After a two-year hiatus, Meta CEO Zuckerberg quickly sold off his holdings in the last two months of 2023, successfully cashing out as much as $428 million.
According to regulatory documents from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, from November 1st to the end of last year, Zuckerberg sold nearly 1.28 million shares of Meta on every US stock trading day. Since November 2021, due to the sluggish stock price, Zuckerberg has stopped selling his Meta stocks until the end of last year.
This will also be closely related to the trend of the US stock market. Last year, technology stocks unexpectedly surged, with Meta's stock price rising by 194.1%, far ahead of the market and major technology companies except Nvidia. Compared to its seven-year low in November 2022, it has risen nearly threefold.
Zuckerberg's trading strategy is very consistent with investment logic from a certain perspective: it is safe to invest at high points. However, as the CEO of Meta, Zuckerberg's rapid shipment move still raises doubts among many investors.
The Future of Technology Stocks
Investors are searching for any clues, such as Jennifer Newstead, the Chief Legal Officer of Meta, who sold 566 shares of Meta's stock on December 12 last year. But this number is really insignificant compared to Zuckerberg's handwriting.
According to Tip Ranks' internal trading tool disclosed last month, Meta insiders have sold $12.8 million worth of stocks in the past three months. Therefore, there are rumors that Meta insiders do not have full confidence in the rise of Meta's stocks.
At the same time, other executives in the US technology industry have also taken action in stock trading. Apple CEO Tim Cook sold his Apple shares for approximately $42 million after tax in October last year, marking his largest sale in over two years.
Another tech giant, Marc Benioff, co-founder of Salesforce, also cashed out on almost every trading day in the second half of 2023, successfully selling stocks worth over $475 million with a daily trading volume of $3 million.
These transactions seem to reveal the hesitation of technology executives about the prospects of technology stocks, which also deepens the market's suspicion. Steve Sosnick, Chief Strategist at Interactive Brokers Group, pointed out that if similar forces are not seen driving the stock market up in recent times, the frenzy in the US stock market may be coming to an end.
Bank of America also warned that large technology stocks may "collapse" in January, which is already a consensus on Wall Street. Bank of America analyst Savita Subramanian said that many active funds bought large technology stocks at the end of the year to whitewash their books, but as other industries were boosted by a soft landing, the position of stock market leaders may change. Sector rotation will be one of the main reasons why technology stocks will face pain in January.