Trump Media’s Stock Price Sinks to New Low After Insider Lockup Period Expires

Shares of Donald Trump‘s social media company, which operates the unprofitable Truth Social platform, dropped 10.3% Monday to their lowest price since the stock began trading under the ticker symbol “DJT” earlier in 2024.

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) stock closed at $12.15/share, down nearly 82% from the company’s peak closing price of $66.22/share on March 27.

The slump for the stock comes after a six-month lockup period on shares held by TMTG insiders — including Trump, TMTG’s directors and officers, and certain other securityholders — expired after the market closed on Thursday, Sept. 19.

Trump has said he has “absolutely no intention of selling” his shares in TMTG. “A lot of people think the reason [the company’s stock price is] down is a lot of people think I’m going to sell, and if I sell, it’s not going to be the same,” Trump said at a Sept. 13 press conference, per CBS News. “But I have absolutely no intention of selling.”

TMTG’s market capitalization currently stands at about $2.4 billion, down from an intraday peak of more than $9.5 billion on March 26, CNBC reported.

As of Aug. 15, Trump beneficially owned 56.6% of TMTG’s outstanding shares, making his stake currently worth about $1.4 billion — down from $5.2 billion at stock’s the highest closing price. The 114.75 million shares he holds includes 36 million “earnout shares” that TMTG determined he was entitled to in accordance with the merger agreement.

TMTG calls Truth Social a “safe harbor for free expression amid increasingly harsh censorship by Big Tech corporations.”

For the second quarter of 2024, TMTG reported $836,900 in net sales and a net loss of $16.37 million, per its 10-Q SEC filing for the period. For Q1, the company reported $770,500 in revenue and a net loss of $327.6 million (most of which was due to expenses associated with TMTG’s merger with special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp. to become a publicly traded company).

According to an Aug. 24 filing with the SEC, TMTG’s board and audit committee authorized a share repurchase of an aggregate of 128,138 shares of the company’s common stock “from certain executive employees” at a prevailing market price of $22.70 per share. As consideration for the repurchase, TMTG said, it will remit $2.9 million plus applicable penalties and interest, to the IRS and certain state taxing authorities in connection with the March 7 issuance of the TMTG Executive Promissory Notes.

“TMTG’s success depends in part on the popularity of our brand and the reputation and popularity of President Donald J. Trump,” the company said in its most recent 10-Q filing. “The value of TMTG’s brand may diminish if the popularity of President Donald J. Trump were to suffer. Adverse reactions to publicity relating to President Donald J. Trump, or the loss of his services, could adversely affect TMTG’s revenues, results of operations and its ability to maintain or generate a consumer base.” The filing also noted that Trump “is involved in numerous lawsuits and other matters that could damage his reputation.”

Shares in TMTG began trading on Nasdaq on March 26, 2024, under the ticker symbol “DJT” following the company’s merger with DWAC.

Trump formed TMTG in 2021 after the former president had been kicked off Twitter (now called X), Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other internet platforms, which said he had violated prohibitions against inciting violence in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump’s accounts have been reinstated by X, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, YouTube and others, but he continues to use Truth Social as his preferred social media platform.

Truth Social launched in early 2022. “TMTG was founded to fight back against the big tech companies — Meta (Facebook, Instagram and Threads), X (formerly Twitter), Netflix, Alphabet (Google), Amazon and others — that may curtail debate in America and censor voices that contradict their ‘woke’ ideology,” the company says in its prospectus.

TMTG has not disclosed how many people use Truth Social. “At this juncture in its development, TMTG believes that adhering to traditional key performance indicators, such as signups, average revenue per user, ad impressions and pricing, or active user accounts including monthly and daily active users, could potentially divert its focus from strategic evaluation with respect to the progress and growth of its business,” it says in a version of its prospectus filed Sept. 5.