Newsmax (NMAX) stock dropped roughly 68% Wednesday afternoon, partially reversing a massive post-IPO surge that saw shares soar from $14 to $233.
The stock’s spiral sent Newsmax’s market cap down to $6.7 billion, one third of its roughly $21 billion value at Tuesday’s close.
Newsmax is a conservative cable news outlet and Fox News alternative that was founded in 1998 by CEO Christopher Ruddy, a media mogul and friend of US President Trump. The company — which also owns subsidiaries that sell nutritional supplements and insurance advertised in Newsmax’s newsletters — raised $75 million in its IPO Friday, with shares priced at $10. Newsmax had previously raised $225 million in a private offering in February.
Read more about Newsmax’s stock moves and today’s market action.
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The stock began trading at $14 Monday before surging a staggering 735%. Shares rose another 180% Tuesday, rocketing Newsmax’s market cap from $1.2 billion upon its market debut to $20.8 billion. The stock’s performance showed the Trump trade still has room to run in some cases, just as the president’s tariff policies slam the market at large.
Newsmax’s market cap at Tuesday’s close was higher than those of Wall Street Journal parent News Corp (NWSA) and AI server maker Super Micro Computer (SMCI).
Newsmax is unprofitable. While the company’s revenue jumped more than 26% to $171 million in 2024 from the prior year’s $135 million, its loss increased nearly 73% to $72 million from the prior year’s loss, according to Newsmax’s 10-K SEC filing. The company also said in its filing that it has identified “material weaknesses” in its financial reporting controls such that there may be “a material misstatement” in its financial statements that it may not detect “on a timely basis.”
Newsmax’s massive upswing has prompted various media outlets to draw comparisons to the meme stock craze of 2020 as well as the notoriously volatile stock of Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT). On Monday, trading of Newsmax stock was halted at various points due to volatility.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Newsmax shares traded around $75. DJT, meanwhile, was down more than 5%.
Screens display the trading information for Newsmax Inc. during the company’s IPO on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., March 31, 2025. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid · REUTERS / Reuters
Newsmax is facing an ongoing lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems seeking $1.6 billion in damages related to false claims it made in its coverage of the 2020 election, which Newsmax cited among risk factors to its business in its latest 10-K filing to the SEC. Newsmax settled another lawsuit with another election tech company, Smartmatic, in 2024 for similar claims and has paid $20 million of the $40 million settlement thus far, according to the filing.
