Trump's DJT stock is surging as election approaches. Here's what to know about Truth Social.
Donald Trump's media company — which trades under the ticker DJT, the same as the former president's initials — is often in the spotlight, at least when it comes to the stock market.
Trump Media & Technology Group jumped 18% on Monday, a surge capping off three weeks of gains and reversing a slump that had brought the stock to a post-listing low at the end of September.
Shares of Trump Media rose $4.67, or 18.5% on Monday, closing at $29.95. The stock has more than doubled since hitting a low of $11.75 on September 24, according to data from financial services firm FactSet. Even with the recent gains, however, DJT is still trading at less than half the price of its March peak.
The volatility of Trump Media shares has prompted some analysts to label it a meme stock, or companies that trade on social media buzz instead of traditional analytical measures such as revenue growth and profitability. Money-losing DJT, whose revenue plunged 30% in the most recent quarter, has attracted a loyal base of Trump voters who tend to be small investors eager to put their money behind the former president.
Trump Media, whose core asset is social media asset Truth Social, announced Monday that its streaming service, Truth+ TV, is now available online.
DJT has also been seen as a proxy for Trump's potential electoral success in the November 5 election, with polls showing a tight race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
In recent days, the prediction market PredictIt.org switched from bettors giving Harris a better chance of winning to favoring Trump, who is now being given stronger odds. Prediction market Polymarket is also giving better odds to Trump.
Why is DJT stock going up?
The $DJT group on Truth Social, which has more than 20,000 members, frequently includes posts from Trump supporters about their DJT purchases, often encouraging others to buy more.
"I just checked my brokerage account," one $DJT member wrote on Monday. "Thank you uncle Donnie!"
While DJT stock has more than doubled since hitting a low on September 24, it's still far from its peak of $79.38 on March 26, the day it went public.
Trump Media slumped toward the end of September partly due to the expiration of a so-called monthslong lock-up period following DJT's initial stock sale. Such agreements are common with IPOs because they keep executives from quickly selling their shares, which could undermine the stock's price.
With the lock-up period expired, insiders including Trump Media's top executives can now sell their DJT stock.
While Trump has vowed not to sell his shares, another insider has sold a large stake, which could have contributed to the stock's September dip. The investor, United Atlantic Ventures, owned 7.5 million shares in Trump Media as of March, or about 4% of the company's outstanding shares, but sold them at an unspecified date, according to a regulatory filing last month.
United Atlantic Ventures is the creation of Andrew Litinsky and Wes Moss, two former contestants on "The Apprentice," the reality show that starred Trump. Litinsky and Moss had worked on the debut of the Truth Social network, but the relationship between them and the business soured, spawning multiple lawsuits.
Meanwhile, Trump remains the company's biggest shareholder, with an ownership stake of almost 60%, according to FactSet. At today's price, that values Trump's shares at about $3.4 billion.
