On March 26, 2024, shares of Truth Social and Trump Media & Technology Group began trading under the ticker “DJT” at the Nasdaq Market site in New York City, U.S., as captured by Shannon Stapleton of Reuters.
United Atlantic Ventures (UAV), a significant shareholder in Trump Media, has sold nearly 11 million shares in the company, according to a regulatory filing by UAV on Thursday. This transaction resulted in UAV—an investment partnership formed by former “Apprentice” contestants Andrew Litinsky and Wes Moss—retaining only 100 shares in Trump Media, the operator of the Truth Social app.
The sale of UAV’s shares was permitted after the expiration of a lock-up agreement on September 19, which had previously restricted company insiders from selling their stakes. UAV is the sole insider known to have sold shares since this date.
Litinsky and Moss originally proposed the concept of a social media company to former President Donald Trump and co-founded Trump Media with him in 2021. However, they later had a falling out with Trump and have been involved in legal disputes with Trump Media over their shares.
Donald Trump retains over 56% ownership of Trump Media shares, which trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker DJT. On Thursday, the stock closed at $13.98 per share, marking a roughly 1% decrease. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, stated on September 13 that he has “absolutely no intention of selling” his shares following the expiration of the lock-up period.
CNBC has sought comments from Trump Media and UAV’s legal representative regarding the sales executed by Litinsky and Moss’ company. According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, UAV held 7,525,000 shares of Trump Media as of March 25, the day Trump Media finalized its merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a blank-check company.
Subsequently, UAV was awarded an additional 3.44 million shares, issued “for no additional consideration based on the performance of our shares of Common Stock,” as per a Trump Media SEC filing on September 5. This brought UAV’s total holdings to more than 10.96 million shares. The recent SEC filing does not specify when UAV sold its shares or the prices obtained during the past week, but trading data suggests they received between $128 million and $170 million for the shares, with DJT’s prices ranging from $15.50 to $11.75 per share in that period.
Trump Media had previously cautioned in a Florida lawsuit that UAV intended to sell “all of its shares as soon as possible” once the lock-up period concluded. After its Nasdaq debut, DJT’s stock soared, peaking at $79.38 per share and driving the company’s market capitalization beyond $10 billion. However, the stock’s value quickly retracted.
In recent months, DTJ’s price has plummeted, erasing over 80% of the company’s market value since its post-merger peak. The company’s current market capitalization is below $2.8 billion. Analysts consider DJT a meme stock, with its volatile price fluctuations fueled more by investor support for Trump, the primary shareholder and Truth Social’s main attraction, rather than strong business fundamentals.
Trump Media reported net losses of approximately $344 million on revenues below $2 million in its last two quarterly earnings reports.
