There are many U.S.-listed companies with a market capitalization of $3 billion or higher. One of them is Digital World Acquisition (NASDAQ:DWAC). What’s more, year-t0-date (YTD), DWAC stock is currently in the top five best performer amongst this large cohort of $3 billion-plus market-cap stocks.
Care to guess what the first-best performer is? BRC (NYSE:BRCC), better known as the Black Rifle Coffee Company. Ironically, both companies are backed by right-of-center management and boards.
When it comes to DWAC stock, though, I will take every opportunity available to warn investors against the shell game called Truth Social. There are a thousand better options, if not more. By almost every valuation metric, the Trump Media & Technology Group is long on style and short on substance.
I don’t know how DWAC will play out in the future, but I do believe former President Donald Trump will ensure he’s the biggest winner of them all. That’s not the kind of business I want to invest my hard-earned capital in. You shouldn’t either. Here’s why.
DWAC Stock and Trump’s Fan Base
I don’t think there’s any question that, if any other celebrity were launching Truth Social, DWAC stock would not be trading at around the $90 mark. The company has no revenue or income to speak of and, despite some pre-launch tweet-like mock-ups from the former President, it’s only just now opening for business.
Mashable recently discussed the missed opportunity of the former President’s first message on the platform, suggesting that the so-called “truth” would have been far better received if it had actually been shared on Truth Social instead of via a screenshot on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR). Mashable contributor Matt Binder recently added the following about the platform:
“One thing that is clear, though, is that Truth Social looks like an exact replica of Twitter. The posts all look like tweets, complete with similar looking reply, retweet, share, and like buttons. The profile page looks like you’re viewing a user’s account on Twitter. Perhaps the biggest difference is the dystopian renaming of ‘tweets’ as ‘truths.’”
Not that original, for sure.
What’s more, the people who are putting Truth Social together — such as CEO Devin Nunes — aren’t exactly business people. Nunes’ experience in business appears to be nothing more than a few years spent working on a family farm in California combined with a master’s degree in agriculture. Educated, sure, but hardly a business titan.
As I stated in a recent article about Palantir (NYSE:PLTR) in which I compared its valuation to Digital World’s, it took Twitter over six years to generate an annual run-rate of $900 million in revenue while losing more than $600 million annually in the process. I find it hard to believe that Devin Nunes has the business chops to deliver anything nearly as significant as Jack Dorsey did with Twitter.
I could care less whether or not you are a Trump fan. But logic states that Truth Social is just another train wreck in the making. Its valuation is supported by little.
Should You Short Digital World Acquisition?
So, with such a bearish opinion of this special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), does that mean you should short the stock? Not so fast. Approximately 15.2% of DWAC stock’s float was short as of Jan. 31, 2022. That’s not very high. And according to MarketWatch, there are plenty of other names with much higher short ratios. For example, almost 41% of Blink Charging’s (NASDAQ:BLNK) float is short. Moreover, there are many household names on MarketWatch’s list of top shorts.
Why not DWAC stock? It would seem like the perfect candidate, right? Well, fellow InvestorPlace contributor Josh Enomoto recently discussed why shorting DWAC is a bad idea.
“[T]he SPAC essentially gave hardcore conservatives the ability to support right-wing ideologies without incurring reputational damage. Honestly, who’s going to know unless you broadcast your holdings publicly?”
Enomoto went on to suggest that the symbolism carried by DWAC stock and what it represents is stronger than almost any other stock trading on a U.S. stock exchange. He’s 100% correct.
Personlly, I am not a fan of the former President. More importantly, I believe the investment case for buying its shares is poor. There are plenty of better mid- and large-cap stocks to buy. However, betting against what has become a de facto right-wing investment badge of honor is also sheer lunacy.
The Bottom Line on DWAC Stock
Ardent supporters of Trump seem like they may do everything in their power to support the price of DWAC stock. In fact, these fans potentially won’t have a problem paying more than they should for a stock that labels them a patriot.
It might be a misguided ideology, but the beautiful thing about the markets is this: “In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.”
Translation? Donald Trump remains super popular with a segment of America that is unlikely to change. It’s also unlikely that the popularity of DWAC stock will diminish until long after Truth Social has been launched, if ever.
I wouldn’t touch DWAC stock with a 10-foot pole. But that doesn’t mean I think you should short it, either. There are much better options to short than this name.
On the date of publication, Will Ashworth did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Will Ashworth has written about investments full-time since 2008. Publications where he’s appeared include InvestorPlace, The Motley Fool Canada, Investopedia, Kiplinger, and several others in both the U.S. and Canada. He particularly enjoys creating model portfolios that stand the test of time. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.