Sears stock hit an all-time low on Friday, with shares trading for under $1. With such a low price per share, it’s possible Sears could be delisted from Nasdaq.
The Nasdaq exchange requires a $1 bid price requirement on shares and will notify a company trading below that threshold for more than 30 consecutive days. At that point, Nasdaq may offer a 180-day probationary compliance period, with a second 180-day period probation sometimes allowed for stocks to move back into a compliant price range.
If this news seems upsetting to shareholders, it may not come as totally unexpected. Sears has weathered several years of volatility as the company has worked to stave off bankruptcy filings and closed retail locations nationwide. Just over a decade ago, Sears shares hit an all-time high in April 2007, just two years after CEO Eddie Lampert engineered a merger between Sears and then-bankrupt Kmart.
Lampert, the chief executive as well as the chairman of the board of directors of Sears, proposed a restructuring plan on Monday that would continue to stave off the need to file bankruptcy. Lampert also runs the hedge fund ESL Investments, which holds a controlling interest in Sears. According to Lampert’s plan, Sears could sell off $1.75 billion in assets (including $1.5 billion in real estate) to reduce the company’s debt to $1.24 billion. Sears faces a $134 million payment due on October 15.
Sears has been closing hundreds of brick-and-mortar Sears and Kmart stores over the past year in an effort to stay afloat. In early September, Lampert also explained another expense causing Sears to flounder: retiree pensions.
