Mat Ishbia’s plan to expand the public float and trading liquidity of UWM Holdings Corporation has come to an end as the company pursues its acquisition of Two Harbors Investment Corp., a deal designed in part to address long-standing investor concerns about the company’s tightly held share base.
The share sale program, implemented in 2025 in response to investor feedback, helped increase UWMC’s average daily trading volume to more than 16 million shares and expanded the company’s public float by more than 135 million shares since June 2025, according to a company statement.
The sales were conducted under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan by SFS Holdings Corp., the entity controlled by Ishbia. SFS remains the company’s largest shareholder, holding about 1.3 billion shares outstanding.
According to SEC filings, SFS’s ownership stake declined from roughly 90% at the end of 2024 to about 83% at the end of 2025. A registration statement tied to the 10b5-1 plan allowed SFS to resell up to 150 million shares of UWMC Class A common stock.
In a statement, the company said SFS “believes it has done its part as the controlling shareholder to respond to the requests of the investment community by selling shares without regard to the stock price since June 2025.”
UWMC shares were trading at $3.26 on Monday morning, down 3.4%. SFS terminated the plan effective Friday, the first day of UWM’s open trading window since December 2025.
The company, which went public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger in 2021, faced pressure from investors to broaden its shareholder base and improve stock liquidity.
Increasing a company’s public float typically attracts more institutional investors and improves trading dynamics, which can lower the cost of capital and increase flexibility for future transactions.
The decision to halt the structured share-sale program comes weeks after UWM’s unsuccessful all-stock bid for Two Harbors, which was also intended to improve UWMC’s float.
Pro forma estimates indicated the transaction could have increased UWMC’s public float to roughly 500 million shares, up from about 268 million at the end of 2025. The acquisition also would have nearly doubled UWM’s mortgage servicing rights portfolio by adding approximately $176 billion in unpaid principal balance, bringing the total close to $400 billion.
With UWMC shares under pressure, UWM later revised its proposal to include a cash component valued at $12.50 per share –while preserving the option for holders to elect 2.3328 UWMC shares per Two Harbors share. Rival CrossCountry Mortgage (CCM) currently has a competing bid valued at $12 per share.
The shareholder vote is scheduled for May 19th.