
Trump Media Stock Surges, Reflecting Tight Election Race
The stock price of Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) has surged in recent weeks, mirroring the tightening race between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming November 5th election.
DJT's stock price jumped 18% on Monday, October 30th, capping off three weeks of gains and reversing a slump that had brought the stock to a post-listing low at the end of September. The stock has more than doubled since hitting a low of $11.75 on September 24th, but it is still trading at less than half the price of its March peak.
The volatility of Trump Media shares has prompted some analysts to label it a meme stock, or companies that trade on social media buzz instead of traditional analytical measures such as revenue growth and profitability. Money-losing DJT, whose revenue plunged 30% in the most recent quarter, has attracted a loyal base of Trump voters who tend to be small investors eager to put their money behind the former president.
Trump Media, whose core asset is social media asset Truth Social, announced Monday that its streaming service, Truth+ TV, is now available online.
Prediction markets are also reflecting the tightening race, with PredictIt.org and Polymarket both giving better odds to Trump than Harris.
The $DJT group on Truth Social, which has more than 20,000 members, frequently includes posts from Trump supporters about their DJT purchases, often encouraging others to buy more.
While DJT stock has more than doubled since hitting a low on September 24th, it's still far from its peak of $79.38 on March 26th, the day it went public.
Trump Media slumped toward the end of September partly due to the expiration of a so-called monthslong lock-up period following DJT's initial stock sale. Such agreements are common with IPOs because they keep executives from quickly selling their shares, which could undermine the stock's price.
With the lock-up period expired, insiders including Trump Media's top executives can now sell their DJT stock.
While Trump has vowed not to sell his shares, another insider has sold a large stake, which could have contributed to the stock's September dip. The investor, United Atlantic Ventures, owned 7.5 million shares in Trump Media as of March, or about 4% of the company's outstanding shares, but sold them at an unspecified date, according to a regulatory filing last month.
United Atlantic Ventures is the creation of Andrew Litinsky and Wes Moss, two former contestants on "The Apprentice," the reality show that starred Trump. Litinsky and Moss had worked on the debut of the Truth Social network, but the relationship between them and the business soured, spawning multiple lawsuits.
Meanwhile, Trump remains the company's biggest shareholder, with an ownership stake of almost 60%, according to FactSet. At today's price, that values Trump's shares at about $3.4 billion.