Text size

World Wrestling Entertainment stock has been flying high, and the company’s top executive just made a huge stock sale.

WWE stock (ticker: WWE) more than doubled in 2018 on the strength of new media deals, and the shares haven’t slowed in 2019. The stockis up another 17% so far this year through Monday’s close at $87.20.

Vincent McMahon, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of WWE, converted 3.2 million class B supervoting shares into an equal number of class A shares on March 27 and sold them for $261 million, or $81.45 each, in a block sale. The disclosure was made in a form McMahon filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

WWE noted in a separate SEC filing that McMahon sold the shares “primarily to fund a separate entity from the Company, Alpha Entertainment LLC,” which is launching a professional football league under the name “XFL” in early 2020. WWE said McMahon has no current plan to sell more stock, and that he intends to continue as chairman and CEO for the foreseeable future.

Editor's Choice

Each class B share entitles the holder to 10 votes, while each class A share entitles the holder to one vote. McMahon now has overall ownership of 28.7 million class B shares and 81,492 class A shares, representing about 80.1% of WWE’s total voting power.

WWE didn’t respond to a request to make McMahon available to comment further on the stock sale.

Supervoting shares are only meant for McMahon and his family. Class B shares of WWE that aren’t owned by him, his wife Linda McMahon, or their descendants automatically convert into class A shares. Linda McMahon is the head of the Small Business Administration, but will step down soon. The Wall Street Journal has reported that she will become chairwoman of America First Action, a super PAC that supports President Donald Trump.

WWE stock is a constituent of the Barron’s Next 50 index.

Write to Ed Lin at edward.lin@barrons.com and follow @BarronsEdLin.