After a weeks-long downward spell, Trump Media & Technology Group stock has been back on the rise.
Trump Media stock climbed almost 26% on Thursday to close at $33.19 per share, ending its second day of gains with a market capitalization of $4.54 billion. The stock began its turnaround on Wednesday, when it rose more than 15% by market close.
The streak has recovered roughly $1 billion in market value for Trump Media, the company behind former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social. Its stock price hit an all-time low of $22.55 per share this week.
That stock gained another 9.6% on Friday to close at $38.36 per share.
Trump owned 78.75 million, or approximately 57.6%, of the outstanding shares of Trump Media when it debuted on the public markets. 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.
On Wednesday, the company posted guidance on how to prevent short-selling of Trump Media shares on the FAQ portion of its website aimed at “long-term shareholders who believe in the Company’s future.” When traders short-sell a stock, they are betting that the stock will fall by borrowing shares and selling them high, with the belief that they can be repurchased later at a lower price.
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. In its first trading week, Trump Media shares saw a high price of $79.38, giving it a more than $8 billion market cap.
That initial bubble didn’t last long. The company’s stock began to fall after it 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 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The bleeding continued 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.
Shares took another dip on Tuesday after the company announced that it would launch a live TV streaming platform. Trump Media said that much like 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.”
