Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has offloaded nearly 1.28 million shares of the company, totaling a USD 428 million in the final two months of 2023. This comes after a two-year hiatus from selling Meta shares, during which the company faced a significant downturn in its stock price, hitting its lowest point in seven years, according to a Bloomberg report.
The high-profile CEO engaged in daily sales from 1 November until the close of the year, with an average transaction value of USD 10.4 million. The largest sale occurred on 28 December, reaching a substantial USD 17.1 million. Prior to this selling spree, Zuckerberg had refrained from selling any Meta shares since November 2021.
The timing of Zuckerberg's divestment coincides with Meta's impressive recovery, with its share price bouncing back by an impressive 194 per cent in the past year. This rebound followed a challenging period that saw the company's stock at its lowest toward the end of 2022. Remarkably, Meta's shares outperformed those of nearly every major tech giant, second only to Nvidia Corp, and currently stand close to their record high in September 2021.
At present, Zuckerberg retains approximately 13 per cent ownership of Meta, boasting a substantial net worth of around USD 125 billion. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, this positions him as the seventh-richest individual globally.
Despite the significant sell-off, Meta has remained tight-lipped, offering no official comment on Zuckerberg's recent divestment. Interestingly, another tech luminary, Marc Benioff, co-founder of Salesforce Inc., also opted for regular share sales during the latter half of 2023. Benioff liquidated over USD 475 million worth of shares, averaging about 15,000 shares, equivalent to roughly USD 3 million, each day during this period.