WWE stock rises following Vince McMahon retirement

Wall Street reacted to Vince McMahon’s retirement as WWE stock rose by more than eight percent on Monday.

WWE stock ended Monday at $71.81 per share, up 8.44 percent from what it closed at last Friday. The announcement of McMahon’s retirement was made on Friday after the stock market closed.

This is the highest point that WWE’s stock has been at since 2019.

WWE’s market capitalization (the value of all the company’s stock) is currently $5.34 billion.

The stock’s rise on Monday was driven by the belief that WWE is more likely to be sold following McMahon’s retirement. McMahon remains WWE’s majority shareholder after retiring from the company.

“This is a challenging environment with the equities of most of the logical buyers depressed, but there is demand for live event programming, and it is the first time that one could realistically think that WWE could be for sale,” media analyst Alan Gould of Loop Capital told Deadline. Gould listed Comcast, Disney, Amazon, Netflix, and Fox as potential buyers.

It was announced on Monday that Paul “Triple H” Levesque is WWE’s new head of creative. Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan are WWE’s new co-CEOs, and Stephanie is now WWE’s chairwoman.

WWE also announced in a regulatory statement on Monday that, due to “certain unrecorded expenses” by McMahon dating back to 2006, the company will be restating several financial statements from 2019, 2020, 2021, and the first quarter of 2022. The expenses total $14.6 million and will be paid back by McMahon.