Trump Media & Technology Group ended a weeks-long spell of losses Wednesday when its stock spiked.
Shares in Trump Media, the company behind former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social, shot up as much as almost 22% in afternoon trading on Wednesday. Its shares traded at a high of $27.77, bringing its market cap back up to $3.8 billion and erasing some of the losses it accrued in recent weeks, before dropping off to close up 15.6% on the day, at $26.40 per share.
Trump Media went public on the Nasdaq under the ticker DJT on March 26, after completing its merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. From its high trading price of $79.38 in its first week, its market cap has fallen more than $4 billion, with the stock price hitting an all-time low of $22.55 per share this week.
Trouble in Trump Media
Trump Media stock began to nosedive after the company disclosed a loss from operations of almost $16 million in 2023, plus interest expense of $39.4 million, while bringing in just $4.1 million in revenue. That’s compared with a loss from operations of $23.2 million, plus interest expense of $2 million, on $1.5 million in revenue in 2022, according to regulatory filings.
Its stock continued to free-fall this week after Trump Media registered the resale of substantially all of its outstanding securities. Shares held by certain insiders remain subject to a lock-up agreement that will expire in August or September.
And on Tuesday, shares took another dip after the company announced that it would be launching a live TV streaming platform. Trump Media said that much like its social media platform Truth Social, the streaming service will be “independent of Big Tech” and will offer content “that has been canceled, is at risk of cancellation, or is being suppressed on other platforms and services.”
Trump owns 78.75 million, or approximately 57.6%, of the outstanding shares of Trump Media as of its debut day. The former president is also eligible to receive up to 36 million earnout shares so long as the dollar volume-weighted average price of the company’s stock remains above $12.50 for at least 20 trading days within a 30 day trading period.