Move over, Trump Media and Technology Group; when it comes to wildly overpriced meme stocks with America First credentials, there’s a new kid in town.
Stocktake is talking about right-wing cable channel Newsmax, which hit stratospheric valuation levels in the days after its stock market debut.
Opening for trading at $14 per share, it peaked at $279 on its second day of trading on April 1st – appropriately enough, Fool’s Day.
At its peak, Newsmax was valued at almost $30 billion – more than Fox Corporation, even though Fox’s 2024 revenues ($13.98 billion) were roughly 82 times greater than Newsmax’s ($171 million). Investors “are buying Newsmax shares because they like us, they value us and they want us to keep growing”, said founder and CEO Christopher Ruddy.
Of course, buying a stock for personal or political reasons is rarely a good idea – as investors belatedly discovered on Wednesday, when shares plunged almost 80 per cent.