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BOSTON — Shares of E-Trade Financial Corp. fell for a second day on Friday after the largest shareholder in the online brokerage sold 13.9 million shares and filed a plan to sell more.
After the moves by hedge fund Citadel Investment Group were disclosed in regulatory filings by E-Trade on Wednesday and Thursday, shares of E-Trade fell 6 cents, or 4.3 percent, to $1.34 in afternoon trading on Friday. The stock lost another 6 cents on Thursday, and has traded in a 52-week range of 59 cents to $3.91.
After Citadel's sale of a total 13.9 million shares in transactions on Monday and Tuesday, the Chicago-based fund's stake fell to 14.9 percent of E-Trade's outstanding shares, down from more than 17 percent. The range of prices for shares sold Monday was $1.38 to $1.44 apiece, and $1.38 to $1.40 for those sold Tuesday, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
A separate filing on Thursday detailed a prearranged plan that would allow Citadel to sell as many as 120 million of its current 166 million E-Trade shares from Aug. 31 to Oct. 31. The plan provides for no sales if E-Trade's stock price falls below $1.20.
Citadel is also a large bondholder in E-Trade, which plans an Aug. 19 special shareholders meeting to approve a debt exchange. E-Trade is seeking to swap about $1.7 billion of notes for non-interest bearing convertible debentures due 2019.
