Mark Zuckerberg continues to offload Meta Platforms stock at eye-watering numbers. On February 8, the Facebook co-founder sold $134 million worth of shares in the technology conglomerate, taking the total tally to $765 million worth of shares that have been sold since November 2023.
Over the past year, Facebook-parent Meta’s shares have zoomed over 160 percent, more than doubling investor’s wealth. In comparison, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has risen around 33 percent during the period.
In November, the Meta co-founder’s trust and his charitable and political entities unloaded 682,000 shares, which were worth about $185 million. By the close of the year, the Facebook CEO had sold around 1.8 million shares within two months, taking the total to nearly $428 million.
Zuckerberg holds around 13 percent in Meta, which contributes to his fortune of $170 billion.
The Facebook CEO used to routinely offload shares in the social media company over the past decade, but in 2022, he didn’t sell any stock. Experts said it could be the result of the Meta stock tanking, as a brutal fourth-quarter earnings report in February 2022 sank the scrip 26 percent in a day.
Following a now-viral Senate hearing, Zuckerberg declared a dividend of $0.50 for every Class A and Class B common stock on February 1. The record date is February 22, and the dividend is likely to be paid on March 26. As a result of his 350 million shares in Meta, this dividend might give the Facebook co-founder a cool $700 million.
The dividend announcement sent the Meta stock surging over 20 percent intraday, taking it above the $400-mark. The rally in Facebook shares over January 2024 sent the stock surging over record-highs it previously hit in September 2021, clocking a fresh lifetime high at $485.96 per share.
(with agency inputs)
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