31 May 2024 , 03:42
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Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social, saw its stock plummet on Thursday after former President Donald Trump was convicted of hush money payments.
The firm's shares dropped roughly 9% in after-hours trading following the verdict from a New York jury that Trump had falsified business records to conceal payments made to an adult film star who claimed to have had an affair with him.
Trading under the ticker "DJT," the stock has been volatile since its market debut in late March. It's become a favourite among meme stock traders, experiencing sharp rises and falls as retail investors ride the waves of momentum.
Despite the stock tripling this year, it has witnessed wild swings, sometimes moving by double-digit percentages in a single day. To put things into perspective, the stock hit almost $80 during intraday trading on March 26th, while the S&P 500 has seen a nearly 10% increase year to date.
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Earlier in the month, Trump Media reported a staggering loss of over $300 million for the last quarter, in its first earnings announcement as a public entity, reports the Mirror US.
The company has reported a staggering loss of $327.6 million for the quarter ending March 31, with a whopping $311 million chalked up to non-cash expenses linked to its merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC). DWAC operates as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which offers a quicker and less scrutinised pathway for emerging companies to become publicly listed.
In a recent development, Trump Media and Technology Group gave BF Borgers, an auditing firm recently slammed with "massive fraud" charges by federal regulators, the boot. This decision has resulted in a delay in submitting the company's quarterly financial report.
Before this hiccup, Trump Media had already seen a revolving door of auditors, with one stepping down in July 2023 and another getting the sack from the board in March, coincidentally around the time BF Borgers was brought back on board.