By The stock price of Trump Media has nearly been cut in half in the roughly three weeks since a New York jury convicted the company’s majority owner, former President Donald Trump, of criminal charges.
Shares of the company behind Truth Social, which trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market as DJT, ended Friday’s trading session at $27.66 apiece.
That’s a 46% decline from Trump Media’s $51.84-per-share price at the market close on May 30, the day Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump Media shares closed up more than 3% on Friday, a reprieve from a weekslong slide.
It is not clear if the conviction itself contributed to that decline — though the company in regulatory filings has acknowledged that, “An adverse outcome in one or more of the ongoing legal proceedings in which President Donald J. Trump is involved could negatively impact TMTG and its Truth Social platform.”
Analysts have attributed the stock’s downward trend to Trump Media’s registration of additional shares, which was declared effective after the bell Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC clearance allows early investors in the company to resell certain shares and exercise stock warrants, threatening to dilute the stock price.
The company has noted that it could net up to $247 million if all the warrants are exercised for cash. But Trump Media shares nevertheless plummeted as much as 17% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
In a press release Friday afternoon, the company announced it expects to receive more than $69.4 million from the cash exercise of warrants on Thursday and Friday alone.
The stock fell more than 25% this week. Much of that drop came during volatile trading sessions Thursday, when shares tumbled nearly 15%, and on Tuesday, when shares closed nearly 10% down. The stock market was closed Wednesday for the Juneteenth holiday.
Trump Media’s stock price has whipsawed since its public debut in late March, as retail investors and short sellers bought and sold the company tied to the controversial presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
The stock in April was identified as the most expensive U.S. stock to sell short.
