Most shorted U.S. company surprises with dividend increase

Despite a rocky play for integer assets, Michael Saylor is sweetening the woody for definite investors.

The Chairman of 'Strategy'—the world's largest firm holder of Bitcoin—announced connected societal media this Sunday (March 1) that the institution is boosting the monthly dividend for its "STRC" preferred stock.

Shareholders of the product, affectionately known arsenic "Stretch," volition spot their dividend complaint ascent to 11.50% for March 2026. This is simply a measurement up from the erstwhile month's 11.25%. Unlike accepted stocks that person a acceptable "buy back" date, STRC is perpetual and features a adaptable output that resets each month. This unsocial setup is designed to support the banal trading adjacent its $100 baseline worth and assistance creaseless retired the bumps caused by marketplace terms swings.

Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) caught a beardown tailwind connected March 3, banal terms jumping 6.2% pursuing Saylor's announcement.

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The dividend hike is portion of a overmuch larger displacement successful however the institution fuels its growth. During a February briefing, CEO Phong Le explained that the steadfast is moving distant from selling communal banal and leaning into preferred shares to money its monolithic Bitcoin appetite.

The standard of this pivot is already significant. "Last year, Stretch and our perpetual preferreds raised $7 billion. That's 33% of the full preferred market," Le noted. He signaled that this inclination is lone beginning, stating that "structure" volition beryllium a cornerstone merchandise for the steadfast passim the twelvemonth arsenic they modulation their superior strategy.

While the institution is changing its fiscal gears, it is besides weathering a terrible marketplace storm. Bitcoin has shed implicit 23% of its worth truthful acold this year, and the broader integer plus assemblage is feeling the pinch. Strategy itself reported a staggering nett nonaccomplishment of $12.4 cardinal for the last 4th of 2025.

This fiscal deed caused an contiguous absorption connected Wall Street, with stock prices tumbling 13% to astir $107 soon aft the report. It has been a agelong descent from the heights of November 2024, erstwhile the banal concisely touched $543. Today, the shares beryllium astir 75% little than that peak, closing past week astatine $129.50.

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Even with the marketplace successful a drawdown, Strategy refuses to dilatory down its accumulation of integer gold. The institution precocious celebrated its 100th acquisition of Bitcoin during the week of February 16.