The Nasdaq Market site was observed on March 26, 2024, in New York City as shares of Truth Social and Trump Media & Technology Group commenced trading under the ticker “DJT.” This information, captured by Shannon Stapleton for Reuters, highlights significant activity within Trump Media.
United Atlantic Ventures (UAV) LLC, a significant shareholder in Trump Media, has reportedly sold or otherwise disposed of nearly 11 million shares, according to a regulatory filing released on Thursday. This action leaves UAV, a partnership formed by former “Apprentice” contestants Andrew Litinsky and Wes Moss, in possession of merely 100 shares in Trump Media, the operator of the Truth Social app.
The sale was enabled by the expiration of a lock-up agreement barring insiders from selling their stakes, which ended on September 19. UAV is currently the sole insider known to have disposed of shares following the lift of this restriction.
Litinsky and Moss initially proposed the concept of a social media venture to former President Donald Trump and co-founded the company with him in 2021. However, the partnership eventually soured, leading to legal disputes regarding their shares. Donald Trump, now the Republican presidential nominee, holds over 56% of Trump Media shares, which are traded under the ticker DJT on the Nasdaq. The stock ended trading on Thursday at $13.98 per share, marking a 1% decline.
CNBC has reached out to Trump Media and a UAV attorney for further comment.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents reveal that UAV owned 7,525,000 shares of Trump Media as of March 25, coinciding with the company’s merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. Additionally, an SEC filing on September 5 indicated that UAV received another 3.44 million shares “for no additional consideration based on the performance of our shares of Common Stock,” bringing their total to over 10.96 million shares.
The most recent SEC filing did not disclose the timing, price, or prices for the shares UAV sold over the past week. However, trading data suggests the shares were sold at prices ranging from $11.75 to $15.50 per share, indicating UAV might have garnered between $128 million and $170 million.
Trump Media had previously cautioned in a Florida lawsuit that UAV intended to promptly sell off all its shares once permitted. During its initial trading on Nasdaq, Trump Media stock surged to an intraday high of $79.38 per share, elevating the company’s market capitalization to over $10 billion. However, the value of DJT quickly adjusted downward.
In recent months, DJT’s stock price has experienced a significant decline, reducing the company’s market capitalization to under $2.8 billion—a fall of over 80% from its post-merger peak. Analysts categorize DJT as a meme stock, attributing its volatile price movements more to investor sentiment towards Trump, the primary shareholder and key attraction of Truth Social, rather than the company’s business fundamentals.
Trump Media has reported net losses of approximately $344 million on revenues of less than $2 million over its last two quarterly earnings reports.