Heavy trading activity ahead of the ex-dividend date drove STRC to its most active session on record.
Disclosure: The author of this story holds shares in Strategy (MSTR).
Stretch (STRC), the perpetual preferred stock issued by Strategy (MSTR)—the largest publicly traded corporate holder of bitcoin (BTC)—generated $1.53 billion in trading volume on Thursday, marking an all-time high.
Data from BitcoinQuant indicates that the surge in activity helped finance the acquisition of approximately 11,707 bitcoin through the company’s at-the-market (ATM) program, which enables Strategy to issue and sell new shares to raise capital for additional BTC purchases.
The majority of STRC shares traded at or above their $100 par value during the session. Thursday’s volume exceeded four times the stock’s 30-day average daily turnover of roughly $331 million. The preferred shares currently offer an annual dividend yield of 11.5%, distributed monthly in cash.
Dividend-paying securities typically see elevated trading volumes ahead of the ex-dividend date—the cutoff after which new investors are no longer eligible to receive the upcoming payout.
With Friday marking STRC’s ex-dividend date, the shares slipped to $99.12 in pre-market trading, down nearly 1%. The move aligns with a common pattern in dividend stocks, which often decline by approximately the dividend amount once they begin trading ex-dividend.
Meanwhile, bitcoin edged lower to $80,500, weighing on Strategy’s common stock (MSTR), which fell 2% in pre-market trading.
