After a recovery from a challenging 2022, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is selling Meta Platforms Inc. stocks for the first time in two years, says a report by news agency Bloomberg. In November, entities related to Zuckerberg's trust, charitable and political initiatives divested approximately 682,000 shares, amounting to nearly $185 million, as revealed in recent regulatory filings. This marks the first instance of entities overseeing Zuckerberg's wealth selling shares since November 2021.
According to Form 4 filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), he placed orders to sell another 28,009 shares on November 29. With the stock closing of $327.15, the value of the shares sold would be $192.9 million. The bulk of the shares sold were acquired in 2004 as part of a “founder stock purchase”. Almost 150,000 of the sold shares were obtained at no cost on the days they were sold, as they were acquired through the exercise of options gained in 2013.
As per a report by Market Watch, the shares sold, which were indirectly owned by the company CEO, were executed for various funds. The sales disclosed were in accordance with the Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted on July 31.
Recent filings suggest tht Zuckerberg still holds approximately over 365 million shares. As of November 30, he held the ninth position among the world's richest individuals, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. While the sale of over $190 million worth of shares may seem substantial for a month, given the daily average trading volume of 19.18 million shares over the past 30 days, Meta shares exceeding $6.2 billion in value are exchanged on an average day.
Earlier in October, Facebook parent Meta reported a significant progress in its social media endeavours. CEO Zuckerberg revealed during the quarterly earnings call that Meta's latest social media platform, Threads, has achieved an impressive milestone. Launched in early July, Threads, positioned as a direct competitor to Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter), has garnered just under 100 million monthly users in a span of three months.
Zuckerberg, known for his long-term vision, sees Threads as a formidable contender in the social media landscape, especially with the transformation of Musk's platform into the X super app. He envisions Threads as a billion-person public conversations app with a more positive tone and believes that, with continued dedication, the company can bring this vision to fruition in the coming years.