It has been a big month for Facebook (FB). The social media site’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, turned 30 last week on May 14. Meanwhile, the two-year anniversary of Facebook stock hitting the markets was last weekend on May 18.
While that itself seems like enough to celebrate, there’s even more good news for Facebook stock fans. Like, say, the fact that shares of FB have climbed over 8% since the start of the year.
While that number may not scream party, it’s not too shabby considering the S&P 500 has gained less than 2% since Jan. 1 and tech stocks in general have taken a beating. Google (GOOG), for example, is sitting almost 4% in the red over the same time period, while social media rival Twitter (TWTR) has lost almost half its value.
Of course, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. The social media site Facebook was started in 2004 — around a decade ago — when Mark Zuckerberg was an undergraduate student at Harvard University. The company went public eight years later.
But Facebook stock had quite the rocky start with a now-infamous botched and ugly IPO.
Still, all in all, FB and Zuck have defied critics and skeptics alike, moving higher even as folks cried the site was losing its cool. For proof, just take a look at these few crazy stats about Facebook stock:
- Shares of Facebook stock went public in 2012 at $38, and closed at $59.31 yesterday. That’s a gain of more than 56% in just two years for anyone in at the beginning.
- Most analysts expect that upward trend to continue, too. The median price target for Facebook stock is $80 — that’d be another 35% from the current price, and translates into a gain of 110% from the initial offer price.
- Since it went public, the largest holders of Facebook stock have sold 186 million shares of stock. The profit on that pile of FB shares? A tasty $7.2 billion, according to TIME.
- In fact, Zuckerberg himself has made a nice pile of $3.2 billion from cashed-out Facebook stock shares since the 2012 IPO.
- While Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t quite have a billion dollars for every year of his life, he isn’t far off; he is currently worth $26.9 billion.
- That makes him the 22nd richest man in the world, according to Bloomberg. For perspective, consider this: There are less than 10 known billionaires under the age of 40. Meanwhile, 71% of the 300 richest people in the entire world are in their 70s … while only 1% are under the age of 40. Not bad, Zuck.
- He doesn’t have to celebrate alone, either. Ten other Facebook stock shareholders have made more than $100 million off their shares. The most notable example: COO and Lean In queen Sheryl Sandberg, who has racked up a sweet $455 million.
As of this writing, Robert Martin did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
