Newsmax Inc. CEO Christopher Ruddy rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning to celebrate the company's stunning debut earlier this week as a public company.
Ruddy was on the exchange’s famed podium, joined by Newsmax’s top personalities, including Rudy Giuliani, Rob Schmitt, Greta Van Susteren, Greg Kelly, and Dick Morris.
Newsmax board members Ambassador Nancy Brinker, former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta and banker Christopher Cox were on the dais as Ruddy pressed the trading bell at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Newsmax's IPO on Monday stunned financial markets and media around the globe.
The company's initial public offering at $10 per share raised $75 million, and the company's Class B common stock was priced at $14 when trading began on Wall Street.
By the closing bell, the stock had risen 735% to $83.51.
The rally continued Tuesday, as the stock closed at $233 but reached a high of $279.99 in extended hours trading, a whopping increase of nearly 2,700% since the initial offering.
But the rally corrected itself on Wednesday, with the stock closing at $52.52 a share — still a remarkable 400% increase in just three days of public trading.
"It's only its third day of trading as a public company, so [the stock drop] is quite [a] deterrent," Bloomberg Markets Today Managing Editor Kristine Aquino stated Wednesday on the "Stock Movers" podcast.
"But you know, it's still up more than 400% from its [IPO] price, and its market cap is still at $6 billion. So, that's a pretty nice cushy, cushion there."
Even the Financial Times noted that Newsmax, at over $20 billion, was no laughing matter.
The FT headlined that Newsmax was a "business with credible prospects" and predicted it could generate "a lot of cash" from advertising and subscriptions.
Newsmax CEO Ruddy told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" on Tuesday that he is not paying as much attention on the stock price as he is on efforts of building the company.
"Some people are saying we broke recent records [for the] New York Stock Exchange," Ruddy said. "I think this just proves the American people really like your show. They like Newsmax. They trust us. They value us, and they're encouraging us to grow more."
Many media outlets have compared the frantic trading pace of Newsmax stock since Monday to meme stocks, or those that have gained viral popularity because of heightened social sentiment.
Ruddy told CNBC on Monday, "We see ourselves as a growth stock," helping explain why investors flocked to Newsmax shares.
Newsmax rejects claims of being a meme stock, noting that it's a major media enterprise with the fourth-ranked cable news network in the U.S.
The company launched its cable news channel in 2014 and says it reaches over 40 million Americans through its platforms.
Last year, the Reuters Institute global survey on media reported that Newsmax was 1 of the top 12 news brands in the U.S.
It's common for newly public companies to fetch high relative share prices shortly after their IPO as investors bet a company can grow into its valuation, Forbes reported Wednesday.
For example, Facebook profited just $670 million off of $3.7 billion in sales during 2011, the final year before its IPO, growing exponentially to a $62 billion profit on $165 billion in sales by 2024.
"In fact, we're the No. 4 cable news channel in the United States, right behind CNN; we're No. 7 of all cable channels based on Nielsen's coverage rating," Ruddy told CNBC. "I think it's a pretty big achievement for a 10-year-old new cable company."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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