Virgin Galactic Falls After Filing for Holders to Sell Stock

(Bloomberg) -- Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. fell 3.5% on Friday after filing for shareholders to sell as much as 113 million shares.

The registration includes up to about 105 million outstanding shares of common stock and up to 8 million shares issuable upon the exercise of warrants that were issued in connection with a private placement, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing effectively converts an S-1 statement from May into an S-3 and doesn’t necessarily indicate that a sale has begun, or will occur in the future.

Shares of the Las Cruces, New Mexico-based aerospace company have surged 46% since the end of October and speculators have been betting that the stock will fall. Short interest, a measure of bearish bets on the company, has risen to almost 32% of the shares available for trading, according to data from IHS Markit Ltd.

Last week, Virgin Galactic sank 17% after efforts to take tourists into space suffered a setback when a test flight was scrubbed shortly after takeoff because of a technical snag.

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