Zuckerberg Will Keep Facebook Shares, For At Least a Year

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A regulatory filing from Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) revealed that its chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, will not sell his stock for at least one year, while two of its board members Marc Andreesen and Donald Graham plan to sell some of their shares to cover tax liabilities.

Zuckerberg Will Keep Facebook Shares, For At Least a Year

Andreesen and Graham will sell their shares in the company through Rule 10b5-1, in accordance with the company’s trading plan. Based on the filing, the two board members have no intention to sell additional common stock.

The company also revealed that it has no intention to sell its 101 million shares to pay approximately $2 billion tax obligations. Facebook said it would settle its obligations by using its available cash and borrow from its credit facilities. Data on the filing indicated that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has 2.63 billion outstanding shares by November 14.

The social networking giant also revealed that its employees would be able to sell their shares by October 29. The total number of stocks available for sale during that day would be 234 million. On November 14 and December 14 another 777 million and 156 million Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) shares will be available in the public market for trading respectively.

The 47 million stocks held by Mail.ru Group Limited and DST Global Limited, will be available for sale on May 18, 2013. Currently, there are 692 million shares available for sale in the public market.

A separate filing revealed that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) co-founder Dustin Moskovitz sold 450,000 shares for approximately $8.3 million, at a price range of $17.56 to $19.42 per share. He sold 150,000 shares on August 30, another 150,000 shares on August 31 and the next 150,000 shares were sold on September 4.  Moskovitz still owns more than 126 million Facebook Shares.

Facebook’s stock value went down to its record low since its IPO, to $17.73 per share on Tuesday, after trading hours. Doug Anmuth, analyst from J.P. Morgan, said, “The Street has been heavily focused on the large lock-up expirations coming in October and November, and we believe the combination of taking Mark Zuckerberg’s shares out of that equation and also shrinking the outstanding share count by 101 million shares (~3.7%) shows management’s confidence in Facebook’s long-term story.”

On the other hand, analysts from Morgan Stanley reported that Facebook’s efforts in improving its mobile functionalities and apps started to pay off. The social networking giant’s mobile monetization is getting better. According to the report, the company’s users are slowly but progressively embracing the idea of mobile Facebook.

Analysts from Bank of America Merrill Lynch maintained a constructive outlook on Facebook’s capability in speeding up its revenue growth from new ad formats. They believe Facebook’s growth is affected by revenue pressure from increasing mobile usage, higher-than-expected social gaming slowdown, higher spending, and lock-up expirations. The research firm maintained a neutral rating and $23 per share price target for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stock.

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