Owners of a significant portion of Virgin Galactic Holdings (SPCE 22.38%) have filed to offer as much as 113 million shares for sale, potentially increasing the supply of the stock on the open markets.
Virgin Galactic registered up to 105 million outstanding shares and 8 million shares issuable upon the exercise of warrants. The filing does not indicate that the shares are being sold, or that the holders will sell them in the future, but it allows for that to happen.
As of Nov. 5, 2020, Virgin Galactic had 234,342,464 shares of its common stock issued and outstanding.
Image source: Virgin Galactic.
The selling stockholders include Richard Branson's Virgin Investments Ltd., Boeing's (BA -0.76%) venture capital unit, and chairman Chamath Palihapitiya. Earlier this week, Palihapitiya Tweeted that he was selling about 3.8 million shares from his holdings, explaining that he was selling "to help manage my liquidity as I fund several new projects starting in 2021" and that he remains "committed and excited" about the future of the company.
Palihapitiya owns 33.75 million Virgin Galactic shares, according to the filing.
Virgin Galactic shares have been volatile since the company went public late last year. The company's plans to begin space tourism flights in 2020 were derailed by the pandemic, and a test flight failed to live up to expectations earlier this month.
Nevertheless, the company believes it is still on track to begin commercial service in 2021, which would bring in much-needed revenue from tourism flights as well as from a deal with NASA to fly experiments into space.
