Shares of Donald Trump’s social media company skyrocketed in their stock market debut, theoretically adding billions to the former president’s fortune despite a potentially dubious valuation.
Donald Trump's social media company began trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange Tuesday under the ... [+]
Trump Media (ticker $DJT) shares jumped nearly 50% about 15 minutes after markets opened Tuesday, the firm’s first day of trading as an independent public company following the completion of its reverse merger with the previously public, special-purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp.
Trading at $73 per share, Trump Media’s market capitalization sits at some $15 billion on a fully diluted basis, pending the redemption of stock purchase agreements by existing Digital World shareholders.
Trump, who owns more than half of Trump Media’s stock, now has a roughly $9 billion nest egg from Trump Media, whose primary offering is the right-wing social media platform Truth Social.
Trump can’t sell his shares in his namesake company for six months, a period which will test whether the “meme stock” can maintain its multibillion-dollar valuation on the public market despite far from robust financial results.
Trump Media’s $15 billion market cap is higher than those of 80 companies listed on the S&P 500, including beer giant Molson Coors and American Airlines. That’s despite Trump Media’s $4.6 million revenue over the last 12 months coming in at less than 0.1% of the $5 billion brought in by Comerica and Hasbro over their respective last four quarters.
There’s little technical backing to suggest Trump Media is worthy of its current valuation, considering it has about 1% the monthly active users of social media competitor Reddit and about 0.4% the annual revenue of Reddit, which has a market cap of about $11 billion. Instead, Trump Media traders appear to be backing Trump as his legal fees and challenges mount ahead of November’s presidential election, with some experts deeming Trump Media a meme stock. Digital World and Trump Media announced their intent to combine in October 2021 amid the reverse merger frenzy, and Truth Social debuted in early 2022 as Trump served a since-lifted suspension from mainstream social media sites like Facebook.
Trump is worth $2.6 billion, according to our latest estimates, which place the value of his stake in Trump Media at $410 million. That’s a far cry from his social media business’ Tuesday paper value, but reflects the price paid in February by institutional investors before its public debut.