The latest polls showing former President Donald Trump ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris are good news for the stock prices of his media companies.
Shares of Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of President Trump's social media platform Truth Social, rose more than 7% during Monday's Wall Street trading session before slipping back slightly later.
Just before 1 p.m. Eastern time, Trump Media shares were up 7.6% to trade at $18.39.
However, as of 2:35 p.m. ET, the company's shares were up 5.61%.
Investors are New New York Times/Siena College Poll The poll released Sunday showed Trump slightly ahead of Harris, 48% to 47%, an improvement over the previous poll in which the vice president led the Republican Party.
Trump got some more good news on Monday from Nate Silver, a data journalist and founder of the prediction site FiveThirtyEight. Introducing our own model This would suggest that the former president beat Harris and won all the key battleground states, giving him 312 Electoral College votes, well above the vice president's meager 226.
President Trump's reelection would be a boon for Truth Social, which would effectively become the platform Trump uses to make statements and break news.
Despite the recent string of strong performances, Trump Media shares are down 70% from their peak in March, when they debuted on the Nasdaq index. As of Monday, the company's market capitalization was $3.63 billion.
Given that Trump's holdings account for about 59% of Trump Media's outstanding shares, his stake in the company is worth about $2.18 billion, down $4 billion from the beginning of the year.
On September 19, a lock-up clause that prevents Trump, who owns 115 million shares in the company, from selling any of his outstanding shares expires.
This means Trump could sell the shares on the open market and make a huge ten-figure profit.
However, doing so would cause the company's share price to plummet, wiping out any remaining value for its more than 600,000 shareholders.
Trump has not said what he plans to do. The Washington Post has reached out to Trump Media for comment.
Trump Media reported last month that it lost more than $16 million in its most recent quarter and that revenue was declining.
Half of the loss was due to legal costs related to its merger with a company called Digital World Acquisition Corp., which was essentially a cash pile looking for a merger partner.
In the first quarter, Trump Media reported a loss of more than $300 million.
