All WWE Employees Banned From Trading Company Stock

WWE stock prices have been on a wild ride since Vince McMahon announced his retirement last Friday, and in accordance with their corporate policy, no WWE employees have been able to trade on that stock since the bombshell announcement.

According to Wrestlenomics, all WWE employees were notified on Friday evening that they were not allowed to buy or sell any of the company's stock. The message was sent by WWE Senior Vice President and General Counsel James Langham.

"Please be advised that, in light of recent developments, the Company's trading window has closed effective immediately for all employees," the notice begins, going on to detail the prohibition of "any purchases or sales of Company securities." The notice also mentions that WWE employees are not to speak with anyone about the notification.

Langham's message is in line with WWE's insider trading policy, which explicitly prohibits anyone "aware of material non-public information," and also that "event-specific blackouts" of stock trading are not to be announced to anyone except those in need of notification. This is a standard policy for numerous publicly traded companies.

The "recent events" are in reference to McMahon announcing his retirement from all duties, creative and corporate, amidst a board of directors investigation into a series of hush money payments that McMahon made to former female employees over the years, alleging harassment, misconduct, and abuse at the hands of the former CEO and chairman. WWE recently announced that the payments should've been recorded as company expenses, and now federal investigators, as well as the Securities & Exchange Commission, are investigating the payments.

McMahon recently turned over roughly $2 million in stock earlier this week, and according to the SEC filing, did not receive a penny for the transfer. WWE stock closed today trading at $69.49 per share.