With more than 1.52 billion daily active users, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is the most popular social networking site worldwide and also one of the most rewarding technology sector stocks for investors, generating a 373.9% return since its IPO, as of market close on October 29, 2018 (not accounting for reinvested dividends). It was the fastest company in history to reach a market capitalization value of $250 billion, achieving that mark within just three years of its initial public offering (IPO), and boasts a market cap of $472.79 billion as of market close on February 7, 2019. Facebook is a component of both the NASDAQ 100 Index and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500).
Facebook announced its Q4 2018 earnings on January 30, 2019. The social networking company reported $16.91 billion in revenue this quarter, a 30.4% increase over the same period last year. Here are the company's six largest individual shareholders.
Facebook stock is widely held by large institutional investors, mutual funds and ETFs. The individual Facebook shareholders with the largest amount of Facebook stock are all present or former key figures at Facebook. Class A shareholders have one vote for each share while those with Class B shares have ten votes for each share held.
Mark Zuckerberg
The founder and "face" of Facebook indirectly holds around 11.92 million Class A Facebook shares through a series of funds, according to the company's SEC filing on August 30, 2018. Zuckerberg also owns a whopping 392.71 million Class B shares per the company's April 13, 2018 proxy statement. Control over nearly 78.9% of the Class B shares gives Zuckerberg 53.3% voting rights in the company. On July 25, 2018, Zuckerberg sold 240,000 shares of Facebook common stock. The stocks sold at an average price of $216.71, for a total transaction of just over $52 million.
Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook in his Harvard dorm room and has become one of the most famous businessmen in the world. Zuckerberg and Facebook have come under fire in the Cambridge Analytica scandal where it was revealed that the latter accessed user data and then targeted certain political advertisements to those users. Zuckerberg - in a written statement before the House of Representatives - admitted that the company had not done enough to protect its users.
Dustin Moskovitz
Another Facebook founder, Dustin Moskovitz, holds 48.9 million Class B shares as of April 13, 2018. Interestingly, he has a voting agreement on these shares in favor of Zuckerberg that the proxy counts among the latter's voting rights. The filing also notes that Moskovitz did not respond to the company's request to disclose his ownership of Class A shares and accounts for no such shares in his name based on information available. Moskovitz left Facebook in 2008 and went on to found Asana, a workflow management software company. Moskovitz was named the 'youngest self-made billionaire' by Forbes Magazine in 2011.
His net worth is $9.6 billion as of October 2018, according to Forbes.
Eduardo Saverin
Brazilian entrepreneur and now Facebook investor, Eduardo Saverin, was also a founding member of the social network. The April 13, 2018 proxy statement shows that Saverin holds 6.1 million Class A shares of Facebook, along with 47.2 million Class B shares that account for 6.5% voting power in the company. Saverin, once responsible for Facebook's business segment, was edged out of the company with his stake diluted by Zuckerberg in 2005. The spat resulted in a lawsuit filed by Saverin that was settled out of court. Saverin also made headlines when he renounced his U.S. citizenship ahead of the Facebook IPO, a move that would have helped him save on taxes.
His net worth as of October 2018 is $8.4 billion, according to Forbes.
Jan Koum
Co-founder of the world's biggest mobile messaging service, Jan Koum holds 14.2 million Facebook Class A shares, according to the April 13, 2018 proxy statement. Koum's is a true rags-to-riches life. An immigrant from Ukraine, he survived on his mother's disability income and food stamps until he secured a job as a security and infrastructure engineer at Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) in 1998.
After working under the tutelage of Yahoo co-founder David Filo for nine years, Koum left the company in 2007, and, in 2009, he designed and launched the WhatsApp mobile messaging service. WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for approximately $22 billion, at which time Koum obtained a seat on Facebook's board of directors. In April 2018, Koum resigned as CEO of WhatsApp and announced he would leave Facebook's board as well.
His net worth as of October 2018 is $9.4 billion, according to Forbes.
Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg indirectly holds 1.5 million shares through a trust and another two million Class B shares, according to the April 13, 2018 proxy statement. Sandberg has held the position of chief operating officer (COO) at Facebook since 2008. Prior to joining the company, Sandberg's experience included serving as chief of staff to U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Larry Summers, being vice president of global online sales and operations for Google, and working as an economist for the World Bank. Sandberg earned an MBA degree from Harvard Business School and is the author of the book, "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead."
Sandberg's net worth is $1.6 billion as of October 2018, according to Forbes.
Michael Schroepfer
Facebook's chief technology officer, Michael Schroepfer, comes in as Facebook's sixth-largest shareholder. According to the company's April 13, 2018 proxy statement, Schroepfer has a total of 990,725 Class A shares and another 716,987 Class B shares of the company. Schroepfer came aboard at Facebook in 2008 as vice president of engineering. Since 2013, he has been the company’s chief technology officer, tasked with managing and developing the vast technological infrastructure that supports the heavy traffic of the Facebook site. Schroepfer earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science at Stanford University.