Stock in Trump Media & Technology Group took a precipitous drop in value before trading officially opened on Monday morning and then continued to stay under $30 a share after trading commenced.
According to an early report from Barron's, leery investors' skepticism flared up as Donald Trump headed to a Manhattan courtroom where he is facing 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels that could end with him serving time in prison.
That was followed moments later by a second blow to investor confidence after the technology company behind Truth Social filed to issue millions of additional shares of stock despite recent reports it lost millions last year and has never made a profit.
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According to a report from CNBC, the potential dilution of shareholder value precipitated a drop that saw the stock, which ended Friday at $32.49, plummet to a low of $26.83 before rebounding to just over $27.
As for the offering, CNBC reports, "The company’s intent to issue more common stock was made public Monday morning in a 'preliminary prospectus filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The shares cannot be issued until a registration statement with the SEC goes into effect."
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"The company also seeks to offer the resale of up to 146.1 million shares of stock from 'selling securityholders,' 114.8 million of which are held by Trump himself. Trump owns 78.8 million shares of the company, and stands to obtain 36 million “earnout shares” if the stock stays above a certain price for enough trading days," the report added.
As of 10:30 ET, the stock was down 15.91 percent for the day.