(USNewsMag.com) – Trump Media & Technology Group, which is the parent company of former President Donald Trump’s social media app Truth Social, just became a publicly traded company. The move marks the first time in nearly three decades that a piece of Trump’s corporate empire went public.
On Tuesday, March 27th, Trump Media & Technology Group hit the ground running at the opening bell on Wall Street under the abbreviation DJT. Upon its launch into the market, the stock rose by about 50% almost instantly. Wall Street also assigned the company a valuation of roughly $14 billion, which some financial experts believe is wildly overestimated.
A shell company called Digital World Acquisition Corp. merged into Trump Media on Tuesday morning, spiking by almost 200% in 2024 leading up to the merger. The spike includes an immediate 35% increase on Monday after the merger was complete. The following morning saw another surge as investors were able to trade under the DJT ticker following the merger.
University of Florida professor of finance Jay Ritter called the situation “unusual” because he said the stock is “divorced from fundamentals.” Trump Media has apparently been suffering heavy losses, including its primary product. The social media platform Truth Social has been struggling to gain relevance amid its mainstream competitors, especially Twitter (since rebranded as “X” by Elon Musk).
Ritter compared the situation to the GameStop and AMC situations during the pandemic, in which average retail traders coordinated online and turned the stocks into internet memes to pump and dump their shares. Ritter said this is what is happening to Trump Media’s valuation, which he estimates is nowhere near its implied $50 a share price tag but somewhere closer to $2.
When looking at how much Trump Media generated in revenue last year, the company has been floundering and bleeding cash. Renaissance Capital senior IPO strategist Matthew Kennedy said the $14 billion valuation is “untethered” to the “underlying business results” of the company.
Although it’s almost certain to go down after the launch pump, how much the stock plummets remains to be seen. Many investors may be playing the long game, hoping Trump wins the 2024 presidential election in November.
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