Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) inaugurated the age of social media — but at one point, a saturated market, lack of innovation, and a seemingly bottomless pit in the form of the Metaverse made it seem like the company’s glory days were over.
As it turns out, that was too hasty of a call — through an ambitious cost-cutting plan dating back to 2023, a renewed focus on advertising revenue, and the advent of artificial intelligence, Meta stock has managed to secure a 64.85% return over the course of 2024.
At press time, a single Meta share was changing hands at $610.72 — some 3.4% off of its $632.68 all time high price (ATH) reached on December 11, 2024.
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In contrast with these recent successes, the company’s co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has been on a selling spree as of late. In December alone, Zuckerberg made roughly $335.94 million by selling Meta stock.
It seems like the billionaire isn’t done with the offloading — according to data retrieved by Finbold’s insider trading radar from a recently publicized SEC filing, on January 6, Mark Zuckerberg once again sold Meta shares worth millions of dollars.
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This signal is triggered upon the reporting of the trade to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Zuckerberg sells Meta stock worth $14,184,775
Per the filing, Zuckerberg executed 22 transactions on January 6, at prices ranging from $606.31 to $630.33. In total, his sale encompassed 22,946 Meta shares, and was worth approximately $14,184,775.
The transaction was prearranged, as it was made according to a 10b5-1 trading plan adopted on August 9, 2024. Therefore, it cannot serve as a reliable bearish signal — in all likelihood, Zuckerberg simply took advantage of the stock’s upward trajectory to lock in profits.
Wall Street is quite bullish on Meta stock — most of the recent price target revisions made by major firms see quite a generous upside in the cards.
The company has attracted some negative attention recently — most notably due to its quickly backtracked intention of filling its platforms with AI users and its controversial decision to move away from fact-checking. However, neither of these two developments has had an appreciable effect on stock prices
In addition, the business recently appointed three new board members, including UFC CEO and president Dana White, in a bid to increase brand strength, leverage AI more efficiently for growth, and expand into the wearables market.
Featured image via Shutterstock
