Sales of shares were part of a trading plan adopted on July 31
While Meta Platforms Inc.’s stock was rallying in November, enough to reach a nearly two-year high, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was selling.
According to Form 4 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Zuckerberg sold Meta shares META, -0.71% every day in November, for a total of 560,180 shares sold through Nov. 29. A Form 144 filing on Thursday indicated that he placed orders to sell another 28,009 shares that day.
Based on the weighted average prices of the share sales, and Thursday’s closing of $327.15, the value of the shares sold would be $192.9 million.
The shares sold, which were indirectly owned by Zuckerberg, were executed for various funds. The sales disclosed were in accordance with the Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted on July 31.
The social-media giant’s stock climbed 8.6% in November to post a third straight month of gains. It closed as high as $341.49 on Nov. 22, the highest closing price since Dec. 30, 2021, before pulling back.
The bulk of the shares sold by Zuckerberg were acquired in 2004 as part of a “founder stock purchase.” Nearly 150,000 of the shares sold were acquired for $0 on the days they were sold through the exercising of options acquired in 2013.
Based on recent filings, Zuckerberg still appears to own roughly more than 365 million shares. Zuckerberg was the ninth richest person in the world as of Nov. 30, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
And while more than $190 million worth of shares sounds like a lot of stock to sell in a month, based on the daily average trading volume over the past 30 days of 19.18 million shares, more than $6.2 billion worth of Meta shares change hands on an average day.
Facebook’s stock fell 0.6% in afternoon trading Friday, and has pulled back 4.7% since the Nov. 22 close. The stock, which is part of the technology-giant group referred to as the “Magnificent Seven,” has soared 170.4% for the year to date, while the S&P 500 index SPX has advanced 19.6%.