On Tuesday shares of World Wrestling Entertainment shot up 19% when the company reported that its 11-month old WWE Network had hit 1 million subscribers. The news caught Wall Street by surprise in part because the WWE Network had gotten off to a disappointing start.
The upbeat news also apparently caught WWE officers and directors off guard. Insiders have decreased their holdings of the company's class A shares (the McMahan family controls the WWE through the class B shares) by a net 69,000 ($1.1 million) over the past six months.
The increase in WWE subscribers is probably not a fluke. Viewership and social media following are solid for WWE. According to the Nielsen
Shares of WWE have fallen to $11.65 early today, giving about about a third of Tuesday's gain. But WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahan must be in a far more jovial mood than the insiders who bet against him and dumped their shares.
