Standard Register completes reverse stock split

Standard Register Co. completed its reverse stock split, and its shares are expected to be trading at new prices this morning, the company said Thursday.

The Dayton-based documents- and management-services company said it has filed documents needed to effect a 1-for-5 reverse stock split for both common stock and class A stock. Every five shares of the company’s common and class A stock convert to one share, Standard Register said.

Outstanding shares have been cut to about 5.2 million common shares and 945,000 class A shares, the company said.

Such splits cut the number of a company’s outstanding shares, sometimes in an effort to increase the shares’ individual value. The New York Stock Exchanges’ minimum bid price listing standard is $1 per share for 30 straight trading days. Companies are usually given time to raise their stock price after a warning.

Shares of Standard Register (NYSE: SR) closed Thursday at 71 cents, down four cents. The stock’s 52-week range is 45 cents to $1.19.

In April 2012, Standard Register first said the NYSE had warned it that “the company was not in compliance with the NYSE’s continuing listing standard.” At the time, its shares were trading at about $1.14.

The newly split common stock will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange this morning, the company said.

“The reverse split will not change the value of the shareholder investment but there can be no assurance that the newly established opening bid can be maintained over time,” Standard Register noted in an announcement Thursday.

Standard Register shareholders approved the split at their annual meeting last month. The company filed notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February of its plans for the split.

Based in Dayton, Standard Register has 523 Dayton employees and 2,180 total employees.

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