What happened to 145 Nasdaq companies after the $1 warning letter

On May 28, 2025, Nasdaq told Opendoor (OPEN $1.90 -0.52%) that its shares had closed below $1.00 for 30 endeavor days in a row. The business did what most companies in that stance do: it called a particular gathering to ask shareholders for approval to do a reverse split. Then the inventory ran. Opendoor closed at $1.00 or additional on 12 direct selling days from July 15 to July 30, Nasdaq closed the matter, and the commission cancelled the meeting.

Opendoor is the narrative everyone remembers, but it isn't the representative one. We followed all Nasdaq business that disclosed its archetypal minimum bid cost notice in the archetypal fractional of 2025, 145 of them, to October 26, 2026. Most are motionless listed. Most did a reverse divided to get there. And for most of the group who held the inventory on the day the letter was disclosed, the shares are value small now.

The abbreviated answer

• 108 of the 145 companies (74.5%) are motionless listed on a US toggle 16 to 22 months following the letter. 78 commerce at $1 or more, and 30 are rear under $1.
• 37 are gone: 19 were delisted, suspended or deregistered, 11 were acquired, and 7 went bankrupt.
• 85 (58.6%) did a reverse split, typically 1-for-20, and the median business did it 258 days following disclosing the letter, fine into the second 180-day period. 14 did additional than one.
• 59 of 126 (46.8%) got rear complete $1 on their own for ten direct closes before any reverse split, 46 of them inside the archetypal 180 days. 24 of those 59 afterward started the procedure complete alongside a new letter.
• The cost on the day of the letter mattered most. Under $0.50, 4 of 23 restored without a divided and 8 were delisted or bankrupt by October 2026. At $0.80 or more, 18 of 30 restored and 2 were gone.
• A divided didn't continually end the problem. At smallest 13 of the 85 companies that divided cut rear below $1 lengthy adequate to commencement the procedure again.
• For shareholders, the representative outcome was a loss. Among companies motionless listed, the median inventory was downward 47.3% from the near on the day the letter was disclosed, against a 32.4% acquire for the S&P 500 complete the identical windows. Companies that did a reverse divided were downward a median 83.0%.

How the $1 regulation works

Nasdaq requires a listed inventory to near alongside a bid of at smallest $1.00. When the decision bid has been below that for 30 successive endeavor days, Nasdaq sends a deficiency letter, and the business has four endeavor days to disclose it, normally in an 8-K under Item 3.01. The letter starts a compliance duration of 180 calendar days. To regain compliance, the inventory must near at $1.00 or additional for at smallest 10 successive endeavor days, and Nasdaq's personnel can ask for up to 20.

A business that hasn't restored following 180 days can get a second 180 days if it meets the another first listing standards for the Nasdaq Capital Market, moving there if necessary, and tells Nasdaq it volition cure the deficiency alongside a reverse divided if needed. After that comes a delisting determination, which the business can petition to a Hearings Panel.

Two changes approved by the SEC on January 17, 2025, made the end of that highway shorter, and the companies in this study went through the procedure under them:

• No remain during the appeal. A business that used the two 180-day periods and motionless unsuccessful is suspended from Nasdaq during its petition is heard, so its shares commerce complete the oppose in the meantime. The panel can motionless aid up to 180 additional days.
• No compliance duration following a latest split. A business that falls below $1 inside a twelvemonth of a reverse divided gets no compliance duration at all and goes direct to a delisting determination. The identical already applied to companies whose reverse splits complete the previous two years add up to 250 to 1 or more.

A distinct regulation applies at the bottom: a inventory that closes at $0.10 or small for ten successive selling days during a compliance duration gets a delisting decision immediately.

Where the 145 companies stood in October 2026

Three in four companies are motionless listed, which appears improved than it is. Of the 30 motionless listed but selling under $1, 20 are on their second trip through the process: since the archetypal letter they have received a new one, or an expansion or delisting decision that could lone prosecute a new one. Blink Charging (BLNK $0.41 +0.83%) is one: it got its archetypal letter in May 2025, was rear complete $1 by September, received a new letter in January 2026, and in July was granted a second 180 days, until January 25, 2027, following telling Nasdaq it would do a reverse divided if necessary. It closed at $0.38 on October 26.

The 19 delisted companies contain Stardust Power, which did a 1-for-10 reverse divided in September 2025, cut below $1 again, and afterward closed at $0.10 or small for ten selling days in October 2026. Nasdaq stated it would suspend its shares on October 23, and under the January 2025 regulation a hearing petition doesn't halt a suspension.

Getting rear complete $1 without a split

Some companies don't need to do anything. Of the 126 companies alongside cost former in our data, 59 (46.8%) closed at $1.00 or additional on ten direct selling days before doing any reverse split. The median business got there 102 days following the letter, and 46 of the 59 did it inner the archetypal 180 days. 44 of them never divided at all.

Recovering didn't continually last. 24 of the 59 afterward started the procedure complete alongside a new letter, and 22 are rear under $1 today.

The finest predictor of a improvement was the cost whenever the letter arrived. A inventory at $0.85 needs an 18% increase to apparent $1; a inventory at $0.30 needs to additional than triple.

The median inventory closed at $0.68 on the day its letter was disclosed.

The reverse split

85 of the 145 companies (58.6%) did at smallest one reverse divided following the letter. Most waited. Only 31 divided inside the archetypal 180 days; 45 divided between day 181 and day 360, which is whenever the second compliance duration runs and whenever Nasdaq expects the divided it was promised.

The median archetypal divided was 1-for-20. The proportion is normally chosen alongside area to spare, since a divided that lands the inventory at $1.10 can be undone by a few bad weeks.

Some companies divided again and again. 14 did additional than one reverse divided following the letter and 3 did at smallest three. Vivakor did a 1-for-200 divided in March 2026, a 1-for-20 in July and a 1-for-15 in October, so 60,000 shares from before March are now one. Its inventory closed at $1.32 on October 26, on a split-adjusted basis a small fraction of the $0.88 it traded at whenever its letter was disclosed in March 2025.

A divided additionally doesn't fix any pushed the inventory under $1. At smallest 13 of the 85 companies that divided cut rear below $1 lengthy adequate to commencement the procedure again. Under the January 2025 rule, a business that falls under $1 again inside a twelvemonth of its divided gets no new compliance period, lone a delisting determination.

The divided worked finest whenever item alternatively changed too. Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR $39.18 +1.63%) got its letter in April 2025 at $0.55, did a 1-for-15 divided in June, and closed at $37.45 on October 26, 2026, equal to concerning $2.50 per portion from before the split.

What happened to the shares

For anyone who held the stock, the additional helpful inquiry is what the shares did. We measured the alter from the near on the day all business disclosed its letter to its latest near in October 2026, adjusted for splits, for the 107 still-listed companies alongside a cost on the two dates.

• All motionless listed: median -47.3%. 36 of 107 are higher than on the day of the letter, 18 additional than doubled, and 21 misplaced 90% or more.
• Companies that did a reverse split: median -83.0%, and 9 of 64 are higher.
• Companies that didn't: median +41.2%, and 27 of 43 are higher.

The gap between the final two isn't evidence that reverse splits demolish value. It's the another way around: the companies whose inventory restored on its own never needed a split, so the divided marks the companies that didn't recover. What the numbers do display is that the representative inventory kept falling following the letter. And these figures depart out the 37 companies no longer listed: the 18 delisted or bankrupt ones alongside prices in our data misplaced a median 97.7% by their final close.

Two problems at once

A bid-price letter frequently comes alongside company. 58 of the 145 companies additionally received a notice for another listing regulation at several item in 2025 or 2026, most frequently minimum stockholders' equity (22 companies) or a delayed filing (16). 16 of those 58 (27.6%) were delisted or went bankrupt, against 10 of the 87 (11.5%) that lone had the cost problem.

Drug developers were the largest group: 61 of the 145 companies (42.1%) are classified by the SEC as pharmaceutical preparations or biologic products. They were additionally the largest collection in our study of going-concern warnings. Small medication developers normally pay for their trials by marketing new shares, which keeps adding to the portion figure during they delay for results.

The alphabet themselves lean to attain quietly. In our study of 8-K timing, 38.6% of listing deficiency notices went community on a Friday following 4 p.m.

How to inspect a company

• Find the letter. The company's 8-K under Item 3.01 gives the date of the letter and the deadline. On Equibles, a company's filings leaf lists its 8-Ks alongside their item numbers, for example Blink Charging's.
• Read the second notice closely. A aid of a second 180-day duration method the business has told Nasdaq it volition do a reverse divided if it needs to.
• Look for a divided proposal. A proxy declaration asking shareholders to endorse a reverse split, frequently alongside a broad range of ratios, is the customary next step. Opendoor's was submitted in June 2025.
• Check the final split. A business that did a reverse divided in the former year, or splits adding up to 250 to 1 or additional complete two years, gets no compliance duration if it falls below $1 again.
• Look for a second deficiency. A notice for stockholders' equity or market value on top of the bid cost is the blend that most frequently ended in delisting.

How we built this

• Notices: all 8-K alongside Item 3.01 submitted from January 2025 to October 2026, established through EDGAR full-text hunt (2,721 filings), peruse and sorted by the listing regulation all one cites and by type: deficiency, delisting step, regained compliance or transfer.
• The 145 companies: Nasdaq-listed companies whose archetypal bid-price 8-K in that duration was submitted between January 1 and June 30, 2025, alongside no bid-price Item 3.01 8-K since June 1, 2024. We peruse all notice and removed 11 that weren't a archetypal letter: extensions, hearing panel decisions, a bankruptcy notice, and 4 companies that got no compliance duration at all since of before reverse splits.
• Status on October 26, 2026: listed if the SEC's business observe document places the business on Nasdaq, the NYSE or NYSE American, apart from Stardust Power, which Nasdaq stated it would suspend on October 23 during the document motionless showed it on Nasdaq. Bankruptcy method an 8-K under Item 1.03 and no listing; acquired method a completed merger (Item 2.01 alongside Item 5.01 or 3.03, or a completed tender offer). A merger whose completion 8-K came inside ten days following Nasdaq's Form 25 counts as acquired, since Nasdaq records the form at closing. Everything alternatively that remaining an toggle counts as delisted, suspended or deregistered.
• A second trip: a afterward notice counts as a new commencement if it is a new 30-day letter, or a second-period aid or delisting decision dated too delayed to pertain to the archetypal letter.
• Reverse splits: our divided records, affirmative splits reported in the companies' own 8-Ks (Items 5.03, 3.03 and 5.07) that our records lacked, five in all. We checked the ratios we name against the companies' filings.
• Back complete $1: ten successive closes at $1.00 or additional on the cost as it really traded, using regular closes for the 126 companies alongside cost former in our data.
• Share cost change: from the near on the day the 8-K was submitted to the latest near between October 20 and 26, 2026, on a split-adjusted basis, against SPY complete the identical dates.
• Another listing rule: any Item 3.01 8-K in 2025 or 2026 citing stockholders' equity, market value, a delayed filing, the annual meeting, or commission and audit commission requirements.
• Industry: the SEC industry codes 2834 (pharmaceutical preparations) and 2836 (biological products).

Limitations

• Nasdaq measures the decision bid; we used decision prices, and the personnel can necessitate up to 20 days fairly than 10. A few of the recoveries we figure may not have satisfied Nasdaq.
• 19 companies have no cost former in our data, 18 of them now acquired, bankrupt or delisted. The improvement figures hence lean toward companies that survived.
• The portion cost figures shield lone companies motionless listed. Including the delisted and bankrupt ones would create them worse.
• The difference between companies that divided and those that didn't is a difference of distinct kinds of company, not the consequence of the split.
• The study covers archetypal alphabet only. Companies already on a second or third trip through the procedure in first 2025 aren't in it, and they are apt to do worse.
• The follow-up runs 16 to 22 months, so several of the 30 companies motionless listed under $1 haven't reached the end of the process.

Conclusion

A Nasdaq bid-price letter is not a death sentence: three in four companies that got one in first 2025 were motionless listed in October 2026, and nearly fractional got rear complete $1 at smallest formerly without a reverse split. But the way most of them stayed listed was a reverse split, normally at the final moment, and for shareholders the letter was additional frequently a alert than a bottom. The cost on the day of the letter is the archetypal figure to appearance at. Under 50 cents, lone 4 of 23 companies restored on their own and a third were gone by October 2026.

Sources

• Nasdaq Listing Rules 5550(a)(2) and 5450(a)(1) (minimum bid price), 5810(c)(3)(A) (compliance periods) and 5815 (hearings).
• SEC Release No. 34-102245, command approving File No. SR-NASDAQ-2024-045, January 17, 2025.
• Opendoor Technologies: 8-K submitted May 30, 2025 (0001801169-25-000042); proxy supplement submitted July 28, 2025 (0001140361-25-027584); 8-K submitted August 1, 2025 (0001801169-25-000069).
• Blink Charging: 8-Ks submitted May 13, 2025 (0001641172-25-009987), September 11, 2025 (0001641172-25-027095), January 30, 2026 (0001493152-26-004537) and July 28, 2026 (0001493152-26-034964).
• Nektar Therapeutics: 8-Ks submitted April 4, 2025 (0001213900-25-029002) and June 6, 2025 (0001213900-25-052141).
• Vivakor: 8-Ks submitted March 27, 2026 (0001829126-26-002808), July 16, 2026 (0001829126-26-007621) and October 6, 2026 (0001829126-26-010815).
• Stardust Power: 8-Ks submitted March 24, 2025 (0001641172-25-000327) and October 19, 2026 (0001493152-26-047607).
• EDGAR full-text search, the SEC submissions API and the SEC business observe and toggle document (company_tickers_exchange.json).

This study describes community filings and market prices. It is not funding advice.