In November, Meta's stock soared to nearly a two-year high while CEO Mark Zuckerberg embarked on a consistent selling spree. His filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed a daily offloading of Meta shares throughout the month, tallying up to 560,180 shares sold by November 29.
Meta's Stock Surge Amidst Sales
Additionally, a Form 144 filing on Thursday detailed his intent to sell an additional 28,009 shares that same day.Considering the weighted average prices of these sales alongside Thursday's closing figure of $327.15, the collective worth of these shares amounted to $192.9 million (approximately Rs 1,600 crore).
Zuckerberg's indirect ownership of the sold shares encompassed diverse funds, all within the framework of a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan initiated on July 31.
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Despite this sell-off, Meta's stock surged by 8.6% in November, marking its third consecutive month of gains. It hit a peak closing price of $341.49 on November 22, the highest since December 30, 2021, before experiencing a pullback.
Meta's Daily Trading Volume Insights
A significant portion of the sold shares were initially acquired by Zuckerberg in 2004 through a "founder stock purchase." Around 150,000 of these shares were obtained at $0 on the days they were sold, acquired through options exercised in 2013.
Recent filings indicate that despite these sales, Zuckerberg still holds upwards of 365 million shares. As of November 30, he retained his position as the ninth wealthiest individual globally, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
While the sale of over $190 million worth of shares might appear substantial for a single month, the daily average trading volume over the past 30 days has consistently surpassed 19.18 million shares. On average, more than $6.2 billion worth of Meta shares change hands daily.