Shares of Trump Media and Technology Group slipped as much as 6% during Friday’s trading session after President-elect Donald Trump transferred his entire stake in the company to a revocable trust in which he is the sole beneficiary.
According to an SEC filing disclosing the transfer, Trump now indirectly owns 114.75 million shares, or 53% of its total 216,924,448 outstanding shares. The trust was established in 2014, with the transfer taking place on Tuesday.
His son, Donald Trump Jr., is the sole trustee of the trust and has sole voting and investment power over securities held by the entity, a separate filing noted. While TMTG wasn’t founded until February 2021, Trump had previously made other transfers into the same account in February 2016 and early 2017.
Shares of Trump Media and Technology Group, which trade under the ticker symbol DJT, closed at $35.41 per share on Thursday, making the transferred stock worth around $4 billion. The stock is trading Friday morning at $35.06 apiece, up 31% in the past six months, 100% year to date and 101% in the past year. Its market capitalization sits at $7.6 billion.
The move came after Trump said in November that he had no intention of selling his shares in the company, which owns Truth Social.
In its third quarter of 2024, TMTG reported an operating loss of $23.7 million and a net loss of $19.2 million, which included $12.1 million in legal fees and $3.9 million in research and development spend. The company earned $1 million in revenue as well as $4.7 million in interest income. As of Sept. 30, its balance of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments was $672.9 million with no debt.
Though Trump is not an officer or director of TMTG, he did serve as chairman when it was a private company. Shares began publicly trading earlier this year after the company merged with Digital World Acquisition Corp.
