By A weekslong sell-off of Trump Media picked up speed Thursday, with shares of former President Donald Trump’s company closing nearly 15% lower after another volatile trading session.
Stock in the creator of conservative social media app Truth Social trades on the Nasdaq as DJT, and ended the day at $26.75 per share.
That price was more than 40% lower than shares traded for at the start of June, when Trump Media stock cost just over $49 a share.
The drop in DJT’s share price Thursday was accompanied by massive trading volume. More than 13.2 million shares of Trump Media changed hands in the trading day – over three times its 30-day average trading volume.
The high volume and price volatility of Trump Media stock is unusual given that the company generates very little revenue.
Thursday’s losses came on the heels of a nearly 10% drop in Tuesday’s session, on more than double the average trading volume.
After the bell Tuesday, Trump Media disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission had declared its registration statement effective. The news sent the stock plummeting more than 17% in after hours trading. Markets were closed on Wednesday.
Analysts point to the SEC’s approval of Trump Media’s registration of additional shares as the likely catalyst for this week’s trading frenzy.
The moves deepened a slump for Trump Media stock that began around May 30, when a New York jury convicted the former president on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The prospectus that was cleared by the SEC allows early investors in the company to resell certain shares and exercise stock warrants. These sales could, in turn, drive down the stock’s price, by increasing the total number of shares available.
The company nevertheless touted the development as good news, projecting that it could net up to $247 million if all the warrants are exercised for cash.
The stock’s plunge over the last three weeks has also been a massive loss for Trump’s net worth, at least on paper. The presumptive Republican nominee holds 114,750,000 shares in the company, a roughly 65% stake.
Those shares were worth more than $5.6 billion at the beginning of the month. After Thursday’s close, those same shares were worth around $3 billion.
Trump cannot sell his shares until a six-month lockup period expires in late September.
Lockup provisions prevent top investors and insiders from selling their stake as soon as a company goes public.
Trump Media started publicly trading in late March, following a lengthy merger with a special purpose acquisition company.
DJT’s wild swings in its first months on the Nasdaq were seemingly unrelated to any specific news or business event, prompting critics to label it a meme stock.
The company’s sole product, Truth Social, debuted in early 2022 and has drawn comparatively few users away from existing social media giants such as X or Facebook. Trump Media last month reported a first-quarter net loss of nearly $328 million on revenues of about $771,000.
