WWE stock hits 52-week high, defying market trends, in aftermath of McMahon scandal

World Wrestling Entertainment is defying broader marketplace trends this year.

The company's banal is up much than 50% successful 2022, hitting a 52-week precocious Monday, and trading astatine levels it hasn't seen since summertime 2019. The S&P 500, by comparison, is down much than 20% this year.

The stock's beardown show this twelvemonth occurred WWE's unrecorded wrestling-events concern came roaring backmost aft months of Covid restrictions and the institution progressively became the taxable of merchantability talks. The banal continued to bash good aft the company's longtime person and biggest shareholder, Vince McMahon, retired from the company implicit the summertime successful a unreality of scandal.

Shares of the institution were efficaciously level Monday aft hitting $76.90. WWE's marketplace capitalization is implicit $5.6 billion.

Industry insiders judge WWE could beryllium an acquisition target. A woody could travel earlier the company's adjacent U.S. TV rights renewal — apt to beryllium announced successful mid-2023. WWE's existent U.S. streaming woody with NBCUniversal's Peacock expires successful 2026.

WWE has besides had to woody with McMahon's controversies. He retired successful July aft it was revealed that helium had paid astir $20 cardinal successful antecedently unrecorded expenses.

Of those payments, astir $15 cardinal went to settee intersexual misconduct allegations from 4 women against McMahon implicit the past 16 years, and $5 cardinal went to Donald Trump's instauration from donations made successful 2007 and 2009.

WWE has hinted that the hush payments to alleged victims, already the taxable of an ongoing autarkic reappraisal overseen by the company's board, are nether probe by different entities.

Still, WWE stayed successful the family. Stephanie McMahon, McMahon's daughter, took implicit arsenic chairwoman and co-CEO alongside Nick Khan, who besides serves arsenic the company's president. Stephanie's hubby and longtime wrestler Paul "Triple H" Levesque has taken implicit arsenic the company's apical originative executive, the relation the elder McMahon had earlier helium retired.

Vince McMahon, 77, remains the largest stakeholder successful the company, holding astir 32% of shares.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the genitor institution of CNBC.

–CNBC's Chris Hayes contributed to this report.