Leveraging the company’s exceptional stock market performance, Meta Platforms (META, Financial data) CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold about $2 billion worth of Meta stock in 2024, funding his personal businesses and diversifying his investment portfolio. As Meta makes major strategic changes to improve its technical capability and seek new revenue streams, sales follow.
Based on a trading strategy defined by Rule 10b5-1 adopted in August, Zuckerberg’s stock trades correspond to those of 5.6 million Class A shares and 1.7 million Class A shares B authorized. Zuckerberg owns high-voting Class B shares, which have 10 votes per share compared to Class A shares, retaining control of Meta even with these transactions.
Meta stock has surged more than 70% year to date, just hitting a new high of $588.88, increasing its market valuation to around $1.49 trillion. Third-quarter profits rose 35% year-over-year and revenue jumped 19% to $40.59 billion, above analysts’ expectations, helping the company’s financial performance maintain this expansion .
In addition to its financial performance, Meta has launched various projects aimed at confirming its technological leadership. There are plans to include artificial intelligence-created individuals on Facebook and Instagram to improve user interaction among its three billion members. “Metamate,” an in-house AI tool that the company is also creating, will help increase production and simplify processes.
Meta unveiled new products including augmented reality glasses, “Orion,” and enhanced Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses featuring artificial intelligence capability and real-time voice translation. Advertising in early 2025 in X’s rival company Threads (formerly Twitter) will also help the company turn a profit.
Meta is financing these developments by spending $10 billion on a new data center in Louisiana, intended to meet the growing energy consumption of its AI projects.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.