Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta Platforms Inc., has sold nearly half a billion dollars worth of the company’s shares in the final two months of 2023. This move marks a significant shift after a two-year pause, during which Meta’s stock price experienced its lowest point in seven years.
According to a recent regulatory filing, Zuckerberg sold shares every trading day from November 1 through the end of the year. In total, he unloaded approximately 1.28 million shares for about $428 million. On average, each sale amounted to $10.4 million, with the largest single-day sale occurring on December 28, valued at $17.1 million.
This series of sales comes after Zuckerberg’s last sale of Meta shares in November 2021. Following the dip in share prices, Meta experienced a rebound of 194 percent last year from its seven-year low near the end of 2022. The company’s shares have notably outperformed those of most other major tech giants, except Nvidia Corp., and are now approaching their record high from September 2021.
Zuckerberg, 39, holds about 13 percent of Meta and is currently valued at around $125 billion, placing him as the seventh-richest person globally, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Meta has not responded to requests for comments on this significant financial move by its CEO.
In a similar trend, Marc Benioff, another prominent figure in the tech industry, also sold shares nearly every day in the second half of 2023. The Salesforce Inc. co-founder liquidated more than $475 million worth of shares during this period, averaging about $3 million in sales each day.
These transactions by Zuckerberg and Benioff represent major activities in the tech sector’s financial landscape, reflecting both personal wealth management strategies and broader market dynamics.
