer as it sought to gain NASDAQ compliance over the same issue. Audacy was removed from the NASDAQ in May after its stock price fell below $1 for more than a year.
Audacy’s reverse stock split saw the company convert 30 shares of common stock into one. The scheme boosted Audacy’s stock price to well over $2, but it has continued falling ever since, and was recently trading for around 35 cents per share.
In May, broadcaster Urban One received a similar letter from NASDAQ, but for a different form of non-compliance: The radio broadcaster had apparently failed to file timely quarterly and annual financial disclosure reports, as the exchange requires.
“This notification has no immediate effect on the listing of the company’s common stock on the NASDAQ,” a spokesperson for Urban One said in a statement at the time. “However, if the company fails to timely regain compliance with the rule, the company’s common stock will be subject to delisting from NASDAQ.”
Earlier this month, NASDAQ said it was moving forward with the delisting process, prompting executives at Urban One to request a hearing. The hearing process triggered an automatic stay of the delisting through October 20.
