C-Suite Pay Cuts Slam Virgin Galactic Stock

Virgin Galactic's CEO will take a 20% pay cut, while the executive team's wages will be reduced by 15%

Buzzy space-exploration stock Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE) is getting hit today after MarketWatch reported that its CEO Shai Weiss will take a 20% pay cut. Meanwhile, the rest of the executive team's wages will be reduced by 15%, in order to field some of the $113 billion in losses the global aviation industry is expected to suffer, per the Air Transport Association (IATA). In pre-market trading, SPCE is down 4.5% at $22.70, set to clock its third straight loss.

Since its impressive climb towards its record peak at $42.49 in late-February, SPCE has been on its way back down earth, suffering a 27.3% drop last week, exacerbated by a Feb. 27 bear gap. The good news is it appears that the shares' ascending 40-day moving average has just emerged as a floor. For the year, Virgin Galactic is still up nearly 106%.

Of the two analysts in coverage, both consider SPCE a "buy" or better. Plus, the consensus 12-month target price of $31.67 holds a solid 39.2% premium to current levels.

Short sellers, on the other hand, have been piling on the aerospace name. In the past two reporting periods short interest increased by 49.5%. Now, the 19.27 million shares sold short represents a massive 35.9% of the stock's available float, or 1.3 trading sessions at its average daily pace.