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Yahoo dips into the $9 range

Shares haven't been this low in more than five years. Yahoo's next concern will be a drop to $5, a price that automatically forces institutional investors to jump ship.

Dawn Kawamoto Former Staff writer, CNET News
Dawn Kawamoto covered enterprise security and financial news relating to technology for CNET News.
Dawn Kawamoto

Yahoo fell as much as 4 percent in early morning trading Thursday, pushing the Internet pioneer's share price into the $9 range.

Shares of Yahoo dipped as low as $9.92 a share, even as broader markets moved upward.

For Yahoo, its share price has been slipping in $1 increments at a rapid rate, creating a dark cloud around its ticker. The company's share price closed in the $10 range on Wednesday. It was in the $11 range on October 15, the $12 range on October 9, the $13 range on October 8, and the $14 range on October 7.

Yahoo's stock price over the past three months FinancialContent.com

The next critical milestone that investors need to be wary of is the $5 mark. A number of institutional investors, such as pension funds, asset managers, and endowments, have policies that require them to discard stocks that fall below $5. As a result, a stock price's fall will greatly accelerate after that milestone is crossed.

Yahoo is currently trading at a price it hasn't seen since March 2003, but a $5 price tag would take it to a level not witnessed since October 2002.