DryShips' board of directors approved its fourth reverse stock split over the last 12 months as the George Economou-backed company tries again to keep its share price above the minimum level required for a publicly held company.
The company carried out a one-for-eight reverse split of it common shares. The split was authorised during the last shareholder meeting in October and will be effective as of the beginning of trading on 23 January.
DryShips last financial statement reported 752,226 common and diluted shares outstanding as of the end of the third quarter 2016. But the conversion of preferred shares and warrants that were issued subsequent to the third quarter swelled the common share count back up to 33.8 million.
At the start of last year, DryShips had 672 million shares outstanding. But a series of reverse splits whittled that float down to about 1 million.
DryShips' shares are currently trading at just over $1. Nasdag Capital Markets rules require companies to have a share price above $1.
