The parent company of social media platform Truth Social has continued its volatile journey on the stock market, doubling since a low three weeks ago.
Trump Media & Technology Group went public on the Nasdaq on March 26, 2024. Share prices have swung wildly from more than $70 a share to just under $23 in mid-April as Trump’s hush money trial began. They closed at nearly $48 on Tuesday.
“Expect the unexpected,” said Jay Ritter, a finance scholar at the University of Florida. Despite the recent upswing, the stock price is likely headed to $1-$2 a share, Ritter said. “Whether it takes six months to get there or three years to get there, nobody knows for sure.”
He speculated that the stock’s recent rise may be due to the company’s efforts to combat short selling − a strategy that involves selling shares in the hopes the price will drop, then buying them back at a lower price, and locking in a profit.
Trump Media posted information online on how investors can prevent their shares from being used by “short sellers,” pushing those sellers to buy the stock back at higher prices, which can result in heavy losses.
“That buying pressure is probably the major reason why the stock has doubled in the last three weeks,” Ritter said.
At the close on May 7, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. shares fell to $47.67, down 3% from the previous close.
Trump founded his social media company in 2021 after being booted from other major platforms following the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump Media went public on the Nasdaq on March 26, 2024, through a merger with shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The merger was announced in 2021.
Trump’s debut on the stock market was splashy, with Trump Media shares soaring, helped partly by – and to the delight of – his loyal MAGA supporters.
But regulatory filings show the company was operating at a loss in 2023, making approximately $4 million in revenue while losing more than $58 million. Accounting firm BF Borgers CPA PC said in a letter to Trump Media shareholders the operating losses “raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”
That firm has since been shut down on allegations of “massive fraud,” the SEC announced Friday. In a press release, Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement called BF Borgers CPA PC a “sham audit mill” after finding its audits, included in more than 1,500 SEC filings, did not comply with oversight standards.
Despite bouncing back, Trump Media share prices have fallen since their peak of more than $70 per share.
Trump also was ordered to pay a combined $537 million across two civil cases earlier this year, both of which he is appealing. Trump has also been ordered to pay $10,000 in fines for gag order violations in his hush money trial, and has the potential to rack up more as the trial continues.
At one point, the Trump Media shares were a potential source of funding to put towards hefty legal fees.
But in April, he posted a reduced bond of $175 million fronted by California billionaire Don Hankey to prevent his assets from being seized in a fraud case.
Contributing: Bailey Schulz, Jessica Guynn, Jeanine Santucci; USA TODAY