The well-publicized Facebook stock shot up Wednesday as more became available
Facebook stock rose 13 percent Wednesday when it was expected to plummet after a lockup of shares was finally released. Around 800 million shares for the company became available after a six-month lockup on the company stock ended. With the increase of shares in the market, traders predicted the share price to fall.
In a surprising twist of events, Facebook stock had its second highest day of trading since the company went public last spring. This was not the case back in August when the first wave of lockups was released, nor again in October when the second wave was released. Lockups are implemented to ensure that major investors wait a certain amount of time before selling their shares after a company’s stock goes public. In Facebook’s case, the company saw a huge drop after the first two lockups.
But with a personal low of $17.55 in the past, the Facebook stock closed Wednesday at $22.36, up $2.50. This isn’t anywhere near the $38 IPO price Facebook set for its stock when it went public in May, but it is a step in the right direction.
Facebook’s senior management has made millions in shares in the past few weeks, according to Yahoo Finance, namely Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg with 530,000 sold shares and board member Peter Thiel with £250 million of sold Facebook stock.
