Business

$andberg sells $91M in FB stock

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg sold about $91 million worth of shares in the social network after the stock topped its $38 initial public offering price for the first time since May 2012.

Sandberg sold 2.37 million Facebook shares on Aug. 7, two days after Facebook closed at a record high of $39.19, according to a regulatory filing.

With the latest sale, she has sold more than seven million shares, or about 12 percent of her total, since the IPO. The holdings include unvested restricted stock units as of the end of 2012 and options.

“There’s no denying that she has tremendous amounts of equity skin in the game,” said David Larcker, a professor of accounting at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

“I think it’s prudent for diversification and other kind of purposes to take advantage of the value that she has, and put it into alternative things.”

After one of the worst IPOs in a decade, the world’s largest social network has focused on ads for smartphones and tablets, and is now projected to reach sales of more than $16 billion by 2017.

Shares fell less than 1 percent to $38.22 at the close yesterday.