Meta Inc. (META) is the holding company that owns Facebook, the largest social networking site in the world with 3.07 billion monthly active users (MAUs) as of year-end 2023. The Facebook website and app enable people to connect with family and friends, and to share their opinions, ideas, images, and videos. Meta also owns and operates the popular photo-sharing app Instagram, the text-update app Threads as well as messaging apps Messenger and WhatsApp. Additionally, the company provides virtual-reality hardware, software, and a developer ecosystem through its Reality Labs business.
The top shareholders of Meta are Michael Schroepfer, David Fischer, David Wehner, Mark Zuckerberg, Vanguard Group Inc., and BlackRock Inc.
The company was founded as Facebook in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and three of his classmates at Harvard University. It went public in 2012 and has become one of the world’s largest companies, with a market capitalization of $1.334 trillion as of April 2024.
In 2021, Facebook Inc. changed its name to Meta Platforms Inc. It changed its ticker from FB to META in 2022.
For the trailing 12-month (TTM) period ended Dec. 31, 2023, Meta earned $46.8 billion in net income and $134.9 billion in revenue.
Top 3 Individual Insider Shareholders
The shares owned by individual insider shareholders are those that are held through direct ownership. Shares mentioned in this section do not include shares held indirectly nor shares accessible through stock options. Company insiders must file an SEC Form 4 every time they buy or sell an amount of the company’s stock that is deemed to be material.
Important
“Insider” refers to people in senior management positions and members of the board of directors, as well as people or entities that own more than 10% of the company’s stock. In this context, it has nothing to do with insider trading.
Michael Schroepfer
Michael Schroepfer owns a total of 630,612 Meta shares, representing 0.02% of the company’s total shares outstanding. Schroepfer is Meta’s chief technology officer, leading Meta’s technological development teams across areas including artificial intelligence and virtual reality. He joined Meta in 2008. Prior to Meta, Schroepfer held an executive position in engineering with Mozilla Corp. as well as positions at Sun Microsystems and CenterRun Inc. In September 2021, Schroepfer announced he would step down from the CTO position in 2022 to become a senior fellow at the company.
David Fischer
David Fischer owns a total of 37,089 Meta shares, representing less than 0.01% of the company’s total shares outstanding. Fischer is chief revenue officer of Meta, overseeing the company’s advertising business and managing the Sales and Marketing teams worldwide. He joined Meta in 2010, having previously been vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google (GOOG). He is known for having built and directed Google’s online sales channel. Fischer was also deputy chief of staff of the U.S. Treasury Department. He is a board member of Alterra Mountain Co. and chair of the Ad Council.
David Wehner
David Wehner owns a total of 26,948 shares of Meta, representing less than 0.01% of the company’s total shares outstanding. Since 2014, Wehner has been chief financial officer of Meta, responsible for leading the finance, facilities, and information technology teams. Wehner previously was Meta’s vice president of Corporate Finance and Business Planning as well as chief financial officer at Zynga Inc. (ZNGA).
Top 3 Institutional Shareholders
Institutional investors hold about 79.65% of Meta’s total shares outstanding, as of December 30, 2023. Institutional investors—institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in assets under management (AUM)—must file an SEC Form 13F every quarter to disclose their equity holdings. Individual investors may be considered institutional investors if they acquire 5% or more of a company’s shares, thus requiring them to file either a Schedule 13D or Schedule 13G form.
Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg is Meta’s largest shareholder by far. As mentioned, he co-founded Meta, then called Facebook, and has been the company’s longtime chair and chief executive officer (CEO). According to Forbes, Zuckerberg has a net worth of $183.3 billion. He currently holds approximately 958,000 shares of Class A and 346.05 million shares of Class B with over 61% of voting power, according to the latest Schedule 14A filing.
Vanguard Group Inc.
Vanguard holds approximately 186.3 million shares of Meta, representing 8.47% of total shares outstanding, as of Dec. 30, 2023. Vanguard is one of the world’s largest investment management companies with about 430 traditional funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Vanguard is primarily a mutual fund and ETF management company and has about $7.8 trillion in global assets under management (AUM), as of September 30, 2023. The Vanguard Communication Services ETF (VOX), with $4.2 billion in assets under management, is one of many Vanguard funds holding Meta shares. Meta is the largest holding in this fund’s portfolio, at about 23.22% of total invested assets.
BlackRock Inc.
BlackRock holds about 157.5 million shares of Meta, representing 7.16% of total shares outstanding, as of Dec. 30, 2023. BlackRock is one of the world’s leading asset and investment management firms with approximately $10 trillion in AUM as of Dec. 31, 2023. The company offers a wide range of mutual funds, iShares ETFs, and closed-end funds. The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) is among one of BlackRock’s largest ETFs with approximately $442.95 billion in AUM. Meta is the fifth-largest holding of this fund, at about 2.63% of invested assets.
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