Under Armour is down 48%, but not really

Under Armour shares were down nearly 50% in early trading on Friday.

But there's a catch.

Its shares have essentially been split after the company issued extra 'Class C' stock to all existing shareholders that held its Class A and Class B shares. It announced this on March 16.

In a normal stock split, say a two-for-one, a company would decide to give shareholders one extra share for each one they already own. This effectively doubles the number of shares owned and halves the price of each.

With Under Armor, the company issued the Class C shares through a dividend on a one-for-one basis to all existing shareholders of common stock.

And right now, this is having the same effect as a two-for-one split.

This split is what has 'halved' the price of Class A shares, which have the familiar "UA" ticker.

Meanwhile, the new Class C shares, with the ticker "UA.C", were up 1.8% in early trading to $42.58.

So that's all there is to this.

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