John Jefferson
Trump Media shares fell to a 52-week low on Friday, a day after former President Donald Trump, the majority shareholder, was allowed to start selling his stocks in the company.
Other early investors had also been prevented from selling their shares because of the “lockup” restrictions imposed on them.
Trump media, which trades under the ticker “DJT,” closed down 7.82 percent on Friday, reaching $13.55 per share, according to CNBC.
There was a heavier-than-average trading volume on Friday, with the closing price of DJT taking longer than usual to determine after almost 20 million shares were traded.
It’s set to take a number of days before U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings show if the number of trades was because of early investors getting rid of their shares at the end of the lockup period or if there was a higher than usual number of retail investors trading Trump Media stocks.
Trump Media went public in March, and it was at this point that the lockup agreement was put in place. The company went public after a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp, a blank-check company.
Trump Media has stated in regulatory filings that the lockup period coming to an end could spur a flurry of sales. But they have also said that market perception that a sell-off was imminent could push down the share price even if early investors were not the ones trading away their stocks.
At close on Friday, Trump’s 114,750,000 shares were valued at $1.5bn. Last week, the former president said he was not intending to sell his shares at the end of the restrictions.
Trump saying during a press conference in California on September 13 that he has “absolutely no intention of selling” prompted the stock to rise 25 percent before closing more than 11 percent up – a rise that was obliterated this week as DJT saw a downturn.
Trump Media closed at the lowest level it has seen since entering the Nasdaq in March – down over 20 percent from the start of the week. It’s down more than 65 percent since it’s July high after Trump was the subject of a failed assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
When the markets closed on Friday, Trump Media’s market cap was at $2.7bn, according to CNBC.
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