Of the media companies that have seen the most excitement on Wall Street across 2020, Urban One is perhaps tops when it comes to radio and television industry assets combined with a growing casino gaming operation.
It’s stock burst upward one year ago, fueled by new commitments from advertisers to Black-owned media. Earlier this month a second burst in share value came. Both times, shares receded following those big gains.
Now, SEC disclosures show that a former Urban One board member and two current members have obtained a chunk of Class D shares in the African American-focused company.
As of 10:51am Eastern, UONE was priced at $9.84, Friday’s closing price.
On June 14, the stock closed at $20.95.
But, on May 28, UONE finished the day’s trading session at $7.35.
Such is life on the Nasdaq GlobalSelect market for Urban One, led by Alfred Liggins III and founded by his mother, Cathy Hughes, with the establishment of WOL-AM 1450 in Washington, D.C., as a leading voice for the African American community.
On Friday, with UONE gyrating again on Wall Street, Debasis Saha, writing for financial blog Insider Monkey, questioned if UONEK — Urban One’s other class of stock — was a buy right now. The answer, reliant on hedge fund investment in the company, was yes.
The report came after Terry Jones of Cyber Digital, Brian McNeill and Geoffrey Armstrong on June 16 each snagged 9,124 shares of Class D common stock at a price of $388,782, and on June 17 purchased 12,500 shares of Class D Urban One shares at a cost of $481,282.
Who is Terry Jones? He’s an Urban One board member and is largely known for his C-Suite roles at Syncom, where he became VP in 1978 and President in 1990.
Armstrong is a former Urban One board member. On November 30, 2020, D. Geoffrey Armstrong stepped down from the board at Urban One. He tendered his resignation from the Board “in light of a potential conflict of interest with his other business interests.”
Urban One explained that his resignation was not the result of any dispute or disagreement between him and the company on any matter relating to Urban One’s operations, policies or practices.
Armstrong is currently Chief Executive Officer of 310 Partners, a private investment firm. And, since November 2003 Armstrong has also been a director of Nexstar Broadcasting.
McNeill is an independent director at Urban One, and the founder of Alta Communications.
The share acquisitions are likely tied to options each of the individuals had, with respect to their compensation structure.
Still, the timing is perhaps good with respect to the maturation value and strike price.
On June 7, a $6.45 closing price was seen for UONEK. As of 11:09am Eastern on June 21, it was trading at $4.41; UONEK was largely trading in the $1 range from January through April 2021.
