Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) shares fell more than 6% on Monday, trading at their lowest level since the social media company went public in March. The moves come after DJT’s lockup period officially expired last week.
Shareholders, including former President Donald Trump, were subject to a six-month lockup period before they could sell or transfer shares. That lockup period expired last Thursday, though Trump has said he will not sell his stake.
“I have no intention of selling,” the former president told reporters at a news conference before the blackout period expired. “I love it. I use it as a method to make myself heard.”
As Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul detailed, the purpose of a lockup period is to protect the interests of a newly public company and allow it to preserve stability before its founders can cash out.
“If I sell, it wouldn’t be the same, and I can understand that,” Trump said at the time, adding that he knew his stake had “reduced” in recent months.
Shares have fallen about 15% since Thursday and remain far from their all-time high of just over $79 a share.
Trump maintains a roughly 60% stake in DJT. At current levels, Trump Media has a market cap of roughly $2.5 billion, giving the former president a stake of about $1.5 billion. Just after the company’s public debut, Trump’s stake was worth just over $4.5 billion.
Trump Media went public on the Nasdaq in late March after merging with special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp. But the stock has had a bumpy ride since then, with shares swinging between highs and lows as moves have typically been tied to a volatile news cycle.
In June, stocks rose (and then fell) after current commander-in-chief Joe Biden stumbled in his first 2024 presidential debate with Trump. Biden dropped out of the presidential race a month later.
Since Biden’s announcement, stocks have remained under pressure as Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, leads Trump in recent polls.
In May, Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential campaign, a verdict that sent his stock down 5% the day after the conviction. His sentencing was recently postponed until Nov. 26.
Shares have fallen about 65% since the company’s public debut.
Trump founded Truth Social after he was banned from major social media apps like Facebook (META) and Twitter, the platform now known as X, following the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021. Trump has since been reinstated on those platforms. He officially returned to X in mid-August after a roughly year-long hiatus.
But as Truth Social attempts to compete with traditional social media operators, the company’s fundamentals have long been in question.
Last month, DJT reported second-quarter results that revealed a net loss of $16.4 million, about half of which was tied to expenses related to the company’s SPAC deal. The company also reported revenue of just under $837,000 for the quarter ended June 30, a year-over-year drop of 30%.
Alexandra Channel is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X @allie_canal, LinkedIn, and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com.
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