Trump Media & Technology Group stock (DJT) rose around 2% in mid-morning trade Monday after shares surged 15% on Friday following news that Donald Trump would not sell his shares in the company.
Trump, who made the announcement on his Truth Social account Friday afternoon, maintains a roughly 60% interest in DJT, the parent company of Truth Social.
At current levels of around $32 a share, Trump Media boasts a market cap of about $7.1 billion, giving the president-elect a stake worth over $4.2 billion.
Shares in the company have been on a wild ride since Trump clinched victory over Kamala Harris in the presidential election, oscillating between highs and lows.
In September, shares in Trump Media traded at their lowest level since the company’s debut following the expiration of its highly publicized lockup period. The stock eventually bounced back from its lows as both domestic and overseas betting markets began to shift in favor of a Trump victory.
According to analytics company S3 Partners, DJT short sellers, or traders who bet the stock’s price will fall, are down $22.2 million in mark-to-market losses since November 4.
“Although we had been seeing increased short selling in DJT stock ahead of the election we have been seeing short covering since the election with 1.26 million shares, worth $392 million, bought to cover since November 4,” S3 Partners head of predictive analytics Ihor Dusaniwsky told Yahoo Finance.
“We expect continued short covering in DJT stock if the rally continues and head back towards its recent $51.51 high, the ensuing short squeeze which will force out many of the 1.7 million shares we saw shorted over the last month ahead of the election,” Dusaniwsky added.
Trump founded Truth Social after he was kicked off major social media apps like Facebook (META) and Twitter, now X, following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots. Trump has since been reinstated on those platforms. He officially returned to posting on X in mid-August after about a year’s hiatus.
As Truth Social attempts to take on social media incumbents, the fundamentals of the company have long been in question.
On Tuesday, just a few hours before the election polls closed, DJT dropped third quarter results that revealed a net loss of $19.25 million for the quarter ending Sept. 30. This was narrower than the $26.03 million the company reported in the year-ago period.
DJT also reported revenue of $1.01 million, a slight year-over-year drop compared to the $1.07 million it reported in the third quarter of 2023. Over the past nine months ending Sept. 30, revenue has fallen 23% from the prior-year period.