By David Randall
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A handful of institutional investors bought large positions in former President Donald Trump’s media company in the second quarter ahead of the company's inclusion in two Russell indexes, regulatory filings released on Wednesday showed.
Among the biggest purchasers of shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of the Truth Social platform, were asset managers Vanguard, State Street and BlackRock, which are known for their passive investing businesses. Those include exchange traded funds that buy shares of companies included in a wide range of indexes that they track.
Vanguard Group initiated a new position with the purchase of nearly 2.9 million shares of Trump Media, with a market value of approximately $94.3 million at the end of the quarter, the filings showed. BlackRock initiated a new position with the purchase of nearly 2.2 million shares, while State Street initiated a new position with just over 440,000 shares.
Trump Media & Technology was added to the Russell 1000 and Russell 3000 at the end of June, the final day of the last regulatory disclosure period. Index-based firms often purchase shares of companies they expect to be added to an index prior to their official inclusion, market participants said.
Other purchasers of Trump Media included hedge fund Greenwich Wealth Management, with a new position of 350,000 shares. Hudson Bay Capital Management added about 52,000 shares to its existing position, giving it a stake of approximately 202,000 shares.
The positions were published in regulatory filings known as 13Fs, which show what fund managers own at the end of every quarter.
Shares of Trump Media began trading on the Nasdaq on March 26 and have seen wild swings since then.
Trump Media shares fell to near record lows on Wednesday, following the company's weak quarterly results and the return of Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, to social media platform X. Trump is the majority owner of Trump Media & Technology and Truth Social is the company's main asset. Trump's dwindling lead in polls and election betting markets in recent weeks has also hit the stock, which is seen by some retail traders as a bet on whether Trump will win a second term. Trump Media stock has lost more than half its value since going public, dropping its market valuation down to $4.73 billion.
(Reporting by David Randall; Editing by Ira Iosebashvili and Leslie Adler)